numerical simulations of marine hydrothermal plumes for europa and other icy worlds abstract the liquid water interiors of europa and other icy moons of the outer solar system are likely to be driven by geothermal heating from the sea floor leading to the development of buoyant hydrothermal plumes these plumes potentially control icy surface geomorphology and are of interest to astrobiologists we have performed a series of simulations of these plumes using the mit gcm ocean circulation model we assume here that europa s ocean is deep of order 100 km and unstratified and that plume buoyancy is controlled by temperature not composition our experiments explore a limited region of parameter space with ocean depth h ranging from 50 to 100 km deep source heat flux q between 0 1 and 10 gw and coriolis parameter f corresponding to europa latitudes between 9 and 47 as predicted by earlier work the plumes in our simulations form narrow cylindrical chimneys a few km across under the influence of the coriolis effect these plumes broaden over time until they become baroclinically unstable breaking up into cone shaped eddies when they become 10 35 km in diameter the shed eddies are of a similar size large scale currents in the region of the plume range between 1 and 5 cm s temperature anomalies in the plume far from the seafloor are tiny varying between 10 and 180 k variations in plume size shape speed and temperature are in excellent agreement with previous laboratory tank experiments and in rough agreement with theoretical predictions plume dynamics and geometry are controlled by a natural rossby number which depends strongly on depth h and coriolis parameter f but only weakly on source heat flux q however some specific theoretical predictions are not borne out by these simulations this may occur because the plumes are reingesting their own emissions a process not considered in our earlier theory

the importance of hydrothermal venting to water column secondary production in the northeast pacific abstract the purpose of this study is to show that seafloor hydrothermal venting in the open northeast pacific ocean has a marked impact on secondary biomass and production within the overlying water column specifically we use net tows and concurrently measured acoustic backscatter data collected over six summers to examine the effects of hydrothermal venting from the endeavour segment of juan de fuca ridge on macro zooplankton biomass and production throughout the entire 2000 m depth range previous research shows that ontogenetic diapausing migrators and their predators from the upper ocean aggregate above the neutrally buoyant plumes in summer and resume feeding on plume and bottom upwelled particles resulting in increased zooplankton reproductive output to the upper ocean within the limitations of our sampling methodology net tows reveal a statistically significant exponential decline in total water column biomass with increasing lateral distance from the vent fields the acoustic backscatter data show a similar decline but only below 800 m depth near surface biomass was highly variable throughout the region but values near vents consistently ranged higher than summer values found elsewhere in the offshore northeast pacific water column biomass was similar in magnitude above and below 800 m depth throughout the region because epiplume biomass can be advected a considerable distance from vent fields biomass enhancement of the water column from hydrothermal venting may extend considerable distances to the west and northwest of the vent sites in the prevailing directions of the subsurface flow based on the extensive acoustic doppler current profiler adcp data collected and the strong correlation between zooplankton production derived from net sample biomass and acoustic backscatter intensity we estimate that daily macro zooplankton production in the upper 400 m of the water column within 10 km of the vent fields averages approximately 16 of photosynthetic primary production the z ratio whereas the total water column zooplankton production averages 26 of surface primary production local grazing rate estimates metabolic constraints and other open ocean studies suggest that the z ratio should be no higher than 5 which it is at off axis background sites in the study region this finding indicates that nutrient sources other than upper ocean primary production fuel both upper and deep ocean zooplankton biomass and growth near the endeavour ridge hydrothermal vents

anatomy of north pacific decadal variability abstract a systematic analysis of north pacific decadal variability in a full physics coupled ocean atmosphere model is executed the model is an updated and improved version of the coupled model studied by latif and barnett evidence is sought for determining the details of the mechanism responsible for the enhanced variance of some variables at 20 30 yr timescales the possible mechanisms include a midlatitude gyre ocean atmosphere feedback loop stochastic forcing remote forcing or sampling error decadal variability in the model is expressed most prominently in anomalies of upper ocean streamfunction sea surface temperature sst and latent surface heat flux in the kuroshio oyashio extension koe region off japan the decadal signal off japan is initiated by changes in strength and position of the aleutian low the atmospheric perturbations excite sst anomalies in the central and eastern north pacific with opposing signs and canonical structure the atmospheric perturbations also change the ekm

the liquefaction of clayey soils under cyclic loading abstract this paper seeks to investigate the liquefaction of clayey soils a phenomenon that has been the trigger for many natural disasters in the last few decades including landslides research was conducted on artificial clay sand mixtures and natural clayey soils collected from the sliding surfaces of earthquake induced landslides the undrained response of normally consolidated clayey soils to cyclic loading was studied by means of a ring shear apparatus for the artificial clay sand mixtures it was found that the presence of a small amount of bentonite 7 would cause rapid liquefaction while a further increase in bentonite content 11 produced the opposite effect of raising soil resistance to liquefaction by a significant degree it was demonstrated that the bentonite sand mixture was considerably more resistant to liquefaction than the kaolin and illite mixtures given the same clay content the test results of plastic soils revealed the significant influence of plasticity on the liquefaction resistance of soil the microfabric of clayey soil was investigated by means of a scanning electron microscope the analysis showed that the liquefaction potential of soil was strongly related to certain particle arrangements for example soil vulnerable to liquefaction had an open microfabric in which clay aggregations generally gathered at the sand particle contact points forming low strength clay bridges that were destroyed easily during cyclic loading on the other hand the microfabric of soil that was resistant to liquefaction appeared to be more compact with the clay producing a matrix that prevented sand grains from liquefying in the case of the natural soils the obtained results indicated that their cyclic behavior was similarly influenced by factors such as clay content clay mineralogy and plasticity the relation between the liquefaction potential of natural soil and its microfabric was thus also established on the basis of the obtained results the authors posited an explanation on the mechanism of liquefaction for clayey soil

