Cold seeps and hydrothermal vents are seafloor habitats fueled by subsurface energy sources. Both habitat types coexist in Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California, providing an opportunity to compare microbial communities with distinct physiologies adapted to different thermal regimes. Hydrothermally active sites in the southern Guaymas Basin axial valley, and cold seep sites at Octopus Mound, a carbonate mound with abundant methanotrophic cold seep fauna at the Central Seep location on the northern off-axis flanking regions, show consistent geochemical and microbial differences between hot, temperate, cold seep, and background sites. The changing microbial actors include autotrophic and heterotrophic bacterial and archaeal lineages that catalyze sulfur, nitrogen, and methane cycling, organic matter degradation, and hydrocarbon oxidation. Thermal, biogeochemical, and microbiological characteristics of the sampling locations indicate that sediment thermal regime and seep-derived or hydrothermal energy sources structure the microbial communities at the sediment surface.

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Heat flow is estimated at eight sites drilled int the Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California, during the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 385. The expedition sought to understand the thermal regime of the basin and heat transfer between off‐axis sills intruding the organic‐rich sediments of the Guaymas Basin, and the basin floor. The distinct sedimentation rates, active tectonics, and magmatism make the basin interesting for scientific discoveries. Results show that sedimentation corrected heat flow values range 119–221 mW/m2 in the basin and 257–1003 mW/m2 at the site of a young sill intrusion, denominated Ringvent. Thermal analysis shows that heat in the Guaymas Basin is being dissipated by conduction for plate ages >0.2 Ma, whereas younger plate ages are in a state of transient cooling by both conduction and advection. Drilling sites show that Ringvent is an active sill being cooled down slowly by circulating fluids with discharge velocities of 10–200 mm/yr. Possible recharge sites are located ca. 1 km away from the sill's border. Modelling of the heat output at Ringvent indicates a sill thickness of ca. 240 m. A simple order‐of‐magnitude model predicts that relatively small amounts of magma are needed to account for the elevated heat flow in non‐volcanic, sediment‐filled rifts like the central and northern Gulf of California in which heating of the upper crust is achieved via advection by sill emplacement and hydrothermal circulation. Multiple timescales of cooling control the crustal, chemical and biological evolution of the Guaymas Basin. Here, we recognize at least four timescales: the time interval between intrusions (ca. 103 yr), the thermal relaxation time of sills (ca. 104 yr), the characteristic cooling time of the sediments (ca. 105 yr), and the cooling of the entire crust at geologic timescales.

Expedition 385 is based on International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) drilling Proposals 833-Full2 and 833-Add (available at http://iodp.tamu.edu/scienceops/expeditions/guay-mas_basin_tectonics_biosphere.html). Following ranking by the IODP scientific advisory structure, the expedition was scheduled for the research vessel (R/V) JOIDES Resolution, operating under contract with the JOIDES Resolution Science Operator (JRSO). At the time of publication of this Scientific Prospectus, the expedition is scheduled to start in San Diego, California (USA), on 16 September 2019 and to end in San Diego on 16 November 2019. Accounting for 5 days of port call and 9 days of transit, a total of 47 days will be available for the drilling, coring, and downhole measurements described in this report (for the current detailed schedule, see http://iodp.tamu.edu/scienceops). Further details about the facilities aboard JOIDES Resolution can be found at http://www.iodp.tamu.edu/publicinfo/drillship.html.