Superheating in the Red Sea? The heat-mass balance of the Atlantis II Deep revisited

Ramboz, Claire; Danis, Michel

doi:10.1016/0012-821x(90)90108-a

Cited by 19 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…These pools show a range of temperatures, salinities, and chemistries and various origins have been proposed (Zierenberg 1990). Long time observations indicate that these pools are dynamic systems fuelled by input of hot brines into the depressions and loss of fluids by overspill (e.g., Atlantis II Deep; Ramboz and Danis 1990). As currently understood, hot, dense fluids entering these deeps rise until buoyancy reversal causes them to sink to the bottom.…”

Section: Brine Poolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Carwile and Faure 1971;Schoell and Stahl 1972;Lupton et al 1977;Schoell and Faber 1978;Shanks and Bischoff 1980;Zierenberg and Shanks 1983;Svalnov et al 1984), geophysical investigations (e.g. Drake and Girdler 1964;Ross et al 1969;Izzeldin 1987;Mustafa et al 1984;Cochran and Martinez 1988;Guennoc et al 1988), fluid inclusion analysis (Ramboz et al 1988), as well as a variety of theoretical studies (e.g., McDougall 1984a,b;Ramboz and Danis 1990;Blanc 1995,1996;Anschutz et al 1998Anschutz et al , 1999. Editorial handling: F. Tornos In particular, the Atlantis II Deep has been the focus of most studies because it is the best known example of a brine pool and also hosts a significant accumulation of metalliferous material (Bäcker and Richter 1973;Hackett and Bischoff 1973;Bignell et al 1976;Cocherie et al 1994;Blanc et al 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hydrothermal fluid migration and brine pool formation in the Red Sea: the Atlantis II Deep

Schardt

2015

Miner Deposita

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Numerical heat and fluid flow simulations of the Atlantis II Deep in the Red Sea were conducted to investigate the development, migration, and discharge of hydrothermal fluids into a submarine depression and determine the conditions necessary to form a brine pool. High-salinity fluids are predicted to form by leaching Miocene evaporates, migrate and convect within young oceanic crust, and discharge onto the seafloor. Predicted fluid discharge temperatures (T max , 301°C), discharge fluid velocities (V max , 0.09 m/s), and salinities (S max , 21 wt%) increase over time and reach values comparable to modern seafloor observations. Established convection patterns and discharge behavior are robust and are not greatly affected by geometry of rock property changes. Modeling results were used to calculate the minimum conditions for hydrothermal fluids from a developing hydrothermal system to mix with seawater, reverse buoyancy, and begin to form a brine pool in a submarine depression. Under conditions encountered on the seafloor (T, 25-300°C; S, 5-25 wt%), fluid mixtures predicted to pond on the seafloor range from late in the mixing process (99 %) at low temperatures (T, 26°C) to much earlier (36 % mixing) at higher temperatures (T, 94°C). A model of brine pool evolution is proposed that describes the processes and conditions necessary to initiate brine pool formation and compares formation conditions with accumulated ore material in the Atlantis II Deep and other locations.

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Section: Brine Poolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrothermal fluid migration and brine pool formation in the Red Sea: the Atlantis II Deep

Schardt

2015

Miner Deposita

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“…This is lowtemperature superheating. Secondly, systems having strong thermal anomalies, such as continental or submarine geysers, or where hot magma and cold water come suddenly into contact (phreato-magmatic eruptions), are, at least partly, functioning with a superheating component ( [Steinberg et al, 1982], [Ramboz and Danis, 1990] and [Thiéry and Mercury, 2009-a]). These are high-temperature superheating processes.…”

Section: Superheating Features and Previous Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental superheating of water and aqueous solutions

