Science & Technology: New Variety of Hydrothermal Vent Discovered

Novel Vents Built from Talc Found Far from Mid-Ocean Rift (EOS)

Researchers discovered the first new variety of hydrothermal vents in a decade—a finding that may give clues to how oceanic crust cools.

“The usual way of thinking is that all the heat is on the axis where the magma is and where there’s eruptions on the seafloor, and that once you get off it you lose that heat source,” says Bill Chadwick, a research professor who studies hydrothermal vents at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, and was not involved with the study. “But this is suggesting that maybe that’s not true.”

Citation: Kelleher, S. (2016), Novel vents built from talc found far from mid-ocean rift, Eos, 97, doi:10.1029/2016EO042943. Published on 5 January 2016.

Talc-dominated seafloor deposits reveal a new class of hydrothermal system, Matthew R. S. Hodgkinson, et al, Nature Communications 6, Article number: 10150 doi:10.1038/ncomms10150

(Thanks to GRC Member Marcelo Lippmann, Staff Scientist (retired) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the submission.)

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