Several hydrothermal deposits associated with ultramafic rocks have recently been found along slow spreading ridges with a low magmatic budget. Three preferential settings are identified: (1) rift valley walls near the amagmatic ends of ridge segments; (2) nontransform offsets; and (3) ultramafic domes at inside corners of ridge transform-fault intersections. The exposed mantle at these sites is often interpreted to be a detachment fault. Hydrothermal cells in ultramafic rocks may be driven by regional heat flow, cooling gabbroic intrusions, and exothermic heat produced during serpentinization. Along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR), hydrothermal deposits in ultramafic rocks include the following: (1) sulfide mounds related to high-temperature low-pH fluids (Logatchev, Rainbow, and Ashadze); (2) carbonate chimneys related to low-temperature, high-pH fluids (Lost City); (3) low-temperature diffuse venting and high-methane discharge associated with silica, minor sulfides, manganese oxides, and pervasive alteration (Saldanha); and (4) stockwork quartz veins with sulfides at the base of detachment faults (15°05′N). These settings are closely linked to preferential circulation of fluid along permeable detachment faults. Compared to mineralization in basaltic environments, sulfide deposits associated with ultramafic rocks are enriched in Cu, Zn, Co, Au, and Ni. Gold has a bimodal distribution in low-temperature Zn-rich and in hightemperature Cu-rich mineral assemblages. The Cu-Zn-Co-Au deposits along the MAR seem to be more abundant than in ophiolites on land. This may be because ultramafic-hosted volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits on slow spreading ridges are usually not accreted to continental margins during obduction and may constitute a specific marine type of mineralization.

[1] We present new high-resolution bathymetry and backscatter data acquired in 2006 with the ROV Victor 6000 over the Lucky Strike hydrothermal field, Mid-Atlantic Ridge. As long-term monitoring of the Lucky Strike area (MoMAR project) is being implemented, these new high-resolution data offer an unprecedented view of the distribution of hydrothermal edifices, eruptive facies, and small-scale tectonic features in the Lucky Strike vent field. We show that vents located in the NW and NE correspond with wide expanses of lumpy seafloor which we interpret as primarily made of broken chimneys and sulfide edifices. They are found above scarps with relief >50 m or on associated mass wasting deposits. By contrast, the SE and SW vents correspond with small expanses of lumpy seafloor and are located near smaller scarps which we interpret as more recent faults. Hydrothermal edifices in the SW venting area appear very recent, postdating the emplacement and faulting of the most recent lava. We propose that this difference in the age of hydrothermal edifices does not mean that hydrothermal venting itself is more recent in the southern part of the Lucky Strike field because preexisting sulfide deposits there may have been buried by recent volcanic deposits. Instead, the older edifices in the northern part of the hydrothermal field may have been allowed more time to grow because they are set above the level of recent lava flows. The formation of a lava lake is the most recent eruptive event detected at Lucky Strike. Lava drainback is evidenced by benches and lava pillars, suggesting a close connection with an underlying magma reservoir, which probably corresponds to the melt body imaged by Singh et al. (2006). We have found no evidence that this lake was active for months to decades, as lava lakes at terrestrial volcanoes. It may instead have formed as a lava pond, with successive lava flows covering the eruptive vents, as proposed for similar features at the EPR. The horizontal surface of the lake is deformed only near its southwestern shore, along a NNEtrending set of faults and fissures, which appear to control the distribution of hydrothermal chimneys.

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A giant pockmark colonised by dense cold-seep assemblages near 3160 m depth along the Congo-Angola margin has been surveyed by the ROV Victor 6000. The quantitative distribution of chemosynthetic communities was mapped along the dive tracks from a video study using GIS and image mosaicking. Several types of faunal assemblages, either dominated by bivalves of the families Mytilidae (Bathymodiolus sp.) or Vesicomyidae (Calyptogena sp., 'Vesicomya' aff. chuni), or by Siboglinidae polychaetes (Escarpia southwardae) were mapped over the 800-m diameter pockmark area and sampled for fauna, water and sediment. The isotopic analyses (d 13 C) of tissues from symbiont-bearing species were within the range typical of nutrition via symbiosis using methane for mussels and sulphide for vesicomyids and siboglinids. The living chemosynthetic communities were distributed on a SW-NE axis, corresponding to the expression at the sediment surface of a main buried channel providing fluids to the pockmark. The site was characterised by a more active central part in a depression with abundant carbonate concretions where high-density clusters of siboglinids and mytilids dominate. Large fields of dead and live vesicomyids with a lower mean density were observed in the external areas. The mean coverage of each of the three symbiotic taxa in these two contrasted areas was estimated from mosaic analysis and was up to 30% in the central area dominated by E. southwardae bushes (23%). Symbiont-bearing species distribution was consistent with methane concentrations in seawater that were generally higher in mytilid beds than in the vicinity of siboglinids and vesicomyids. A Principal Component Analysis performed on environmental factors at the ten sampling sites revealed that 37% of the observed variance in the distribution of symbiont-bearing species may be explained by variation in both methane and oxygen concentrations, while a Canonical Redundancy Analysis selected methane concentration as the only variable which explains symbiont-bearing species densities. This spatial distribution of chemosynthetic species at the pockmark scale may reflect temporal patterns of succession of both substrate and fauna, and may be related to different individual pockmarks visible on the microbathymetry mapped using ROV data.

