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

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9528438 Fisher 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. ***