Serpentinization of Oceanic Peridotites: A Geochemical and Isotopic Study

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

Award is for documenting the sequences of reactions, temperatures, and nature and chemistry of fluids that are associated with the formation of sepentinite during hydrothermal alteration of oceanic peridotite at slow spreading ridges. A principle goal is the quantitative evaluation of imperfectly understood, yet is critical for evaluation of global geochemical fluxes, and the influence these fluxes and alteration processes have on the physical and chemical properties of oceanic lithosphere. These fluxes also exert fundamental control on biotic communities associated with this lithosphere, especially at oceanic ridges. The proposed work involves a comprehensive and this lithosphere, expecially at oceanic ridges. The proposed work involves a comprehensive and systematic study of dredged and drilled peridotic exhibiting varying amounts of alteration. This study will include detailed mineralogical analysis, including analyzing geochemical and isotopic compositions of individual minerals to infer bulk sample geochemistry.