Integrated Data from the NEPTUNE Observatory Highlight the Role of Sub-seafloor Processes in Rapid Temperature, Salinity, and Heat spiking after Seismic Activity.

Abstract:

Investigating chemical and temperature changes in hydrothermal venting in the wake of seismic activity has typically been hampered by limited sampling in time and space. Seafloor observatories afford the opportunity for continuous collection of multiple data streams distributed over an area of interest to understand how geological, physical, and chemical processes are linked. Here we present results from chemical and geophysical sensor packages installed on the NEPTUNE observatory operated by Ocean Networks Canada to monitor temperature, chemistry and heat transport of the hydrothermal vent, Grotto, at Main Endeavour Field on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Benthic and Resistivity Sensors (BARS) make in-situ measurements of temperature and chloride concentration in high temperature hydrothermal fluid at one smoker. The Cabled Observatory Vent Imaging Sonar (COVIS) measures rise rates and heat transport in three nearby plumes and in areas of local diffuse discharge. These instruments are located in the vicinity of ocean bottom seismometers and alongside a Remote Access Sampler (RAS), a time-series fluid sampling device. BARS captured slow changes in temperature and chloride from September, 2013 to January, 2014, and rapid changes in the wake of seismic activity in March 2014. COVIS also captured a possible spike in heat transport above the most distal of the three plumes around the same time as the rapid variability in BARS data. Potential causes consistent with these data include seismic and fluid response to cracking of fresh rock, or earthquake-triggered changes in the underlying plumbing system. For the first scenario, spikes in the chloride signal can be used to constrain PT conditions of fluid phase separation by assuming peak and baseline chloride values represent brine and vapor conjugates, respectively. From this we estimate 422 °C and 336 bars as the conditions under which conjugates formed. For the second scenario, a single pass numerical model of the release of pressurized fluid deeper down can match initial and subsequent temperature spikes. Chemical analysis of diffuse samples and additional COVIS data streams collected during this period of increased heat transport coupled with high variability in temperature and chloride will help shed more light on an event that manifested in multiple metrics.