Earthquake-induced changes in a hydrothermal system on the Juan de Fuca mid-ocean ridge
Hydrothermal vents on mid-ocean ridges of the northeast Pacific Ocean are known to respond to seismic disturbances, with observed changes in vent temperature. But these disturbances resulted from submarine volcanic activity; until now, there have been no observations of the response of a vent system...
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Published in | Nature (London) Vol. 407; no. 6801; pp. 174 - 177 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing
14.09.2000
Nature Publishing Group |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Hydrothermal vents on mid-ocean ridges of the northeast Pacific Ocean are
known to respond to seismic disturbances, with observed changes in vent temperature. But these disturbances resulted from submarine volcanic
activity; until now, there have been no observations of the response of a
vent system to non-magmatic, tectonic events. Here we report measurements
of hydrothermal vent temperature from several vents on the Juan de Fuca ridge
in June 1999, before, during and after an earthquake swarm of apparent tectonic
origin. Vent fluid temperatures began to rise 4-11 days after
the first earthquake. Following this initial increase, the vent temperatures
oscillated for about a month before settling down to higher values. We also
observed a tenfold increase in fluid output from the hydrothermal system over
a period of at least 80 days, extending along the entire ridge segment.
Such a large, segment-wide thermal response to relatively modest tectonic
activity is surprising, and raises questions about the sources of excess heat
and fluid, and the possible effect on vent biological communities. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0028-0836 1476-4687 |
DOI: | 10.1038/35025040 |