Iron and sulfide nanoparticle formation and transport in nascent hydrothermal vent plumes

Alyssa J. Findlay (), Emily R. Estes, Amy Gartman, Mustafa Yücel, Alexey Kamyshny and George W. Luther
Additional contact information
Alyssa J. Findlay: Aarhus University
Emily R. Estes: University of Delaware
Amy Gartman: U.S. Geological Survey, P.C.M.S.C.
Mustafa Yücel: Middle East Technical University
Alexey Kamyshny: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
George W. Luther: University of Delaware

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are a significant source of dissolved metals to the global oceans, producing midwater plumes enriched in metals that are transported thousands of kilometers from the vent source. Particle precipitation upon emission of hydrothermal fluids controls metal speciation and the magnitude of metal export. Here, we document metal sulfide particles, including pyrite nanoparticles, within the first meter of buoyant plumes from three high-temperature vents at the East Pacific Rise. We observe a zone of particle settling 10–20 cm from the orifice, indicated by stable sulfur isotopes; however, we also demonstrate that nanoparticulate pyrite (FeS2) is not removed from the plume and can account for over half of the filtered Fe (≤0.2 µm) up to one meter from the vent orifice. The persistence of nanoparticulate pyrite demonstrates that it is an important mechanism for near-vent Fe stabilisation and highlights the potential role of nanoparticles in element transport.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09580-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-09580-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09580-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().