Hydrothermal Plumes Over Spreading-Center Axes: Global Distributions and Geological Inferences

来自 Semantic Scholar

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阅读量：

166

作者：

ET Baker，CR German，H Elderfield

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摘要：

Seafloor hydrothermal circulation is the principal agent of energy and mass exchange between the ocean and the earth's crust. Discharging fluids cool hot rock, construct mineral deposits, nurture biological communities, alter deep-sea mixing and circulation patterns, and profoundly influence ocean chemistry and biology. Although the active discharge orifices themselves cover only a minuscule percentage of the ridge-axis seafloor, the investigation and quantification of their effects is enhanced as a consequence of the mixing process that forms hydrothermal plumes. Hydrothermal fluids discharged from vents are rapidly diluted with ambient seawater by factors of 104-105 [Lupton et al., 1985]. During dilution, the mixture rises tens to hundreds of meters to a level of neutral buoyancy, eventually spreading laterally as a distinct hydrographic and chemical layer with a spatial scale of tens to thousands of kilometers [e.g., Lupton and Craig, 1981; Baker and Massoth, 1987; Speer and Rona, 1989].

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关键词：

Hydrothermal vents—Congresses Hydrothermal deposits—Congresses Hydrothermal vent ecology—Congresses

DOI：

10.1029/GM091p0047

被引量：

239

年份：

1995