U-Th and ESR dating of drilled cores from a giant hydrothermal mounds in South Mariana

The time scale for hydrothermal activity is an important factor controlling the size of hydrothermal ore deposits and the evolution of chemosynthesis-based communities in a submarine hydrothermal system. We determined the age of hydrothermal deposits samples, both collected samples by submersible and drilled core samples from South Mariana Trough. Samples were collected from four hydrothermal sites, Snail (near the spreading axis), Archean ( 1.5km from the axis), Pika ( 4.9km from the axis) and Urashima ( 4.9km from the axis). 230Th-234U radioactive disequilibrium dating was applied to hydrothermal sufide minerals consisting of pyrite and sphalerite while electron spin resonance (ESR) dating was applied to barite. For 230Th-234U radioactive disequilibrium dating, we carried out magnetic separation for bulk samples, then we digested samples with nitric acid. U and Th were purified by two-step column separations, and isotopic compositions of spiked and unspiked U and Th were measured by a MC-ICP-MS. Analytical methods for ESR age determination were described in a companion abstract by Toyoda et al. We found that the magnetic fractions had significantly higher U/Th ratios, which enabled 230Th-234U age determinations as precise as ±2% (2σ). This probably reflects that pyrite enriched in magnetic fractions has high U/Th ration. In a sulfide crust sample collected from Archean site, the 230Th-234U ages of the sulfide minerals (0.3-2.2 ka) were compared with ESR ages of barites separated from 12 subsamples of the same sulfide crust. ESR ages (0.27 - 1.7 ka) show a spatial pattern broadly resembling that observed in 230Th-234U dating method. While there are some significant offsets, these results illustrate the potential of the two methods for use in provide information on evolution history of a hydrothermal system. Samples from Pika, Archean and Snail sites yield from 0.5 to ~9 ka, from 0.1 to 3 ka and < ~90 a, respectively. The oldest ages from each site are correlated with the distance from spreading axis.