Direct Measurements of Hydrothermal Heat Output at Juan de Fuca Ridge

Heat output and fluid flow are key parameters for characterizing seafloor hydrothermal systems at oceanic spreading centers. In particular, they are essential for examining partition of heat and geochemical fluxes between discrete and diffuse flow components. Hydrothermal heat output also constrains permeability of young oceanic crust and thickness of the conductive boundary layer separating hydrothermal circulation from the underlying magmatic heat source. Over the past several years, we have deployed a number of relatively simple devices to make direct measurements of focused and diffuse flow. Most recently, we have used cup anemometer and turbine flow meters to measure fluid flow and heat flux at individual high-temperature vents and diffuse flow sites. The turbine flow meter (Figure 1) includes a titanium rotor assembly housed within a stainless steel tube and supported by sapphire bearings. The device can be used at different seafloor settings for measurements of both diffuse and focused flow. The spin of the rotor blades is videotaped to acquire the angular velocity, which is a function of the flow rate determined through calibration. We report data obtained during four cruises to the Main Endeavor and High Rise vent fields, Juan de Fuca Ridge (JdFR), between 2007 and 2009. Overall more than 50 successful measurements of heat flow have been made on a variety of high-, medium-, and low-temperature hydrothermal sites on the Endeavor, Mothra, and High Rise structures. For example, the velocity of diffuse flow at Endeavor ranged from ~1 to ~10 cm/sec. The flow velocity from black smokers varied from ~10 cm/sec to ~1 m/sec, which appears to be similar to EPR 9°N. Typical measurements of heat flux obtained at JdFR ranged from ~1 kW for diffuse flow to ~1 MW for black smokers. Although it is difficult to extrapolate the data and obtain the integrated heat output for a vent field on JdFR, the data are used to characterize the heat fluxes from individual vent structures such as Hulk, Dante, and Godzilla. Figure 1. Turbine flow meter deployed on Fairy Castle structure at the High Rise vent field (6-26-09, Alvin dive 4526).