The relationship between near-axis hydrothermal cooling and the spreading rate of mid-ocean ridges

Details The relationship between near-axis hydrothermal cooling and the spreading rate of mid-ocean ridges The relationship between near-axis hydrothermal cooling and the spreading rate of mid-ocean ridges

Jul 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996e%26psl.142..137b&link_type=abstract

Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 142, Issue 1-2, p. 137-145.

Mathematics

Logic

33

Scientific paper

Recent seismic observations and new crustal thermal models suggest that near-axis (+/- 1 km from the spreading axis) hydrothermal cooling increases linearly with increasing spreading rate. We present here the first corroborating evidence from near-axis hydrothermal plume observations. Comprehensive surveys of plume distributions have now been conducted on multi-segment portions of ridge crest with full-spreading rates from 20 to 150 km/Myr. These surveys find that ph, the fraction of ridge crest length overlain by hydrothermal plumes, and full-spreading rate, us, are related byph = α us, where α = 0.004 Myr/km. We recast this large-scale spatial variability into long-term temporal variability by postulating that any vent field site is hydrothermally active for an α us fraction of geologic time. We then use this relationship and the mean of eight studies that have determined instantaneous heat flux, Ha, at vent field scales, 75 +/- 45 MW/km, to estimate the time-averaged heat flux, Ha, as Haα us. Applying these scaled values of Ha to the distribution of mid-ocean ridge spreading rates yields a global near-axis heat flux, ΣHa, of 8.8 × 1011 W. This value is ≈ 10% of the total oceanic hydrothermal heat flux, and agrees with a crustal cooling model-derived value of ΣHa of 9 × 1011 W. Our estimate of ΣHa implies a mean global 3He/heat ratio of 2.4-8.3 × 10-13 cm3/J (STP), and a high-temperature hydrothermal fluid flow of 1.8 × 1013 kg/yr.

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