Fluxes of fluid and heat from the oceanic crustal reservoir

Johnson, H. Paul; Pruis, Matthew J.

doi:10.1016/s0012-821x(03)00545-4

Cited by 156 publications

(148 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The global hydrothermal fluid mass flux through the upper oceanic crust rivals the global riverine fluid flux to the ocean, passing the volume of the oceans through the crust every 10 5 -10 6 year (e.g., Johnson & Pruis, 2003;Mottl, 2003;Wheat, McManus, Mottl, & Giambalvo, 2003). Much of this flow occurs at relatively low temperatures, far from volcanically active seafloor spreading centers where new ocean floor is created.…”

Section: Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrogeologic Properties, Processes, and Alteration in the Igneous Ocean Crust

Fisher

Alt

Bach

2014

Earth and Life Processes Discovered From Subseafloor Environments - A Decade of Science Achieved by the Integrated Ocean Drilli

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Section: Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrogeologic Properties, Processes, and Alteration in the Igneous Ocean Crust

Fisher

Alt

Bach

2014

Earth and Life Processes Discovered From Subseafloor Environments - A Decade of Science Achieved by the Integrated Ocean Drilli

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“…The compilation of the measured porosity of the oceanic crust indicates that the values are up to 34 % in the young oceanic crust and higher than 10 % even in altered crust older than 10 Ma (Johnson and Pruis 2003). The total mass of water below the seafloor was estimated to be 26 Â 10 18 kg, which corresponds tõ 2 % of that of the entire mass of seawater.…”

Section: Subseafloor Biosphere and Hydrospherementioning

confidence: 97%

“…On the other hand, the heat generated from cooling of the lithosphere is dominant at the ridge flank regions. Heat flux at the ridge flank region is as large as (5.1-9.1) Â 10 12 W, considering the temperature of the oceanic crust to be 10-40 C (Johnson and Pruis 2003). Because the heat in the ridge flank is transported by low temperature fluid (5-20 C), estimated water mass flux should be as large as (0.2-2.0) Â 10 19 g/year (Mottl 2003).…”

Section: Subseafloor Biosphere and Hydrospherementioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction of TAIGA Concept

Urabe

Ishibashi

Sunamura

et al. 2014

Subseafloor Biosphere Linked to Hydrothermal Systems

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After the discovery of seafloor hydrothermal venting, it became evident that the subseafloor fluid advection system plays an extremely important role in the Earth's element cycle. We designate these fluid advections as sub-seafloor TAIGAs (which stand for Trans-crustal Advection and In-situ biogeochemical processes of Global sub-seafloor Aquifers. In Japanese, "taiga" refers to "a great river"). This concept emphasizes dynamic signature of subseafloor hydrosphere, especially for a hydrothermal fluid circulation system that might support subseafloor microbial ecosystem. However, the link between the fluid advection and microbial activity has never been clearly demonstrated. We therefore hypothesized four types of sub-seafloor TAIGAs; hydrogen, methane, sulfur, and iron to investigate the relation. Each type of TAIGA is characterized by the most dominant reducing substance available for chemosynthesis. Our trans-disciplinary research between 2008 and 2012 indicates that the hypothesis is valid and the microbial activity within the flow of TAIGAs has strong linkage to chemical characteristics of each TAIGA; that is, the subseafloor TAIGA supplies four different kinds of electron donor for respective chemolithoautotroph ecosystem which is suitable for particular electron donor. It is also shown that the composition of dissolved chemical species in the subseafloor TAIGAs are substantially affected by the geological background of their flow path such as volcanism, surrounding host rocks and tectonic settings. Our research clearly indicates that the chemosynthetic sub-seafloor biosphere is controlled and supported by Earth's endogenous flux of heat and mass beneath the seafloor.

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“…The global hydrothermal fluid mass flux through the upper oceanic crust rivals the global riverine fluid flux to the ocean and effectively passes the volume of the oceans through the crust once every 10 5 -10 6 y (Elderfield and Schultz, 1996;Johnson and Pruis, 2003;Mottl, 2003). Most of this flow occurs at relatively low temperatures, far from volcanically active seafloor-spreading centers where new ocean floor is created.…”

Section: Scientific Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%