Quantifying Partitioning of Trace Elements into Seafloor Hydrothermal Deposits Using Paired Vent Fluids and Solids

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

Hydrothermal vents are an important source of sulfide mineral deposits to the ocean floor, but the processes of how trace elements get incorporated into the hot fluids and their corresponding sulfide chimneys is poorly understood. This project will measure trace element concentrations in fluid-chimney pairs from a natural hydrothermal vent system. The data from this project will enhance our understanding of how trace elements transition between the fluid and corresponding mineral, as well as be included into studies that aim to quantify trace element fluxes from hydrothermal vents to the deep ocean and modeling studies focused on formation of massive sulfides and metal remobilization. This project will support the training of undergraduate and graduate students, and results will be shared broadly through the creation of educational videos. Use of vent fluids and corresponding chimney linings to test hypotheses of partitioning has been hampered in the past by a lack of trace element data for both vent fluids and solids due to the very low concentrations. Recent efforts using improved analytical techniques now make investigations of trace element partitioning possible. This project will use a natural hydrothermal vent system to investigate trace element partitioning from fluids into sulfide minerals that precipitate along the linings of the chimney conduits, in contact with the hot vent fluids, at conditions difficult to reproduce in the laboratory. Analyses will be done on a set of fluid-chimney pairs (fluid and chimney sampled at the same time). Data and analyses from this project will be used to test the following two hypotheses: 1) Minerals precipitating from vent fluids along linings of chimneys incorporate some trace elements in a characteristic manner, with partitioning dominantly a function of element concentrations, and with pH, temperature, redox, and ligand concentration affecting free versus total concentrations; and 2) Seafloor sulfide deposits record critical information about both the trace element compositions of the fluids from which they formed, and about environmental conditions at the time of precipitation; thus, trace element distributions could be used as proxies for environmental conditions such as pH, redox, temperature, and/or metal concentrations.