SGER: Chemical Sensors for Seafloor Hydrothermal Systems

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0084946HollowayThis Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) project will develop and test two kinds of fiber optic chemical sensors for use in monitoring the chemistry of hydrothermal fluid -- seawater mixtures in seafloor hydrothermal system environments and in laboratory simulators of those environments. Raman spectroscopy using optical fibers as the light path to and from samples is known to work well to quantitatively determine a variety of organic and inorganic species in aqueous solution. In addition, a relatively new technique, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) spectroscopy holds great promise as a simple means of monitoring fluid densities. This work will evaluate the efficacy of each of these techniques (Raman and SPR spectroscopies) for use as short, and long-term monitors of seafloor hydrothermal fluids. If proven to operate under hydrothermal conditions, these devices could be used on manned or ROV dives, as nodes in cabled seafloor observatories and in laboratory reactors.