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Hydrothermal Vent Geology and Biology at Earth’s Fastest Spreading Rates |
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| Authors: | Richard N. Hey Gary J. Massoth Robert C. Vrijenhoek Peter A. Rona John Lupton David A. Butterfield |
| Affiliation: | (1) Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA;(2) Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Lower Hutt, New Zealand;(3) Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, California 95039, USA;(4) Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences and Department of Geological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA;(5) NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Newport, 97365, OR, USA;(6) Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, University of Washington, Washington 98195, USA |
| Abstract: | Earth’s fastest present seafloor spreading occurs along the East Pacific Rise near 31°–32° S. Two of the major hydrothermal plume areas discovered during a 1998 multidisciplinary geophysical/hydrothermal investigation of these mid-ocean ridge axes were explored during a 1999 Alvin expedition. Both occur in recently eruptive areas where shallow collapse structures mark the neovolcanic axis. The 31° S vent area occurs in a broad linear zone of collapses and fractures coalescing into an axial summit trough. The 32° S vent area has been volcanically repaved by a more recent eruption, with non-linear collapses that have not yet coalesced. Both sites occur in highly inflated areas, near local inflation peaks, which is the best segment-scale predictor of hydrothermal activity at these superfast spreading rates (150 mm/yr). |
| Keywords: | East Pacific Rise hydrothermal vents seafloor spreading vent biology vent chemistry vent flux |
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