basin modes in a tropical extratropical basin abstract the full spectrum of basin modes in a tropical extratropical basin is studied comprehensively in a linear shallow water system two sets of least damped basin modes are identified at the low frequency end is the planetary wave basin mode whose period is determined by the cross basin time of the planetary wave on the poleward boundary of the basin consistent with recent theories at the higher frequency end is the kelvin wave basin mode whose period is determined by the around basin traveling time of the kelvin wave sensitivity experiments are also performed on the eigenvalue problem to study the dynamics of these basin modes it is found that the period of the planetary wave basin mode is determined by an effective basin boundary that is always at a latitude no higher than the geometric basin boundary the effective poleward boundary is located at the most poleward latitude where the planetary wave can cross the entire basin it is also found that the kelvin wave basin modes are vulnerable t

middepth flow near hydrothermal venting sites on the southern juan de fuca ridge long term moored current measurements around the southern end of the juan de fuca ridge show that flow parallels the ridge and may be intensified by its presence the mean flow is northward on the west side and southward on the east thus plumes emanating from the ridge probably are advected along the ridge before flowing away from the ridge other topographic features may be responsible for westward or eastward turning along the west side of the ridge we hypothesize a regional flow pattern with southward flow north of axial seamount northward flow south of axial and a convergence somewhere south of axial resulting in westward flow along the east side the flow may be southward everywhere above the ridge crest the long term mean flow is weaker and more variable and it includes tidal inertial and a dominant broadband 4 day oscillation this 4 day energy is maximum in the rift valley where the inertial is least decreases upward and away from the ridge and is more energetic in winter this oscillation is predominately a clockwise rotating feature which along with the presence of inertial oscillations suggests that it may be storm induced from the sea surface these observations along with those by cannon and pashinski 1990 suggest northward propagation flow variations across the ridge lasting one to a few months have mean speeds of 1 3 cm s and are capable of transporting plumes off axis to the west or east into the northerly or southerly flows respectively

the distribution of geothermal fields on the juan de fuca ridge near bottom water temperatures were mapped along 400 km of the strike of the juan de fuca ridge as part of a combined sea marc seabeam experiment to image the variability of morphology and structure along a spreading center segment the water temperature data collected by a continuously towed thermistor chain in addition to salinity data indicate that there are four geothermal areas spaced at distances of 100 km from each other south of the cobb propagator and one field just to the north of the propagator on the endeavor ridge segment each thermal region is located above a morphological dome on the spreading center these domes are an average of 100 200 m shallower than the rest of the axis the structure of bottom water suggests that the geothermal regions are on average 20 km long and that the heat from these fields raises the temperature in the water column by a minimum of 0 06 sup 0 c up to 300 m above the bottom two simple models are used to estimate the heat flux associated with these features

heat and salt fluxes in the atlantis ii deep red sea abstract the atlantis ii deep is located on the red sea axial rift it is a topographic depression enclosing a volume of about 17 km3 between 1 900 m and 2 200 m depth that contains layered brines of temperatures up to 66 c and salinities up to 270 previous geochemical investigations showed that the hot brines result from discharge of hydrothermal solutions that have exchanged heat and chemical components with the basaltic substratum the last investigation of the deep in 1992 showed that the brines occurred in four well mixed layers with the shallowest at a depth of 2 000 m the temperature and salinity profiles describe a transition zone from 2 000 m to 1 900 m above which red sea water occurs the distribution of temperature and salt in this transition zone appears to be controlled by the topography of the deep the hydrographic structure of the brine column has been documented in the literature for seven time intervals between 1966 and 1992 examination of these data shows that the system changed with time the evolution of the entire package of brines that fill the deep shows the following changes 1 the temperature of the brines increased 2 the salinity of the solutions increased 3 the two brine layers described in 1966 still existed in 1992 but new layers appeared above them 4 for 26 years almost all additional heat and salt supplied in the deep were confined to the depression and were not dispersed into the overlying seawater the fourth point indicates that a heat and salt balance for the deep can be calculated the calculation of the heat that entered into the system was divided into two components the temperature increase of the brines and the heat loss at the wall rock the latter component was negligible the rate of heat input to the deep was constant during the period considered and amounted to 0 54 109 w the salt input was also constant and equalled 250 350 kg s during the period 1966 1992 heat and salt were most probably supplied by a hydrothermal solution with an average range of flow rate temperature and salinity of 670 1000 kg s 195 310 c and 270 370 respectively

seismic attenuation structure beneath the juan de fuca ridge from tomographic inversion of amplitudes tomographic inversion of seismic amplitudes for attenuation structure has been applied to first arrival amplitudes from a seismic refraction profile across the juan de fuca ridge to further constrain a velocity structure previously obtained by travel time velocity tomography and to obtain a model for attenuation variations within the shallow crust amplitude analysis has identified an additional boundary defined by a decrease in vertical velocity gradient at 2 0 km subbottom which was not required by the travel time data this transition zone likely represents the oceanic layer 2 layer 3 boundary the analysis also identified zones of relatively high attenuation qe 20 100 at subbottom depths of 0 3 2 0 km beneath the ridge axis which correlate well with low velocity zones velocities reduced by 0 4 km s in the velocity model the subaxial zone is interpreted as a region of increased fracture porosity and or permeability associated with axial hydrothermal circulation within the extrusives and sheeted dike complex

