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Earthquake-induced changes in a hydrothermal system on the Juan de Fuca mid-ocean ridge

Nature volume 407, pages 174–177 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Hydrothermal vents on mid-ocean ridges of the northeast Pacific Ocean are known to respond to seismic disturbances, with observed changes in vent temperature1,2,3,4. But these disturbances resulted from submarine volcanic activity; until now, there have been no observations of the response of a vent system to non-magmatic, tectonic events. Here we report measurements of hydrothermal vent temperature from several vents on the Juan de Fuca ridge in June 1999, before, during and after an earthquake swarm of apparent tectonic origin. Vent fluid temperatures began to rise 4–11 days after the first earthquake. Following this initial increase, the vent temperatures oscillated for about a month before settling down to higher values. We also observed a tenfold increase in fluid output from the hydrothermal system over a period of at least 80 days, extending along the entire ridge segment. Such a large, segment-wide thermal response to relatively modest tectonic activity is surprising, and raises questions about the sources of excess heat and fluid, and the possible effect on vent biological communities.

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Figure 1: Bathymetry of the Endeavour segment of the Juan de Fuca ridge.
Figure 2: Temperature data from thermistors at the three Endeavour axial valley sites.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Lowell and A. Fisher for comments and suggestions. The field programmes and data analysis were supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195-7940 , Washington, USA

    H. Paul Johnson & Michael Hutnak

  2. PMEL NOAA and Oregon State University , Newport, 97365, Oregon, USA

    Robert P. Dziak & Christopher G. Fox

  3. Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Istvan Urcuyo & Charles Fisher

  4. Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, 96822, Hawaii, USA

    James P. Cowen

  5. COAS, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97331, Oregon, USA

    John Nabelek

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  1. H. Paul Johnson
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  2. Michael Hutnak
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Correspondence to H. Paul Johnson.

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Johnson, H., Hutnak, M., Dziak, R. et al. Earthquake-induced changes in a hydrothermal system on the Juan de Fuca mid-ocean ridge. Nature 407, 174–177 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35025040

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