FY 1995

The effect of magmatic activity on hydrothermal venting along the superfast-spreading East Pacific Rise

Urabe, T., E.T. Baker, J. Ishibashi, R.A. Feely, K. Marumo, G.J. Massoth, A. Maruyama, K. Shitashima, K. Okamura, J.E. Lupton, A. Sonoda, T. Yamazaki, M. Aoki, J. Gendron, R. Greene, Y. Kaiho, K. Kisimoto, G. Lebon, T. Matsumoto, K. Nakamura, A. Nishizawa, O. Okano, G. Paradis, K. Roe, T. Shibata, D. Tennant, T. Vance, S.L. Walker, T. Yabuki, and N. Ytow

Science, 269(5227), doi: 10.1126/science.269.5227.1092, 1092–1095 (1995)

A survey of hydrothermal activity along the superfast-spreading (approximately 150 millimeters per year) East Pacific Rise shows that hydrothermal plumes overlay approximately 60 percent of the ridge crest between 13°50′ and 18°40′S, a plume abundance nearly twice that known from any other ridge portion of comparable length. Plumes were most abundant where the axial cross section is inflated and an axial magma chamber is present. Plumes with high ratios of volatile (³He, CH₄, and H₂S) to nonvolatile (Mn and Fe) species marked where hydrothermal circulation has been perturbed by recent magmatic activity. The high proportion of volatile-rich plumes observed implies that such episodes are more frequent here than on slower spreading ridges.