numerical simulation of mean currents and water property anomalies at endeavour ridge hydrothermal versus topographic forcing 1 numerical simulations based on realistic seafloor topography are used to examine near bottom currents in the region of the endeavour segment of juan de fuca ridge endeavour ridge in the northeast pacific results support earlier findings that hydrothermal venting within the 2200 m deep axial valley rather than topographically modified basin scale cross ridge geostrophic flow is responsible for the near steady northward currents observed within the confines of the valley although it does not generate deep flow within the valley the basin scale circulation determines the horizontal redistribution of the hydrothermal plumes once they rise above the ridge crest simulations of the near bottom temperature and salinity fields reveal that model runs that incorporate a deep westward background flow most closely reproduce the observed plume anomaly distributions above the ridge indicating that bottom currents in the region are predominantly westward counter to the prevailing southeasterly flow of the wind driven california current in the upper half of the water column

yield strength ratio and liquefaction analysis of slopes and embankments a procedure is proposed to evaluate the triggering of liquefaction in ground subjected to a static shear stress i e sloping ground using the yield strength ratio su yield v0 thirty liquefaction flow failures were back analyzed to evaluate shear strengths and strength ratios mobilized at the triggering of liquefaction strength ratios mobilized during the static liquefaction flow failures ranged from approximately 0 24 to 0 30 and are correlated to corrected cone and standard penetration resistances these yield strength ratios and previously published liquefied strength ratios are used to develop a comprehensive liquefaction analysis for ground subjected to a static shear stress this analysis addresses 1 liquefaction susceptibility 2 liquefaction triggering and 3 post triggering flow failure stability in particular step 2 uses the yield strength ratio back calculated from flow failure case histories and the cyclic stress method to incorporate seismic loading

measurements of plume flow from a hydrothermal vent field simultaneous velocity temperature and conductivity data were taken in the convective flow emanating from a hydrothermal vent field located at 10 56 n 103 41 w on the east pacific rise the horizontal profiles obtained indicate that the flow field approaches an ideal plume in the temperature and velocity distribution such parameters as total heat flow and maximum plume height can be estimated using either the velocity or the temperature information the results of these independent calculations are in close agreement yielding a total heat flow from this vent site of 3 7 0 8 mw and a maximum height of 150 10 m the nonlinear effects of large temperature variations on heat capacity and volume changes slightly alter the calculations applied to obtain these values

measuring fluid flow and heat output in seafloor hydrothermal environments we have designed built calibrated and tested new anemometer and turbine flow meter devices to measure fluid velocity at high and low temperature focused and diffuse discharge sites at oceanic spreading centers the devices perform at ocean floor depths and black smoker temperatures and can be used to measure flow rates ranging over two orders of magnitude flow velocity is determined from the rotation rate of the rotor blades or paddle assembly these devices have an open bearing design that eliminates clogging by particles or chemical precipitates as the fluid passes by the rotors the devices are compact and lightweight enough for deployment from either an occupied or remotely operated submersible the measured flow rates can be used in conjunction with vent temperature or geochemical measurements to obtain heat outputs or geochemical fluxes from both vent chimneys and diffuse flow regions the devices have been tested on 30 alvin dives on the juan de fuca ridge and 3 jason dives on the east pacific rise epr we report 102 new measurements over a wide range of discharge temperatures 5 363 c velocities 2 199 cm s and depths 1517 2511 m these include the first advective heat output measurements at the high rise vent field and the first direct fluid flow measurement at middle valley our data suggest that black smoker heat output at the main endeavor vent field may have declined since 1994 and that after the 2005 2006 eruption the high temperature advective flow at the epr 9 50 n field may have become more channelized predominately discharging through the bio 9 structure we also report first direct advective measurements in the lau basin and at the epr 9 39 5 n with flow meters that predated devices described in this work and were used in the process of their development we discuss potential error sources and how they may affect the accuracy of measurements by our and other devices in particular we use the turbulent plume theory to evaluate the effect of entrainment of ambient seawater

acoustic doppler current profiler observations of a mid ocean ridge hydrothermal plume on september 10 1987 an oceanic profiling package consisting of a guildline conductivity temperature depth probe ctd seatec transmissometer and rd instruments 150 khz acoustic doppler current profiler adcp was used to investigate the hydrothermal plume emanating from vent sites located at 2200 m depth on the endeavour segment of juan de fuca ridge in the northeast pacific ocean 47 58 n 129 06 w the ctd transmissometer profiles indicate that the plume immediately downstream of the vent site consisted of two 50 m thick particle laden effluent layers separated by a comparably thick zone of relatively particle free ambient fluid the lower 50 m of the water column appeared to be dominated by smaller concentrations of resuspended particles within a benthic boundary layer maximum temperature salinity and light attenuation anomalies within the main core of the plume at 1970 m depth were approximately 0 04 c 0 01 ppt and 0 05 m 1 respectively the adcp measurements represent the first attempt to acoustically map the current shear and backscatter amplitude associated with a mid ocean ridge hydrothermal plume repeated profiles by the adcp revealed that the top of the plume was a region of enhanced current shear with vertical changes in speed of the order of 0 05 m s 1 over depths of approximately 100 m the velocity measurements also indicate that the current reversed from northwest to southwest over the 1 hour observation period consistent with the predicted flow derived from moored current meters recovered immediately prior to the profiler survey contrary to expectation acoustic backscatter signals within the particle laden layers of the plume were lower than background reference levels while echo return amplitudes from the particle free layer were close to background levels time series plots of the amplitude data indicate that the basic layered structure of the plume is disrupted by billowlike features with vertical and horizontal wavelengths of 40 to 60 m and 20 to 40 m respectively we suggest that the weakened acoustic backscatter signals from the effluent layers is linked to a reduction in the numbers of zooplankton relative to the ambient waters

