Sharon L. Walker

A method for quantitatively estimating diffuse and discrete hydrothermal discharge

Submarine hydrothermal fluids discharge as undiluted, high-temperature jets and as diffuse, highly diluted, low-temperature percolation. Estimates of the relative contribution of each discharge type, which are important for the accurate determination of local and global hydrothermal budgets, are difficult to obtain directly. In this paper we describe a new method of using measurements of hydrothermal tracers such as Fe/Mn, Fe/heat, and Mn/heat in high-temperature fluids, low-temperature fluids, and the neutrally buoyant plume to deduce the relative contribution of each discharge type. We sampled vent fluids from the north Cleft vent field on the Juan de Fuca Ridge in 1988, 1989 and 1991, and plume samples every year from 1986 to 1991. The tracers were, on average, 3 to 90 times greater in high-temperature than in low-temperature fluids, with plume values intermediate. A mixing model calculates that high-temperature fluids contribute only ∼ 3% of the fluid mass flux but > 90% of the hydrothermal Fe and > 60% of the hydrothermal Mn to the overlying plume. Three years of extensive camera-CTD sled tows through the vent field show that diffuse venting is restricted to a narrow fissure zone extending for 18 km along the axial strike. Linear plume theory applied to the temperature plumes detected when the sled crossed this zone yields a maximum likelihood estimate for the diffuse heat flux of8.9 × 104 W/m, for a total flux of 534 MW, considering that diffuse venting is active along only one-third of the fissure system. For mean low- and high-temperature discharge of 25°C and 319°C, respectively, the discrete heat flux must be 266 MW to satisfy the mass flux partitioning. If the north Cleft vent field is globally representative, the assumption that high-temperature discharge dominates the mass flux in axial vent fields leads to an overestimation of the flux of many non-conservative hydrothermal species by about an order of magnitude.

High-resolution surveys along the hot spot–affected Galápagos Spreading Center: 1. Distribution of hydrothermal activity

The spatial density of hydrothermal activity along most mid-ocean ridges is a robust linear function of spreading rate (or magmatic budget), but extreme crustal properties may alter this relationship. In 2005–2006 we tested the effect of thickened crust on hydrothermal activity using high-resolution mapping of plumes overlying the hot spot–affected Galapagos Spreading Center from 95° to 89°42′W (∼560 km of ridge crest). Plume mapping discovered only two active, high-temperature vent fields, subsequently confirmed by camera tows, though strong plume evidence indicated minor venting from at least six other locations. Total plume incidence (ph), the fraction of ridge crest overlain by significant plumes, was 0.11 ± 0.014, about half that expected for a non–hot spot mid-ocean ridge with a similar magmatic budget. Plume distributions on the Galapagos Spreading Center were uncorrelated with abrupt variations in the depth of the along-axis melt lens, so these variations are apparently not controlled by hydrothermal cooling differences. We also found no statistical difference (for a significance level of 0.05) in plume incidence between where the seismically imaged melt lens is shallow (2 ± 0.56 km, ph = 0.108 ± 0.045) and where it is deep (3.4 ± 0.7 km, ph = 0.121 ± 0.015). The Galapagos Spreading Center thus joins mid-ocean ridges near the Iceland (Reykjanes Ridge), St. Paul-Amsterdam (South East Indian Ridge), and Ascension (Mid-Atlantic Ridge) hot spots as locations of anomalously scarce high-temperature venting. This scarcity implies that convective cooling along hot spot–affected ridge sections occurs primarily by undetected diffuse flow or is permanently or episodically reduced compared to normal mid-ocean ridges.

Hydrothermal exploration of the Fonualei Rift and Spreading Center and the Northeast Lau Spreading Center

We report evidence for active hydrothermal venting along two back-arc spreading centers of the NE Lau Basin: the Fonualei Rift and Spreading Center (FRSC) and the Northeast Lau Spreading Center (NELSC). The ridge segments investigated here are of particular interest as the potential source of a mid-water hydrothermal plume (1500–2000 m depth) which extends more than 2000 km across the SW Pacific Ocean dispersing away from an apparent origin close to the most northeastern limits of the Lau Basin. Our results indicate the presence of at least four new hydrothermal plume sources, three along the FRSC and one on the NELSC, the latter situated within 150 km of the maximum for the previously identified SW Pacific regional-scale plume. However, TDFe and TDMn concentrations in the southernmost FRSC plume that we have identified only reach values of 19 and 13 nmol/L and dissolved 3He anomalies in the same plume are also small, both in relation to the SW Pacific plume and to local background, which shows evidence for extensive 3He enrichment throughout the entire Lau Basin water column. Our results reveal no evidence for a single major point hydrothermal source anywhere in the NE Lau Basin. Instead, we conclude that the regional-scale SW Pacific hydrothermal plume most probably results from the cumulative hydrothermal output of the entire topographically restricted Lau Basin, discharging via its NE-most corner.

