Coupled Chemical and Physical Processes and Their Influence on Ridge-Flank Hydrothermal Systems: A Pilot Study of Idealized Silica Diagenesis

冷海水在海洋地壳深处循环，被加热，与地壳交换化学成分，然后以加热的热液的形式出现。这个过程对海洋地壳和海水的组成有深远的影响。目前人们对热液水的关注主要集中在山脊顶部的热喷口，但大部分水是通过山脊两侧的沉积物流出的。支持者认为，脊侧环境的物理、化学和矿物学特征比脊顶环境的特征要好得多，因为脊侧比脊顶更容易通过钻探进入。研究计划是了解流体通过多孔流动和扩散从玄武岩基底向上流过沉积物，并确定流体中的化学变化以及沉积物中的化学和矿物学变化。这将作为一项试点研究，利用现有的计算机模型，根据温度、流体流动和沉积物的初始物理条件的边界条件，生成化学剖面。结果将与在四个沉积区发现的化学剖面进行比较。＊＊＊

9502970 Ortoleva Cold sea water circulates deep into the ocean crust, is heated, exchanges chemical constituents with the crust, and then emerges as heated hydrothermal water. This process has a profound effect on the composition of the ocean crust and sea water. Presently much attention is focused on the hydrothermal water exiting from hot vents at ridge crests, but a large proportion of the water exits through sediments on the ridge flanks. The proponents argue that the physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics of the ridge flank environment has been characterized much better than the ridge crest environment because the flanks are much more accessible by drilling than ridge crests. The research plan is to understand the fluid flow up from basalt basement through the sediment by porous flow and diffusion, and to determine what are the chemical changes in the fluid and the chemical and mineralogical changes in the sediments. This will be done as a pilot study with existing computer models that will generate chemical profiles based on boundary conditions of temperature, fluid flow, and initial physical conditions of the sediment. Results will be compared to chemical profiles found in four sedimented areas. ***