kuroshio extension variability and forcing of the pacific decadal oscillations responses and potential feedback abstract a forcing mechanism is sought for the large scale circulation changes in the kuroshio extension region of the western north pacific ocean as inferred by topex poseidon sea surface height ssh data the low frequency signal of the kuroshio extension over the last decade was characterized by a modulation in its zonal mean flow intensity the mean kuroshio extension jet weakened progressively from 1993 to 1996 and this trend reversed after 1997 the ability to simulate the major trends in the observed ssh signals with linear vorticity dynamics leads the authors to conclude that the modulation in the zonal mean jet was remotely forced by wind stress curl anomalies in the eastern north pacific ocean related to the pacific decadal oscillations pdos to be specific the weakening strengthening trend in 1993 96 1997 2001 was caused by westward expansions of negative positive ssh anomalies south of the kuroshio extension and positive negative ssh anomalies north of the kuroshio extension emerg

compositional variability in the ascending fluxes from a hydrothermal plume 1 sequentially sampling sediment traps set with 33 day sampling intervals were deployed with current meters on three moorings in the northeast pacific ocean between july 1994 and may 1995 one mooring was deployed near the main vent field on endeavour ridge on axis site 47 57 0 n 129 05 7 w a second 3 km west of the main vent site west site and the third 43 km northeast of the main vent site east or background site ascending and descending particles were collected near 1600 and 2000 m depth well above and within the top of laterally spreading hydrothermal plumes the elemental composition of particles was used to evaluate their origins biogenic fluxes were indicated by elevated ca or si hydrothermal fluxes by elevated fe mn and cu and lithogenic fluxes by elevated ti we link temporal variability in both the ascending and descending particle composition and flux to variations in lateral transport of hydrothermal constituents and to seasonal drawdown of hydrothermal plume particles by biogenic material from the upper ocean the relatively low hydrothermal fe content of ascending material late in the experiment is thought to be due to uptake by descending biogenic material these results suggest that seasonal productivity and particle export from the ocean surface can modulate the hydrothermal flux of elements to the waters above and to the sediments below

hydrography and geochemistry of sea surface hydrothermal plumes resulting from hawaiian coastal volcanism the entry of lava into the ocean at kilauea volcano hawaii has produced extensive sea surface hydrothermal plumes studies at this site over 1989 1991 showed that particle rich chemically altered thermal plumes of 1 3 m thickness can be mapped for distances up to 2 km from the entries using an array of physical and chemical tracers particle concentrations in the plumes were as high as 65 mg l 1 and produced light attenuation anomalies exceeding 11 m 1 the maximum observed seawater temperature was 69 c the following extremes in plume chemical markers were measured h2 2 1 m dissolved mn 320 nm dissolved si 55 m co2 1 6 mm alkalinity 1 5 meq l 1 and ph 7 1 dissolved h2 linearly increased and co2 ph and total alkalinity decreased with increasing seawater temperature dissolved mn and si also increased with increasing temperature but were better correlated with each other indicating that heat is not conserved in the surface plumes heat and mass inputs to the ocean are comparable to those from mid ocean ridge crest vent fields

microearthquakes on the endeavour segment of the juan de fuca ridge 1 we report the results of a 55 day microearthquake experiment on the endeavour segment of juan de fuca ridge the network covered a 5 km section of the ridge axis centered on the main vent field and extended 15 km off axis on the west flank the ridge axis and flanks were seismically active and 1750 earthquakes were located with a minimum of five travel time picks including at least one s wave over half the earthquakes occurred in swarms and a waveform cross correlation technique was used to obtain relative locations on the western flank the hypocenters for four swarms at midcrustal depths are compatible with steeply dipping fault planes that strike at 035 050 n and oblique to the abyssal hills focal mechanisms determined from p wave first motions and p s amplitude ratios are predominantly strike slip with north south compression and appear to be affected by the reorganization of the explorer plate earthquakes beneath the ridge axis are concentrated in a band of intense seismicity at 1 5 3 5 km depth to the north of high rise vent field the seismicity defines a plane striking parallel to the ridge axis and dipping east at 70 and the earthquakes appear to extend beneath an axial reflector previously imaged at 2 3 km depth farther south the hypocenters are not compatible with a single fault plane focal mechanisms are characterized by subhorizontal tension axes oriented in all directions except parallel to the ridge and suggest a stress field that is about equally influenced by ridge spreading and hydrothermal cooling

low frequency basin modes in a two layer quasigeostrophic model in the presence of a mean gyre flow the spectrum of baroclinic basin modes is investigated in a two layer wind driven quasigeostrophic model through weakly nonlinear multiple time scale expansion in the burger number the baroclinic basin modes are mainly advected by a barotropic steady sverdrup flow emphasis is given to the regularizing influence of dispersion rather than to dissipation in the inviscid large scale limit that is for basin scale considerably larger than the rossby radius of deformation all of the basin modes are neutral their typology is then numerically examined with some necessary dissipation and their frequency and spatial properties are discussed three types of modes arise for some wind forcing strong enough to produce a recirculating gyre with closed geostrophic contours the classical rossby basin modes deformed by the mean flow shadow modes stationary modes and recirculating pool modes the two latter being trapped in the closed contours pool focus is made here on the recirculating modes that could have very low frequencies for moderate recirculating gyres strong gyres lead to higher frequencies and recirculating modes resonate with deformed rossby basin modes

bottom trapped subinertial motions over midocean ridges in a stratified rotating fluid abstract linear analytical solutions for bottom trapped subinertial oscillatory flow over simple ridge topographies in a stratified two layer rotating fluid are presented results are compared to moored current meter observations of bottom intensified motions over the endeavour segment of juan de fuca ridge in the northeast pacific the solutions reproduce many of the observed features including preferential amplification of the clockwise rotary component of velocity over the ridge and increased velocity amplification with proximity to the ridge crest for a given internal deformation radius the degree of current amplification increases with increased bottom slope ridge height and oscillation frequency amplification decreases with increased width of the ridge relative to the deformation radius

