Spring Fluids from a Low-temperature Hydrothermal System at Dorado Outcrop: The First Samples of a Massive Global Flux

Abstract:

Hydrothermal circulation through the volcanic ocean crust extracts about one fourth of Earth’s lithospheric heat. Most of this advective heat loss occurs through ridge flanks, areas far from the magmatic influence of seafloor spreading, at relatively low temperatures (2-25 degrees Celsius). This process results in a flux of seawater through the oceanic crust that is commensurate with that delivered to the ocean from rivers. Given this large flow, even a modest (1-5 percent) change in concentration during circulation would impact geochemical cycles for many ions. Until recently such fluids that embody this process have not been collected or quantified despite the importance of this process, mainly because no site of focused, low-temperature discharge has been found. In 2013 we used Sentry (an AUV) and Jason II (an ROV) to generate a bathymetric map and locate springs within a geologic context on Dorado Outcrop, a ridge flank hydrothermal system that typifies such hydrothermal processes in the Pacific. Dorado Outcrop is located on 23 M.y. old seafloor of the Cocos Plate, where 70-90 percent of the lithospheric heat is removed. Spring fluids collected in 2013 confirmed small chemical anomalies relative to seawater, requiring new methods to collect, analyze, and interpret samples and data. In 2014 the submersible Alvin utilized these methods to recover the first high-quality spring samples from this system and year-long experiments. These unique data and samples represent the first of their type. For example, the presence of dissolved oxygen is the first evidence of an oxic ridge flank hydrothermal fluid, even though such fluids have been postulated to exist throughout a vast portion of the oceanic crust. Furthermore, chemical data confirm modest anomalies relative to seawater for some elements. Such anomalies, if characteristic throughout the global ocean, impact global geochemical cycles, crustal evolution, and subsurface microbial activity.