Rosalind M. Coggon

Drilling to gabbro in intact ocean crust

Sampling an intact sequence of oceanic crust through lavas, dikes, and gabbros is necessary to advance the understanding of the formation and evolution of crust formed at mid-ocean ridges, but it has been an elusive goal of scientific ocean drilling for decades. Recent drilling in the eastern Pacific Ocean in Hole 1256D reached gabbro within seismic layer 2, 1157 meters into crust formed at a superfast spreading rate. The gabbros are the crystallized melt lenses that formed beneath a mid-ocean ridge. The depth at which gabbro was reached confirms predictions extrapolated from seismic experiments at modern mid-ocean ridges: Melt lenses occur at shallower depths at faster spreading rates. The gabbros intrude metamorphosed sheeted dikes and have compositions similar to the overlying lavas, precluding formation of the cumulate lower oceanic crust from melt lenses so far penetrated by Hole 1256D.

Reconstructing past seawater Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca from mid-ocean ridge flank calcium carbonate veins

Cations in the Veins Major events in Earths history, from climate change to tectonic activity, can be revealed by reconstructing past conditions of the oceans. Clues from ancient ocean chemistry can be found in the cation content of fossilized microorganisms, marine carbonates, or salt deposits from old coastal zones. As these proxies are prone to inconsistencies between samples and methodologies, Coggon et al. (p. 1114, published online 4 February; see the Perspective by Elderfield) estimated past seawater composition from the geochemistry of resistant carbonate veins precipitated within fresh basalts on the sea floor. The sudden rise to modern-day levels of ocean magnesium:calcium and strontium:calcium ratios occurred about 24 million years ago, and can be explained by a decrease in seafloor hydrothermal activity combined with a decrease in river discharge. Calcium carbonate veins from the ocean crust can be used to reconstruct past ocean cation ratios. Proxies for past seawater chemistry, such as Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios, provide a record of the dynamic exchanges of elements between the solid Earth, the atmosphere, and the hydrosphere and the evolving influence of life. We estimated past oceanic Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios from suites of 1.6- to 170-million-year-old calcium carbonate veins that had precipitated from seawater-derived fluids in ocean ridge flank basalts. Our data indicate that before the Neogene, oceanic Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios were lower than in the modern ocean. Decreased ocean spreading since the Cretaceous and the resulting slow reduction in ocean crustal hydrothermal exchange throughout the early Tertiary may explain the recent rise in these ratios.

Evidence for Microbial Carbon and Sulfur Cycling in Deeply Buried Ridge Flank Basalt

Under the Sea Floor Microorganisms living in basaltic sea floor buried beneath sediments derive energy from inorganic components from the host rocks that interact with infiltrating seawater, which brings dissolved oxygen and other trace nutrients with it. Lever et al. (p. 1305) directly sampled the subseafloor community off the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the Pacific Ocean and found evidence for ongoing microbial sulfate reduction and methanogenesis. Multiyear incubation experiments with samples of host rock confirmed the microbial activities measured in situ. Active methane- and sulfur-cycling microbial communities exist in deep basaltic ocean crust. Sediment-covered basalt on the flanks of mid-ocean ridges constitutes most of Earths oceanic crust, but the composition and metabolic function of its microbial ecosystem are largely unknown. By drilling into 3.5-million-year-old subseafloor basalt, we demonstrated the presence of methane- and sulfur-cycling microbes on the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Depth horizons with functional genes indicative of methane-cycling and sulfate-reducing microorganisms are enriched in solid-phase sulfur and total organic carbon, host δ13C- and δ34S-isotopic values with a biological imprint, and show clear signs of microbial activity when incubated in the laboratory. Downcore changes in carbon and sulfur cycling show discrete geochemical intervals with chemoautotrophic δ13C signatures locally attenuated by heterotrophic metabolism.

Linking basement carbonate vein compositions to porewater geochemistry across the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, ODP Leg 168

Leg 168 of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) investigated the heat flow, fluid chemistry and crustal alteration associated with ridge flank hydrothermal systems. Ten sites were drilled on the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, along an 80 km transect, between 20 and 100 km east of the spreading centre. Recovered cores consisted of 100-500 m of sediment with shallow penetration (1.7-48.1 m) into the underlying igneous basement (0.8-3.6 Ma). Here we use the composition of calcium carbonate minerals, from veins within the upper basement, to reconstruct the evolving chemistry of hydrothermal fluids with increasing crustal age and sediment cover thickness. We show for the first time a clear link between the alteration of the basement rocks as recorded by secondary minerals, and the near-basement sedimentary pore fluids, which are often assumed to be representative of the basement fluids responsible for low temperature alteration of the upper crust. Carbonates precipitated from basement fluids that ranged in strontium isotopic composition from near-modern seawater (87Sr/86Sr[ap]0.70918) to the near-basement pore fluid values at any one site. 87Sr/86Sr ratios are independent of mineralogy with both aragonite and calcite precipitating from variably evolved fluids with the range in carbonate 87Sr/86Sr increasing with crustal age. A parallel geochemical evolution of basement fluids and sediment porewaters is shown since 87Sr/86Sr ratios of near-basement pore fluids decrease from 0.709013 to 0.707108 away from the ridge axis. A correlation exists between 87Sr/86Sr ratios and [delta]18O-calculated fluid temperatures, with more geochemically evolved carbonates having precipitated from warmer fluids. Basement fluid compositions, calculated from carbonate Sr, Mg, Fe and Mn concentrations combined with suitable partition coefficients, are also temperature-dependent. Given an observed increase in basement temperature with age, from 16[deg]C to 64[deg]C along the transect, a progressive chemical development of basement fluid is demonstrated. Carbonate veins in volcanic basement from ODP Holes 504B and 896A, on the Costa Rica Rift, record the same temperature compositional evolution of basement fluid as those from the Juan de Fuca Ridge flank. Although these locations have different thermal histories and therefore must have experienced different temporal geochemical evolution of basement fluid, basement temperature appears to be the dominant control on basement fluid composition.

ODP Site 1224: A missing link in the investigation of seafloor weathering

A section of Eocene (46 Ma) upper oceanic crust was recovered at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1224 in the northeast Pacific basin. The secondary mineralogy and geochemistry of altered basalts and isotopic composition of Ca-carbonate were studied to determine the extent and nature of alteration at this site. Most basalts are