long term monitoring of hydrothermal heat flux using moored temperature sensors cleft segment juan de fuca ridge heat flux from submarine vent fields can vary gradually on interannual scales or nearly instantaneously in response to volcano tectonic events in the underlying crust neither case is well documented because measurements of vent field scale heat flux are scarce we report here a new approach to hydrothermal plume monitoring sensitive to both progressive changes and hydrothermal events from june 1991 to may 1992 we moored 35 self contained temperature sensors and six current meters on seven moorings located in and around the plume from a vent field on the cleft segment juan de fuca ridge the hydrothermal plume was identified by a local temperature anomaly of 0 01 to 0 03 c in the lowermost 200 m of the water column plume heat flux defined as the net advection of this temperature anomaly averaged about 250 mw during the deployment this flux is less than previous estimates and thus supports speculation that the heat flux is declining after a sudden reinvigoration triggered by a seafloor rifting event in 1986

a 6 year time series of hydrothermal plumes over the cleft segment of the juan de fuca ridge the causal links between magmatic tectonic processes and hydrothermal venting along the mid ocean ridge axis will be difficult to discern without broadband observations of the temporal variability of hydrothermal activity i report here on temporal variability in the intensity and distribution of chronic and event plumes generated by continuous and episodic hydrothermal discharge at two vent fields on the cleft segment of the juan de fuca ridge hydrothermal temperature and light attenuation c anomalies were comprehensively mapped between 1 and 4 times per year during nine cruises from 1986 to 1991 intensity of and c in the chronic plume overlying the north cleft vent field showed more variability between years than within a given year both and c were exceptionally high in 1986 fell to moderate levels during 1988 to 1990 and declined to minimum values in 1991 the chronic plume over the south cleft vent field varied similarly superimposed on the chronic plumes were brief and intense releases of hydrothermal fluid that created event plumes distinguishable by their symmetry and exceptional rise height event plumes at the north cleft field ranged from the 1986 megaplume with a rise height exceeding 1000 m to smaller events in 1987 and 1989 with rise heights of 400 m chronic hydrothermal heat 660 277 1 mw and mass 204 86 1 g s 1 fluxes from the north cleft field were determined by assuming these fluxes were equivalent to the long term net advection of a mean cross section of the vertically integrated and c in the plume this 6 year history of hydrothermal plumes indicates that episodic discharge has been an important component of the recent hydrothermal flux and that the aggregate heat and mass fluxes declined significantly though not consistently between 1986 and 1991

hydrothermal plumes along the east pacific rise 8 40 to 11 50 n plume distribution and relationship to the apparent magmatic budget abstract the interactions between hydrothermal circulation and large scale geological and geophysical characteristics of the mid ocean ridge cannot be ascertained without large scale views of the pattern of hydrothermal venting such multi ridge segment surveys of venting are accomplished most efficiently by mapping the distribution and intensity of hydrothermal plumes in november 1991 we mapped hydrothermal temperature and light attenuation c anomalies above the east pacific rise epr continuously from 8 40 to 11 50 n a fast spreading ridge crest portion bisected by the clipperton transform fault plume distributions show a precise correlation with the distribution of active vents where video coverage of the axial caldera is exhaustive 9 09 54 n elsewhere in the study area the sketchy knowledge of vent locations gleaned from scattered camera tows predicts only poorly the large scale hydrothermal pattern revealed by our plume studies plumes were most intense between 9 42 and 9 54 n directly over a march april 1991 seafloor eruption these plumes had exceptionally high c ratios compared to the rest of the study area we suggest that the phase separated gas rich vent fluids discharging here fertilize an abundant population of bacteria hydrothermal plume distributions define three categories intense and continuous 8 48 8 58 n 9 29 10 01 n and 11 05 11 27 n weak and discontinuous 8 58 9 29 n and negligible the location of each category is virtually congruent with areas that are respectively magmatically robust magmatically weak and magmatically starved as inferred from previous measurements of axial bathymetric undulations cross axis inflation and magma chamber depth and continuity this congruency implies a fine scale spatial and temporal connection between magmatic fluctuations and hydrothermal venting we thus speculate that at least along this fast spreading section of the epr cyclic replenishment eruption and freezing of the thin axial melt lens exerts greater control over hydrothermal venting than the more enduring zones of crystal mush and hot rock we found intense and continuous plumes along 33 of the surveyed ridge crest an observation implying that any point on the ridge is on average hydrothermally active one third of the time combining this result with the 20 plume coverage found along the medium rate juan de fuca ridge suggests that superfast 150 mm yr spreading ridges should support vigorous venting along 50 of their length if spreading rate and along axis plume coverage are linearly related

composition and dissolution of black smoker particulates from active vents on the juan de fuca ridge during two atlantis ii alvin cruises to the juan de fuca ridge in 1984 active high temperature 140 284 c vents were sampled for black smoker particulates using the grassle pump individual mineral phases were identified using standard x ray diffraction and petrographic procedures in addition elemental compositions and particle morphologies were determined by x ray energy spectrometry and scanning electron microscope x ray energy spectrometry techniques the vent particulates from the southern juan de fuca ridge vent sites were highly enriched in s si fe zn and cu and were primarily composed of sphalerite wurtzite pyrite pyrrhotite barite chalcopyrite cubanite hydrous iron oxides and elemental sulfur two additional unidentified phases which were prevalent in the samples included an fe si phase and a ca si phase the grain sizes of the individual particle phases ranged from 100 m for the fe si particles grain size and current meter data were used in a deposition model of individual phase dispersal for many of the larger sulfide and sulfate particles the model predicts dispersal to occur over length scales of only several hundreds of meters the high temperature black smokers from the more northerly endeavour segment vents were highly enriched in fe s ca cu and zn and were primarily composed of anhydrite chalcopyrite sphalerite barite sulfur pyrite and other less abundant metal sulfide minerals the grain sizes of the individual particles ranged from 10 m to slightly larger than 500 m the composition and size distributions of the mineral phases are highly suggestive of high temperature mixing between vent fluids and seawater a series of field and laboratory studies were conducted to determine the rates of dissolution of several sulfate and sulfide minerals the dissolution rates ranged over more than 3 orders of magnitude from 3 2 10 8 cm s 1 for anhydrite to 1 2 10 12 cm s 1 for chalcopyrite the results indicate that for some minerals particularly anhydrite and marcasite total dissolution occurs within a few hours to a few weeks of their formation for other more stable minerals including pyrite sphalerite and chalcopyrite the time required for total dissolution is much longer and consequently individual crystals may be expected to persist in the sediments for considerable periods of time after deposition

