RESUMO
Hydrothermal circulation within the sea floor, through lithosphere older than one million years (Myr), is responsible for 30% of the energy released from plate cooling, and for 70% of the global heat flow anomaly (the difference between observed thermal output and that predicted by conductive cooling models). Hydrothermal fluids remove significant amounts of heat from the oceanic lithosphere for plates typically up to about 65 Myr old. But in view of the relatively impermeable sediments that cover most ridge flanks, it has been difficult to explain how these fluids transport heat from the crust to the ocean. Here we present results of swath mapping, heat flow, geochemistry and seismic surveys from the young eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca ridge, which show that isolated basement outcrops penetrating through thick sediments guide hydrothermal discharge and recharge between sites separated by more than 50 km. Our analyses reveal distinct thermal patterns at the sea floor adjacent to recharging and discharging outcrops. We find that such a circulation through basement outcrops can be sustained in a setting of pressure differences and crustal properties as reported in independent observations and modelling studies.
RESUMO
During the cycling of seawater through the earth's crust along the mid-ocean ridge system, geothermal energy is transferred into chemical energy in the form of reduced inorganic compounds. These compounds are derived from the reaction of seawater with crustal rocks at high temperatures and are emitted from warm (=25 degrees C) and hot ( approximately 350 degrees C) submarine vents at depths of 2000 to 3000 meters. Chemolithotrophic bacteria use these reduced chemical species as sources of energy for the reduction of carbon dioxide (assimilation) to organic carbon. These bacteria form the base of the food chain, which permits copious populations of certain specifically adapted invertebrates to grow in the immediate vicinity of the vents. Such highly prolific, although narrowly localized, deep-sea communities are thus maintained primarily by terrestrial rather than by solar energy. Reduced sulfur compounds appear to represent the major electron donors for aerobic microbial metabolism, but methane-, hydrogen-, iron-, and manganese-oxidizing bacteria have also been found. Methanogenic, sulfur-respiring, and extremely thermophilic isolates carry out anaerobic chemosynthesis. Bacteria grow most abundantly in the shallow crust where upwelling hot, reducing hydrothermal fluid mixes with downwelling cold, oxygenated seawater. The predominant production of biomass, however, is the result of symbiotic associations between chemolithotrophic bacteria and certain invertebrates, which have also been found as fossils in Cretaceous sulfide ores of ophiolite deposits.