Shmulovich

Mercury

Thiéry

et al. 2009

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

101

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The metastable superheated solutions are liquids in transitory thermodynamic equilibrium inside the stability domain of their vapor (whatever the temperature is). Some natural contexts should allow the superheating of natural aqueous solutions, like the soil capillarity (low T superheating), certain continental and submarine geysers (high T superheating), or even the water state in very arid environments like the Mars subsurface (low T) or the deep crustal rocks (high T). The present paper reports experimental measurements on the superheating range of aqueous solutions contained in quartz as fluid inclusions (Synthetic Fluid Inclusion Technique, SFIT) and brought to superheating state by isochoric cooling. About 40 samples were synthetized at 0.75 GPa and 530-700 °C with internally-heated autoclaves. Nine hundred and sixty-seven inclusions were studied by micro-thermometry, including measuring the temperatures of homogenization (Th: L + V → L) and vapor bubbles nucleation (Tn: L → L + V). The Th-Tn difference corresponds to the intensity of superheating that the trapped liquid can undergo and can be translated into liquid pressure (existing just before nucleation occurs at Tn) by an equation of state. Pure water (840-935 kg m −3 ), dilute NaOH solutions (0.1 and 0.5 mol kg −1 ), NaCl, CaCl 2 and CsCl solutions (1 and 5 mol kg −1 ) demonstrated a surprising ability to undergo tensile stress. The highest tension ever recorded to the best of our knowledge (−146 MPa, 100 °C) is attained in a 5 m CaCl 2 inclusion trapped in quartz matrix, while CsCl solutions qualitatively show still better superheating efficiency. These observations are discussed with regards to the quality of the inner surface of inclusion surfaces (high P-T synthesis conditions) and to the intrinsic cohesion of liquids (thermodynamic and kinetic spinodal). This study demonstrates that natural solutions can reach high levels of superheating, that are accompanied by strong changes of their physicochemical properties.

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“…Since their discovery in 1965, detailed geological and geochemical investigations have been carried out on these two deeps (1). The Atlantis II Deep is a hydrothermally active brine pool with a temperature that has continuously increased from the earliest record of 44.8°C (1,10) to the current recorded temperature of 68°C. This increase has been attributed to the influx of hot brine supplied by a geyser spring at the bottom of the Atlantis II pool (11), which divides the brine into two stratified anoxic layers with substantially different temperatures (12): the lower convective layer and the upper convective layer.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinctive Microbial Community Structure in Highly Stratified Deep-Sea Brine Water Columns

Bougouffa

Yang

Lee

et al. 2013

Appl Environ Microbiol

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b Atlantis II and Discovery are two hydrothermal and hypersaline deep-sea pools in the Red Sea rift that are characterized by strong thermohalo-stratification and temperatures steadily peaking near the bottom. We conducted comprehensive vertical profiling of the microbial populations in both pools and highlighted the influential environmental factors. Pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA genes revealed shifts in community structures vis-à-vis depth. High diversity and low abundance were features of the deepest convective layers despite the low cell density. Surprisingly, the brine interfaces had significantly higher cell counts than the overlying deep-sea water, yet they were lowest in diversity. Vertical stratification of the bacterial populations was apparent as we moved from the Alphaproteobacteria-dominated deep sea to the Planctomycetaceae-or Deferribacteres-dominated interfaces to the Gammaproteobacteria-dominated brine layers. Archaeal marine group I was dominant in the deep-sea water and interfaces, while several euryarchaeotic groups increased in the brine. Across sites, microbial phylotypes and abundances varied substantially in the brine interface of Discovery compared with Atlantis II, despite the near-identical populations in the overlying deep-sea waters. The lowest convective layers harbored interestingly similar microbial communities, even though temperature and heavy metal concentrations were very different. Multivariate analysis indicated that temperature and salinity were the major influences shaping the communities. The harsh conditions and the low-abundance phylotypes could explain the observed correlation in the brine pools. The Red Sea, a part of the Great Rift Valley, was formed when the Arabian plate split from the African plate. Due to the high surface temperature, excess evaporation, and scarcity of rainfall coupled with a lack of a major source of fresh water influx, the Red Sea is one of the hottest and saltiest seawater bodies in the world. Over the past 40 years, oceanographers have discovered 25 brinefilled deeps in the rift valley of the Red Sea (1-6). These deeps are characterized by their anoxic, hypersaline, hyperthermal, and metalliferous conditions at the bottom, representing some of the most unusual and extreme environments on earth (4, 7-9).The deep-sea brine pools Atlantis II and Discovery, which are located in the middle axial rift zone of the Red Sea, represent a rare type of extreme environment with both hypersaline and hydrothermal geochemical characteristics. Since their discovery in 1965, detailed geological and geochemical investigations have been carried out on these two deeps (1). The Atlantis II Deep is a hydrothermally active brine pool with a temperature that has continuously increased from the earliest record of 44.8°C (1, 10) to the current recorded temperature of 68°C. This increase has been attributed to the influx of hot brine supplied by a geyser spring at the bottom of the Atlantis II pool (11), which divides the brine into two stratified anoxic layers with s...

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Superheating in the Red Sea? The heat-mass balance of the Atlantis II Deep revisited

Cited by 19 publications

References 33 publications

Hydrothermal fluid migration and brine pool formation in the Red Sea: the Atlantis II Deep

Hydrothermal fluid migration and brine pool formation in the Red Sea: the Atlantis II Deep

Experimental superheating of water and aqueous solutions

Distinctive Microbial Community Structure in Highly Stratified Deep-Sea Brine Water Columns

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