Four mud volcanoes of several kilometres diameter named Amon, Osiris, Isis, and North Alex and located above gas chimneys on the Central Nile Deep Sea Fan, were investigated for the first time with the submersible Nautile. One of the objectives was to characterize the seafloor morphology and the seepage activity across the mud volcanoes. The seepage activity was dominated by emissions of methane and heavier hydrocarbons associated with a major thermal contribution. The most active parts of the mud volcanoes were highly gas-saturated (methane concentrations in the water and in the sediments, respectively, of several hundreds of nmol/L and several mmol/L of wet sediment) and associated with significantly high thermal gradients (at 10 m below the seafloor, the recorded temperatures reached more than 40 °C). Patches of highly reduced blackish sediments, mats of sulphide-oxidizing bacteria, and precipitates of authigenic carbonate were detected, indicative of anaerobic methane consumption. The chemosynthetic fauna was, however, not very abundant, inhibited most likely by the high and vigorous fluxes, and was associated mainly with carbonate-crustcovered seafloor encountered on the southwestern flank of Amon. Mud expulsions are not very common at present and were found limited to the most active emission centres of two mud volcanoes, where slow extrusion of mud occurs. Each of the mud volcanoes is fed principally by a main narrow channel located below the most elevated areas, most commonly in the centres of the structures. The distribution, shape, and seafloor morphology of the mud volcanoes and associated seeps over the Central Nile Deep Sea Fan are clearly tectonically controlled.

A giant, 800-m wide pockmark, called Regab, was discovered along the Equatorial African margin at 3160-m water depth and was explored by remote operated vehicle (ROV) as part of the Zaiango (1998Zaiango ( -2000 and Biozaire (2001Biozaire ( -2003 projects carried out conjointly by TOTAL and a number of French research institutes. A microbathymetric map obtained using the ROV sensors shows that the pockmark actually consists of a cluster of smaller pockmarks aligned N70 along a 15-m deep depression. Methane was recorded all over the pockmark, the highest values along the axis of the depression where massive carbonate crusts and dense seep communities were also found. Several faunal species belong to the Vesicomyidae and Mytilidae bivalve families, as well as to Siboglinidae (Vestimentifera) tubeworms. Preliminary analyses confirm their association with symbiotic bacteria, thus documenting their dependence on fluid seeps. The pockmark appears to be related to an infilled channel, visible on the seismic data 300 m below the seafloor, which may act as a reservoir for biogenic fluids supplied to the trap from the surrounding sediments. AbstractA giant, 800-m-wide pockmark, called Regab, was discovered along the Equatorial African margin at 3,160-m water depth and was explored by remote operated vehicle (ROV) as part of the Zaiango (1998--2000) and Biozaire (2001Biozaire ( --2003 projects carried out conjointly by TOTAL and a number of French research institutes. A microbathymetric map obtained using the ROV sensors shows that the pockmark actually consists of a cluster of smaller pockmarks aligned N70° along a 15-m-deep depression. Methane was recorded all over the pockmark, the highest values along the axis of the depression where massive carbonate crusts and dense seep communities were also found. Several faunal species belong to the Vesicomyidae and Mytilidae bivalve families, as well as to Siboglinidae (Vestimentifera) tubeworms. Preliminary analyses confirm their association with symbiotic bacteria, thus documenting their dependence on fluid seeps. The pockmark appears to be 2 related to an infilled channel, visible on the seismic data 300 m below the seafloor, which may act as a reservoir for biogenic fluids supplied to the trap from the surrounding sediments.

We report on a multidisciplinary study of cold seeps explored in the Central Nile deep-sea fan of the Egyptian margin. Our approach combines in situ seafloor observation, geophysics, sedimentological data, measurement of bottom-water methane anomalies, pore-water and sediment geochemistry, and 230 Th/U dating of authigenic carbonates. Two areas were investigated, which correspond to different sedimentary provinces. The lower slope, at ~ 2100 m water depth, indicates deformation of sediments by gravitational processes, exhibiting slope-parallel elongated ridges and seafloor depressions. In contrast, the middle slope, at not, vert, ~ 1650 m water depth, exhibits a series of debris-flow deposits not remobilized by post-depositional gravity processes.Significant differences exist between fluid-escape structures from the two studied areas. At the lower slope, methane anomalies were detected in bottom-waters above the depressions, whereas the adjacent ridges show a frequent coverage of fractured carbonate pavements associated with chemosynthetic vent communities. Carbonate U/Th age dates (~ 8 kyr BP), pore-water sulphate and solid phase sediment data suggest that seepage activity at those carbonate ridges has decreased over the recent past. In contrast, large (~ 1 km2) carbonate-paved areas were discovered in the middle slope, with U/Th isotope evidence for ongoing carbonate precipitation during the Late Holocene (since ~ 5 kyr BP at least).Our results suggest that fluid venting is closely related to sediment deformation in the Central Nile margin. It is proposed that slope instability leads to focused fluid flow in the lower slope and exposure of 'fossil' carbonate ridges, whereas pervasive diffuse flow prevails at the unfailed middle slope.

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