wind driven shifts in the latitude of the kuroshio oyashio extension and generation of sst anomalies on decadal timescales abstract the causes of decadal variations of north pacific sea surface temperatures ssts are examined using a hindcast performed with an ocean general circulation model thermodynamically coupled to an atmospheric mixed layer model ogcm aml model and forced by the time history of observed surface winds the shift in north pacific ocean climate that occurred around 1976 77 is focused on since this is the best observed example available after the 1976 77 shift the aleutian low deepened and moved to the southeast of its previous position this placed anomalous cyclonic flow over the north pacific the sst response as simulated by the ocean model consisted of two components a fast and local part and a delayed and remote part in the central pacific stronger westerlies cool the ocean by increased equatorward ekman drift here the dynamical cooling is sufficiently large that the surface fluxes damp the sst anomaly this ekman response is fast and local and cools the ssts beginning in 1977 and persistin

a model of an atlantic and pacific hydrothermal plume a turbulent entrainment model of a hydrothermal plume was modified to include the effects of vertical structure in the background temperature and salinity fields owing to the stably stratified salinity field in the pacific relatively warm salty water spreads at an equilibrium level where the plume density equals the ambient density in contrast the unstable salinity profile in the atlantic gives the plume added buoyancy and it continues to rise to an equilibrium level where it is relatively cool and fresh these attributes result from the mixing between the plume and the surrounding seawater at each level below the spreading layer the equilibrium temperature anomaly is not directly proportional to the source strength but depends on the mixing and background salinity gradient the net entrainment of surrounding seawater is greater in the atlantic plume model than in the pacific plume model for the same buoyancy flux recent data from the tag hydrothermal field at 26 n on the mid atlantic ridge and data from a vent field on the endeavor segment of the juan de fuca ridge are compared to model results the model predicts the penetration height and s characteristics of the atlantic plume and it explains some of the differences between the observed atlantic and pacific hydrothermal plumes

constrained circulation at endeavour ridge facilitates colonization by vent larvae understanding how larvae from extant hydrothermal vent fields colonize neighbouring regions of the mid ocean ridge system remains a major challenge in oceanic research1 2 among the factors considered important in the recruitment of deep sea larvae are metabolic lifespan the connectivity of the seafloor topography and the characteristics of the currents3 here we use current velocity measurements from endeavour ridge to examine the role of topographically constrained circulation on larval transport along ridge we show that the dominant tidal and wind generated currents in the region are strongly attenuated within the rift valley that splits the ridge crest and that hydrothermal plumes rising from vent fields in the valley drive a steady near bottom inflow within the valley extrapolation of these findings suggests that the suppression of oscillatory currents within rift valleys of mid ocean ridges shields larvae from cross axis dispersal into the inhospitable deep ocean this effect augmented by plume driven circulation within rift valleys having active hydrothermal venting helps retain larvae near their source larvae are then exported preferentially down ridge during regional flow events that intermittently over ride the currents within the valley

geochemistry and morphology of metalliferous sediments and oxyhydroxides from the endeavour segment juan de fuca ridge abstract we present first data on the geochemistry mineralogy and morphology of near vent sediments 35 and 200 m from active vent and ridge flank sediments approximately 3 km from the vent field as well as oxyhydroxide deposits from the endeavour segment juan de fuca ridge the purpose of the study was to understand better the origin and characteristic features of metalliferous sediments associated with base and precious metal massive sulfides in volcanic terrains hydrothermal components in sediments are fe si s rich and mn fe si rich phases sulfides and barite which were exclusively derived from plume fallout sulfides are only a minor constituent of near vent sediments 2 4 wt and were not detected in ridge flank sediments the study suggests that the distribution of hydrothermal phases and associated elements in near vent and ridge flank sediments is affected mainly by processes of agglomeration dissolution absorption and settling that take place within a plume and to a lesser extent post depositional processes rapid deposition of sulfides in the vicinity of the vents is reflected in a sharp drop of the cu concentrations in sediments with increasing distance from the vents besides sulfides important carriers of pb cu zn and co in near vent sediments are fe mn oxyhydroxides that occur together with silica as aggregates of gel like material and flaky particles and as coatings on filaments away from the vents trace metals are mostly in fe mn oxyhydroxides and authigenic fe rich montmorillonite oxyhydroxides at the main endeavour field are interpreted to have originated from oxidation of mound sulfides accompanied by precipitation of primary fe oxyhydroxide silica from low temperature fluids at the mothra field seafloor deposits and chimney crusts composed of fe oxyhydroxide mn silica are considered to be direct precipitates from hydrothermal fluids that have been less diluted with seawater oxyhydroxide deposits exhibit unique microtextures that resemble mineralized microorganisms and may indicate existence of diverse microbial communities

