30,000 years of hydrothermal activity at the lost city vent field.
Strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotope data and radiocarbon ages document at least 30,000 years of hydrothermal activity driven by serpentinization reactions at Lost City. Serpentinization beneath this off-axis field is estimated to occur at a minimum rate of 1.2 x 10(-4) cubic kilometers per year. The access of seawater to relatively cool, fresh peridotite, coupled with faulting, volumetric expansion, and mass wasting processes, are crucial to sustain such systems. The amount of heat produced by serpentinization of peridotite massifs, typical of slow and ultraslow spreading environments, has the potential to drive Lost City-type systems for hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of years.
Früh-Green
Gretchen L
GL
Department of Earth Sciences, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich (ETH-Z), CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland. gretli@erdw.ethz.ch
Kelley
Deborah S
DS
Bernasconi
Stefano M
SM
Karson
Jeffrey A
JA
Ludwig
Kristin A
KA
Butterfield
David A
DA
Boschi
Chiara
C
Proskurowski
Giora
G