Rock Core Sediments: Calibrating a New Technique for the Investigation of Hydrothermal Activity at Ocean Ridges

岩芯沉积物：校准研究洋脊热液活动的新技术

• 批准号: 9618572
• 负责人: Charles Langmuir
• 金额: $ 13.45万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-06-01 至 2003-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9618572&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Rock; Core; Sediments; Calibrating; New

Undersea hydrothermal systems at mid-ocean ridges are of central importance to the solid earth geochemical cycle, and also are the sites of large ore deposits of Cu and Zn and undersea oases of life. Finding these systems is very difficult, because they are hidden under many kilometers of water. Sediments from the ocean ridge system collect settling particles distributed through the water column by `plumes` of water rich in particles that rise from the hydrothermal vents. The distribution of metal enrichment in sediments may help to determine where hydrothermal vents occur, how long they have been present, and how large a hydrothermal system is involved. Because sediments can be collected easily from a ship on the sea surface, the sedimentary `halos` may allow an efficient assessment of the distribution and size of hydrothermal systems on a global basis. If so, then our understanding of the distribution of hydrothermal activity, and the scientific processes responsible for it, will be substantially enhanced. We propose to test the efficacy of this method using sediments, and to apply it to several first order problems relating to hydrothermal systems.

洋中脊的海底热液系统对固体地球化学循环具有重要意义，也是大型铜、锌矿床和海底生命绿洲的所在地。找到这些系统是非常困难的，因为它们隐藏在许多公里的水下。来自洋脊系统的沉积物收集了沉淀颗粒，这些颗粒是由从热液喷口升起的富含颗粒的水“羽流”通过水柱分布的。沉积物中金属富集的分布可能有助于确定热液喷口发生的位置、存在的时间以及热液系统的规模。由于沉积物可以很容易地从海面上的船只上收集到，沉积的“晕”可以在全球范围内有效地评估热液系统的分布和规模。如果是这样，那么我们对热液活动分布的理解，以及对其负责的科学过程，将大大增强。我们建议用沉积物来测试这种方法的有效性，并将其应用于与热液系统有关的几个一级问题。