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[1] ODP/IODP Hole 1256D penetrates an in situ section of ocean crust formed at the East Pacific Rise, through lavas and sheeted dikes and ∼100 m into plutonic rocks. We use mineralogy, oxygen isotopes, and fluid inclusions to understand hydrothermal processes. The lavas are slightly altered at low temperatures (<150°C) to phyllosilicates and iron oxyhydroxides, with a stepwise increase in grade downward to greenschist minerals in the upper dikes. This resulted from generally upwelling hydrothermal fluids in the dikes mixing with cooler seawater solutions in the lavas, also producing minor metal sulfide mineralization Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union 1 of 28 in the upper dikes. Alteration grade increases downward in the dikes, with increasing recrystallization to amphibole and loss of metals at higher temperatures (>350°C up to ∼600°C). Intrusion of gabbro bodies into the lower dikes resulted in contact metamorphism to granoblastic hornfels at 850°C-900°C, representing a thermal boundary layer between the axial melt lens and the overlying hydrothermal system. Downward penetration of hydrothermal fluids led to rehydration of granoblastic dikes and plutonic rocks at ∼800°C down to <300°C. Fluid inclusion and oxygen isotope data show that vein quartz formed at ∼300°C to >450°C from hydrothermal fluids that were affected by supercritical phase separation. Fluids had variable salinities and were enriched in 18 O (+0.4‰ to +3.5‰) relative to seawater, similar to seafloor vent fluids. Dike margins are brecciated and mineralized, suggesting hydrothermal activity coeval with magmatism. Anhydrite formed mainly in the upper dikes when partly reacted seawater fluids were heated as they penetrated deeper into the system. Low-temperature alteration of the volcanic section continued as cold seawater penetrated along fluid pathways, forming minor iron oxyhydroxides in the rocks. Hydrothermal processes at Site 1256 fit with current models whereby greenschist alteration of dikes at low water/rock ratios is overprinted by fracture-controlled alteration and mineralization by upwelling hydrothermal fluids, a conductive boundary layer above gabbroic intrusions, leaching of metals from dikes and gabbros in the deep "root zone," and stepped thermal and alteration gradients in the basement. The Site 1256 section, however, is intact and retains recharge effects (anhydrite), allowing an integrated view of processes in the subsurface.

Proxies for past seawater chemistry, such as Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios, provide a record of the dynamic exchanges of elements between the solid Earth, the atmosphere, and the hydrosphere and the evolving influence of life. We estimated past oceanic Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios from suites of 1.6- to 170-million-year-old calcium carbonate veins that had precipitated from seawater-derived fluids in ocean ridge flank basalts. Our data indicate that before the Neogene, oceanic Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios were lower than in the modern ocean. Decreased ocean spreading since the Cretaceous and the resulting slow reduction in ocean crustal hydrothermal exchange throughout the early Tertiary may explain the recent rise in these ratios.