Hydrothermal cooling along the Eastern Lau Spreading Center: No evidence for discharge beyond the neovolcanic zone

Heat transported from the mantle beneath spreading centers creates an astonishingly narrow ribbon of convective heat discharge at plate boundaries, as apparently demonstrated by exhaustive exploration for hydrothermal discharge sites over the last three decades. Recent observations and models are now challenging this assumption of exclusively axis-centric high-temperature venting. One example is the proposal that intense cooling along the vertical boundaries of a broad low-velocity volume (LVV) of hot crust could generate high-temperature fluids several kilometers off axis. To test the hypothesis that substantial hydrothermal discharge might occur beyond the LVV, we conducted a dense survey grid of the ridge and surrounding seafloor (up to ±5 km) along 175 km of the Eastern Lau Spreading Center and Valu Fa Ridge (∼1800 km of track line). Our sampling array extended from ∼50 to 400 m above bottom and included light-scattering, oxidation-reduction potential, and hydrographic sensors attached to the tow line and beneath the IMI120 sonar mapping system. The surveys successfully mapped plumes from several vent fields in the neovolcanic zone (∼±1.5 km about the axis) but did not detect evidence of significant discharge anywhere farther off-axis. At a few locations on the Valu Fa Ridge, however, we did record oxidation-reduction potential anomalies with hydrographic density signatures that imply low-temperature hydrothermal sources on the axial flank. Although these sites are hundreds of meters deeper than the adjacent crest, they are above, not beyond, the previously mapped LVV. Our results thus do not support a simple picture of high-temperature fluids ascending undiluted through the crust to the seafloor several kilometers off-axis. However, we cannot exclude the possibilities that the largely unmapped LVV is narrower here than seen on other ridges, that hydrothermal fluids formed beyond the LVV are channeled to the axis, or that discharge beyond the neovolcanic zone occurs only as dispersed, very low-temperature fluids. Our observations do demonstrate that high-temperature discharge predominantly exits the seafloor within a narrow (∼±1.5 km) axial ribbon, regardless of the presence or absence of an axial magma chamber.

Particle-size distributions within hydrothermal plumes over the Juan de Fuca Ridge

Abstract The particle-size distributions of suspended particles in neutrally buoyant hydrothermal plumes from two vent sites on the Juan de Fuca Ridge were measured with a Coulter counter. Hydrothermal particle populations were characterized by high volume concentrations of particles with diameters of μ m. Particle populations dominated by larger particles were rare and observed only very near active vent sources because of rapid settling and dilution. Particle-size distributions from particle plumes of hydrothermal origin can be readily distinguished from those of benthic nepheloid layers by the fine-particle tail, which is expressed on a cumulative number distribution by a slope much steeper than the oceanic norm of ≈3. The predominance of particles with diameters μ m within neutrally buoyant hydrothermal plumes demonstrates that the bulk of hydrothermal precipitates are capable of being dispersed over wide areas.

Plume 1400 Meters High Discovered at the Seafloor off the Northern California Margin

On 17 May 2009, the Kongsberg EM302 multibeam echo sounder on board the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) Okeanos Explorer was collecting bathymetry and water column acoustic data offshore of northern California when it suddenly imaged a previously undiscovered 1400-meter-high plume (Figure 1) rising from the seafloor at 40°32.13′N, 124°47.01′W. The ship was mapping in water depths of approximately 1830 meters and heading east up the northern California continental margin 20 kilometers north of the Gorda escarpment. The continental shelf in this area is known to have subsurface and water column thermogenic and methane gas, although no plumes from this area previously have been reported from deeper than the continental shelf.

