An off-axis hydrothermal vent field near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 30° N

Deborah S. Kelley (), Jeffrey A. Karson, Donna K. Blackman, Gretchen L. Früh-Green, David A. Butterfield, Marvin D. Lilley, Eric J. Olson, Matthew O. Schrenk, Kevin K. Roe, Geoff T. Lebon and Pete Rivizzigno
Additional contact information
Deborah S. Kelley: University of Washington, School of Oceanography
Jeffrey A. Karson: Duke University
Donna K. Blackman: Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Gretchen L. Früh-Green: Institute For Mineralogy and Petrology, ETH-Zentrum
David A. Butterfield: University of Washington, School of Oceanography
Marvin D. Lilley: University of Washington, School of Oceanography
Eric J. Olson: University of Washington, School of Oceanography
Matthew O. Schrenk: University of Washington, School of Oceanography
Kevin K. Roe: Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere & Ocean, University of Washington and NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Geoff T. Lebon: Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere & Ocean, University of Washington and NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Pete Rivizzigno: Duke University

Nature, 2001, vol. 412, issue 6843, 145-149

Abstract: Abstract Evidence is growing that hydrothermal venting occurs not only along mid-ocean ridges but also on old regions of the oceanic crust away from spreading centres. Here we report the discovery of an extensive hydrothermal field at 30° N near the eastern intersection of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Atlantis fracture zone. The vent field—named ‘Lost City’—is distinctly different from all other known sea-floor hydrothermal fields in that it is located on 1.5-Myr-old crust, nearly 15 km from the spreading axis, and may be driven by the heat of exothermic serpentinization reactions between sea water and mantle rocks. It is located on a dome-like massif and is dominated by steep-sided carbonate chimneys, rather than the sulphide structures typical of ‘black smoker’ hydrothermal fields. We found that vent fluids are relatively cool (40–75 °C) and alkaline (pH 9.0–9.8), supporting dense microbial communities that include anaerobic thermophiles. Because the geological characteristics of the Atlantis massif are similar to numerous areas of old crust along the Mid-Atlantic, Indian and Arctic ridges, these results indicate that a much larger portion of the oceanic crust may support hydrothermal activity and microbial life than previously thought.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35084000 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nature:v:412:y:2001:i:6843:d:10.1038_35084000

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

DOI: 10.1038/35084000

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

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