use of breeding to detect and explain instabilities in the global ocean 1 the breeding method of toth and kalnay finds the perturbations that grow naturally in a dynamical system like the atmosphere or the ocean here breeding is applied to a global ocean model forced by reanalysis winds in order to identify instabilities of weekly and monthly timescales this study extends the method to show how the energy equations for the bred vectors can be derived with only very minimal approximations and used to assess the physical mechanisms that give rise to the instabilities tropical instability waves in the tropical pacific are diagnosed confirming the existence of bands of both baroclinic and barotropic energy conversions indicated earlier by masina et al and others in the south atlantic convergence zone the bred vector energy analysis shows that there is kinetic to potential ocean eddy energy conversion suggesting that the growing instabilities found in this area are forced by the wind

decadal north pacific bred vectors in a coupled gcm a number of recent studies done with simple numerical models suggest that the decadal variability in the extratropical north pacific ocean is a result of the excitation of low frequency ocean basin modes to test this assumption low frequency north pacific variability was examined using a state of the art coupled general circulation model cgcm earlier studies had shown that slowly varying dynamical modes in a cgcm can be effectively isolated using the breeding technique in this study the breeding method was applied to the center for ocean land atmosphere studies cola anomaly coupled gcm acgcm and it was found that several types of slow modes can be isolated depending on the parameters of the breeding cycle tropical bred vector sst and upper ocean heat content are dominated by the enso which is consistent with the results obtained earlier using other cgcms extratropical bred vector upper ocean heat content is dominated by oceanic instability localized east of japan varying on seasonal to interannual time scales and decadal modes with the large scale pattern over the central and eastern extratropical north pacific similar to ocean basin modes the decadal modes have a signature of westward propagating long baroclinic rossby waves but do not exhibit the global imprint typical for global basin modes the relationship between the decadal bred vectors and the background anomalies is consistent with linear damped dynamics presumably the growth of the decadal bred vectors is due to the atmospheric stochastic forcing but the existence of extratropical instability on decadal time scales still needs to be verified

evidence for a weakly stratified europan ocean sustained by seafloor heat flux we interpret chaos type features on the surface of europa as melt through structures formed by rotationally confined steady and or episodic oceanic plumes that rise to the base of the ice shell from magmatically heated regions of the seafloor smaller lenticular features in the vicinity of chaos type regions might be formed by baroclinically unstable vortices that spin off the main convective plume or by persistent heating from localized hydrothermal venting sites the ocean is assumed to be weakly stratified because of turbulent convection generated by heating from below and cooling from above seafloor heating maintained by tidal dissipation in the rocky interior generates an estimated global heat flux of 8 7 1012 w and limits the mean ice thickness to 2 5 km for seafloor heat sources with radii r that are less than the ocean s deformation radius rd nd n is the brunt vaisala frequency d is the water depth and is the coriolis parameter the diameters of chaos type regions are expected to diminish from o 100 km within equatorial regions to o 10 km at high latitudes assuming spatially uniform water depth and density structure where r rd the scale of the source region determines the scale of the melt through features provided there is sufficient time before refreezing ice rafts in large melt through regions are imbedded in episodes of preferentially anticyclonic circulation corresponding to clockwise counterclockwise motions in the northern southern hemisphere we calculate that 1021 j were required to melt the ice in the 100 km diameter conamara chaos region and that for a steady localized heat flux f 1011 w 1 of the global heat flux it took 1000 years for the initial melt through to occur assuming that ice raft displacements in conamara chaos occurred during a major melt through event maximum current speeds in the region were o 10 cm s 1 and refreezing occurred within 20 hours a lack of well defined ice drift in other major melt through regions suggests that these regions formed through episodes of melting and refreezing that modified the existing structure but left little time for the establishment of organized advective motion

equivalent granular void ratio for characterization of singapore s old alluvium characterization of the old alluvium oa formation in singapore is difficult due to its natural heterogeneity the oa formation was deposited by a braided river system and it exhibits a wide range of engineering properties its strength and stiffness at a given depth within a few metres distance horizontally may differ by an order of magnitude and this cannot be explained by differences in void ratio alone the formation consists of sand silt and clay particles in varying proportions with no consistent relation with depth since the majority of oa is sand mixed with fines silt and clay the concept of granular void ratio which treats silt and clay particles as void was first introduced to try to characterize the formation though the concept of the granular void ratio was more useful than that of the void ratio it could not take into consideration the different contributions that nonplastic silt fines and plastic clay fines make to the shear strength and thus was found to be inappropriate for

