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Science 28 March 1980:
Vol. 207. no. 4438, pp. 1421 - 1433
DOI: 10.1126/science.207.4438.1421
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Articles

East Pacific Rise: Hot Springs and Geophysical Experiments

F. N. Spiess 1, Ken C. Macdonald 1, T. Atwater 2, R. Ballard 3, A. Carranza 4, D. Cordoba 5, C. Cox 1, V. M. Diaz Garcia 4, J. Francheteau 6, J. Guerrero 5, J. Hawkins 1, R. Haymon 1, R. Hessler 1, T. Juteau 7, M. Kastner 1, R. Larson 8, B. Luyendyk 9, J. D. Macdougall 1, S. Miller 1, W. Normark 10, J. Orcutt 1, and C. Rangin 11

1 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093
2 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139
3 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
4 Centro de Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México 20, D.F.
5 Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
6 Centre Océanologique de Bretagne, Centre National pour l'Exploitation des Océans, Brest 29N, France
7 Laboratoire de Minéralogie-Pétrographie, Université Louis Pasteur, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France
8 Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, New York 10964
9 Geology Department, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106
10 Office of Marine Geology, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California 94025
11 Institut de Géologie, Université de Paris, Paris, France

Hydrothermal vents jetting out water at 380° ± 30°C have been discovered on the axis of the East Pacific Rise. The hottest waters issue from mineralized chimneys and are blackened by sulfide precipitates. These hydrothermal springs are the sites of actively forming massive sulfide mineral deposits. Cooler springs are clear to milky and support exotic benthic communities of giant tube worms, clams, and crabs similar to those found at the Galápagos spreading center. Four prototype geophysical experiments were successfully conducted in and near the vent area: seismic refraction measurements with both source (thumper) and receivers on the sea floor, on-bottom gravity measurements, in situ magnetic gradiometer measurements from the submersible Alvin over a sea-floor magnetic reversal boundary, and an active electrical sounding experiment. These high-resolution determinations of crustal properties along the spreading center were made to gain knowledge of the source of new oceanic crust and marine magnetic anomalies, the nature of the axial magma chamber, and the depth of hydrothermal circulation.


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