Hydrothermal Activity and Volcanism on the Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge

In April 2005 four recently discovered different hydrothermal fields on the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) south of the Equator were studied and sampled using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) during cruise METEOR 64/1. Three of these hydrothermally active fields (called Turtle Pits, Red Lion, and Wideawake) occur at about 3000 m water depth in the centre of a MAR segment at 4° 48'S which appears to be volcanically very active. The youngest lava flow partly covers the low-temperature, diffuse flow Wideawake mussel field and is thus probably only a few years old. The high-temperature Turtle Pits hydrothermal field with four active vent structures lies some 300 m west of the diffuse vent field and is characterized by boiling fluids with temperatures close to 400° C. The mineral assemblage recovered from inactive hydrothermal mounds includes massive magnetite+hematite+sulfate and differs from that of the presently active vents and indicates more oxidizing conditions during the earlier activity. The vent fluids at Turtle Pits contain relatively high contents of hydrogen which may have formed during iron oxidation processes when basaltic magmas crystallized. The high fluid temperatures, the change to more reducing conditions, and the relatively high hydrogen contents in the fluids are most likely due to the ascent of magmas from the mantle that fed the very recent eruption. The high-temperature Red Lion hydrothermal field lies some 2 km north of the Turtle Pits field and consists of at least four active black smokers surrounded by several inactive sulfide mounds. The composition of the Red Lion fluids differs significantly from the Turtle Pits fluids, possibly owing largely to a difference in the temperature of the two systems. The fourth hydrothermally active field on the southern MAR, the Liliput field, was discovered near 9° 33'S in a water depth of 1500 m and consists of several low-temperature vents. A shallow hydrothermal plume in the water column gives evidence for high-temperature venting in this area. The vent field occurs on a segment of the MAR with thickened crust and a morphology reminiscent of the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise (EPR). Similar to most EPR vents the Liliput field is also located on the volcanically active axis within a narrow cleft bounded by faults. South of the hydrothermal vents several young pillow and sheet flows were observed suggesting that the hydrothermal activity here is again directly linked to volcanic eruptions.