Unique event plumes from a 2008 eruption on the Northeast Lau Spreading Center

The creation of ocean crust by lava eruptions is a fundamental Earth process, involving immediate and immense transfers of heat and chemicals from crust to ocean. This transfer creates event plumes (“megaplumes”), massive ellipsoidal eddies with distinctive and consistent chemical signatures. Here we report the discovery of unique event plumes associated with a 2008 eruption on the Northeast Lau Spreading Center. Instead of a large plume hundreds of meters thick, we detected at least eight individual plumes, each ∼50 m thick and apparently only 1–3 km in diameter, yet still rising 200–1000 m above the eruption site. Low and uniform 3He/heat (0.041 × 10−17 mol/J) and dissolved Mn/heat (0.04 nmol/J) ratios in water samples were diagnostic of event plumes. High H2 concentrations (up to 9123 nM) and basalt shards confirmed extensive interactions between molten lava and event plume source fluids. Remote vehicle observations in 2009 mapped a new, small (1.5–5.8 × 106 m3) lava flow. Our results suggest that event plumes are more variable, and thus perhaps more common, than previously recognized. Small event plumes may be preferentially associated with small or sheet-flow eruptions, and massive event plumes with slowly extruding pillow mounds 25–75 m thick. Despite this correlation, and high H2 concentrations, existing theory and seafloor observations argue that cooling lava cannot transfer heat fast enough to create the buoyancy flux required for event plumes. The creation of event plumes under a broad range of eruption conditions provides new constraints for any theory of their formation.

Structure of two hydrothermal megaplumes

The dynamic signatures of two megaplumes above the Juan de Fuca Ridge are analyzed. The chemical properties of these two lenslike masses of water were described by Baker et al. (1989) and clearly indicate that they were generated by massive and rapid ventings of hot hydrothermal fluid from the ridge. Both are nearly circular with radii of about 6.5 km. The isopycnals bow upward around these cores of anomalous water, leading to an anticyclonic circulation. A cyclogeostrophic balance gives maximum currents at the edge of the core of 0.11 m s−1 for the first megaplume (MP1) and 0.07 m s−1 for the second megaphone (MP2). Currents extend beyond the core to a radius of 12–15 km. The centers of the cores are in nearly solid body rotation with relative voracities of −0.5ƒ(MP1) and −0.3ƒ(MP2) and potential vorticity anomalies, expressed in units of equivalent relative vorticity, of −0.8ƒ(MP1) and −0.6ƒ(MP2), where ƒ is the Coriolis frequency. The aspect ratio of each megaplume gives a Burger number of 0.22. In terms of these nondimensional numbers, the megaplumes are very similar to eddies of Mediterranean water found in the eastern Atlantic (meddies), despite their very different origin.

Long-term explosive degassing and debris flow activity at West Mata submarine volcano

West Mata is a 1200 m deep submarine volcano where explosive boninite eruptions were observed in 2009. The acoustic signatures from the volcanos summit eruptive vents Hades and Prometheus were recorded with an in situ (~25 m range) hydrophone during ROV dives in May 2009 and with local (~5 km range) moored hydrophones between December 2009 and August 2011. The sensors recorded low frequency (1–40 Hz), short duration explosions consistent with magma bubble bursts from Hades, and broadband, 1–5 min duration signals associated with episodes of fragmentation degassing from Prometheus. Long-term eruptive degassing signals, recorded through May 2010, preceded a several month period of declining activity. Degassing episodes were not recorded acoustically after early 2011, although quieter effusive eruption activity may have continued. Synchronous optical measurements of turbidity made between December 2009 and April 2010 indicate that turbidity maxima resulted from occasional south flank slope failures triggered by the collapse of accumulated debris during eruption intervals.

Eruptive modes and hiatus of volcanism at West Mata seamount, NE Lau basin : 1996–2012

We present multiple lines of evidence for years to decade-long changes in the location and character of volcanic activity at West Mata seamount in the NE Lau basin over a 16 year period, and a hiatus in summit eruptions from early 2011 to at least September 2012. Boninite lava and pyroclasts were observed erupting from its summit in 2009, and hydroacoustic data from a succession of hydrophones moored nearby show near-continuous eruptive activity from January 2009 to early 2011. Successive differencing of seven multibeam bathymetric surveys of the volcano made in the 1996–2012 period reveals a pattern of extended constructional volcanism on the summit and northwest flank punctuated by eruptions along the volcanos WSW rift zone (WSWRZ). Away from the summit, the volumetrically largest eruption during the observational period occurred between May 2010 and November 2011 at ∼2920 m depth near the base of the WSWRZ. The (nearly) equally long ENE rift zone did not experience any volcanic activity during the 1996–2012 period. The cessation of summit volcanism recorded on the moored hydrophone was accompanied or followed by the formation of a small summit crater and a landslide on the eastern flank. Water column sensors, analysis of gas samples in the overlying hydrothermal plume and dives with a remotely operated vehicle in September 2012 confirmed that the summit eruption had ceased. Based on the historical eruption rates calculated using the bathymetric differencing technique, the volcano could be as young as several thousand years.