Time Series Measurements of Diffuse Hydrothermal Flow at the ASHES Vent Field Reveal Tidally Modulated Heat and Volume Flux

Abstract:

Existing time-series measurements of temperature and velocity of diffuse hydrothermal fluids exhibit variability over a range of periods from seconds to days. Frequency analysis of these measurements reveals differences between studies and field locations including nearly white spectra, as well as spectra with peaks at tidal and inertial periods. Based upon these results, previous authors have suggested several processes that may control diffuse flow rates, including tidally induced currents and ‘tidal pumping’, and have also suggested that there are no systematic controls. To further investigate the processes that control variability in diffuse flow, we use data from a new, deep-sea camera and temperature measurement system, the Diffuse Effluent Measurement System (DEMS), deployed during the July, 2014 cruise of the R/V Atlantis. The DEMS was deployed with DSV Alvin above a fracture network at the Phoenix vent within the ASHES vent field (Axial Seamount, 1541 mbsl). The system collected 20 seconds of imagery at 20 Hz and 24 seconds of temperature measurements at 1 Hz each hour over the period between July 22 and August 2^nd. Velocities of the upwelling fluids were calculated using Diffuse Fluid Velocimetry (DFV; Mittelstaedt et al., 2010). DFV is a cross correlation technique that tracks moving index of refraction anomalies (i.e., hot parcels of fluid) through time. Over the ~12 day deployment, median flow rates ranged from 0.5 cm/s to 6 cm/s and mean fluid temperature anomalies from 0°C up to ~6.5°C, yielding an average heat flux density of 0.23 MW/m². Spectral analysis of both the measured temperatures and calculated velocities yield a peak in normalized power at the semi-diurnal lunar period (M2, 12.4hrs), but no other spectral peaks above the 95% confidence level. Here, we present these results and discuss their implications for the tidal current and tidal pressure models of diffuse flow variability at the ASHES vent field.