growth of large sulfide structures on the endeavour segment of the juan de fuca ridge abstract mapping and sampling with dsrv alvin has established that sulfide blocks 0 5 m across dredged from the axial valley of the endeavour segment at 47 57 n are samples of unusually large sulfide structures the steep sided structures up to 30 m in length 20 m in height and 10 15 m across are localized by venting along normal faults at the base of the western axial valley wall and are distributed for about 200 m along strike paralleling the 020 trend of the ridge crest high temperature fluids 350 to more than 400 c pass through the massive sulfide structures and enter seawater through small concentric nozzle like features projecting from the top or the sides of the larger vent structures diffuse low temperature flow is pervasive in the vicinity of the active sulfide structures exiting from basalt and sulfide surfaces alike evidence of recent volcanic activity is sparse the two largest samples taken with the dredge would not have been recoverable using the submersible these samples represent massive complex portions of the sulfide structures which were not closely associated with rapid high temperature fluid flow at the time of sampling they contain textural evidence of sealed hydrothermal fluid exit channels mineralogy is dominated by fe sulfides nnd amorphous silica pyrite marcasite wurtzite chalcopyrite and iss are the most common sulfide phases pyrrhotite galena and sphalerite are present in trace amounts barite amorphous silica and chalcedony are the only non sulfide phases anhydrite is not observed in any of the dredge samples although it is common in the chimney like samples recovered by alvin specific mineralogical textural zones within the dredge samples are anaoogous to individual layers in east pacific rise at 21 n and southern juan de fuca ridge samples with two exceptions a coarse grained highly porous fe sulfide rich interior containing sulfidized tubeworm casts and a 2 5 cm thick zone near the outer margin of the samples dominated by late stage amorphous silica the porous interior may have formed by dendritic crystal growth from a slowly circulating fluid within a large enclosed chamber the amorphous silica deposited from a seawater hydrothermal fluid mixture percolating slowly through the walls of the enclosed chamber conductive cooling of the fluid as it traversed the walls allowed amorphous silica to precipitate these silica rich zones are the densest most durable portions of the structures and may be responsible for the lasting stability of the large sulfide features observations in these samples are consistent with two distinct phases of development phase 1 is analogous to chimney growth and construction at 21 n and ends when flow channels become sealed to rapid flow of through going fluid the flow is evidently redirected within the structure phase 2 includes dissolution of anhydrite and precipitation of amorphous silica during conductive cooling of sluggishly circulating hydrothermal fluid or seawater hydrothermal fluid mixtures evolution of vent structures through phase 2 allows lateral and vertical growth of unusually large structures

plume dispersed hydrothermal particles a time series record of settling flux from the endeavour ridge using moored sensors abstract settling particles collected with moored sediment traps near an area of active hydrothermal venting in the northeast pacific ocean provide information about the deep sea distribution of hydrothermal material results of an 8 day near field single trap experiment and a 340 day multi instrument 5 trap deployment two kilometers from the endeavour ridge vent field show variability in the quantity and composition of the plume to sediment particle flux over time with depth and with distance from the vent field hydrothermal elemental fluxes vary by a factor of two among the four sampling intervals of the longer experiment a factor of three variation in fe s among these periods reflects temporal changes in phase composition changes in flux with depth for example a 200 fold increase in cu and zn between above and below plume traps are evidence of hydrothermal input comparison of fluxes determined in the near and far field experiments reveals the spatial influence of vent effluent near field particle flux exceeds that measured two kilometers away by a factor of 10 to 20 and is relatively enriched in fe cu and organic carbon but depleted in mn calculations of the residence time of the plume with respect to settling indicate that more than 90 percent of the particulate material is transported farther than two kilometers from the vent field interpretation of elemental mineralogical and grain size analyses suggest that chemical precipitation kinetics other physical and biological particle forming processes changes in vent output and lateral transport of hydrothermal material by abyssal currents are tenable explanations for our observations our findings suggest that these rate interdependent processes be included in realistic models of hydrothermal particle flux

methane in aging hydrothermal plumes methane concentration and the stable carbon isotopic composition 13 c ch4 were measured in aging hydrothermal plume waters originating at the endeavour segment juan de fuca ridge ch4 concen trations decreased systematically from 600 nm at on axis stations to 11 nm at a distal station 15 km off axis background ch4 concentrations are 2 nm ch4 behaves nonconservatively in plume waters and does not correlate with conservative parameters such as temperature anomaly but is highly correlated with nh4 and total dissolvable mn 13 c ch4 values for plume depth samples varies inversely and significantly r 2 0 89 with methane concentrations normalized to some 13 c ch4 values 1 8 and 10 9 measured at the 15 km off axis station are among the heaviest yet reported from a natural marine environment less than 5 of original hydrothermal methane remains in the plume at this station the data are consistent with extensive microbial methane oxidation a narrow range of fractionation factors rc 1 0072 to 1 0077 was calculated for the endeavour samples these fractionation factors are less than those reported by coleman et al 1981 but fall near the trend line of their rc versus temperature data when extrapolated to plume water temperature 2 c copyright 2002 elsevier science ltd

physical characteristics of the endeavour ridge hydrothermal plume during july 1988 abstract we conducted ctd transmissometer tows from 8 to 26 july 1988 within 15 km of the central hydrothermal vent site 47 57 n 129 06 w on the endeavour segment of juan de fuca ridge anomalies of temperature salinity and light attenuation reveal possible new vent sites 4 and 8 km northeast and 6 km south of the central vent site as a result of widespread plume dispersion background values of potential temperature salinity and light attenuation below the 1900 m depth exceeded those for pristine ambient waters by 0 05 c 0 05 psu and 0 03 m 1 respectively maximum plume anomalies relative to the background waters were of the order of 0 10 c 0 010 psu and 0 10 m 1 at core depths of 2000 2050 m heat and salt anomalies were detectable more than 5 km from the central vent site whereas light attenuation particle anomalies were confined to within 2 5 km of the vent site based on the background water property anomalies and moored current meter records the mean time averaged heat fluxes for the survey region were 2 3 1 5 10 8 w in the along ridge direction 20 t and 7 7 4 7 10 8 w in the cross ridge direction 110 t mean along and cross ridge salt fluxes were 7 5 and 25 15 kg s 1 mean particle fluxes were 0 09 0 06 and 0 29 0 18 kg s 1 estimates of the instantaneous fluxes derived from coincident current and plume measurements indicate that heat fluxes from the central vent field may have been as high as1 2 0 6 10 10 w and corresponding particulate fluxes as high as6 3 kg s 1

enso like interdecadal variability 1900 93 a number of recent studies have reported an enso like eof mode in the global sea surface temperature sst field whose time variability is marked by an abrupt change toward a warmer tropical eastern pacific and a colder extratropical central north pacific in 1976 77 the present study compares this pattern with the structure of the interannual variability associated with the enso cycle and documents its time history back to 1900 the analysis is primarily based on the leading eofs of the sst anomaly and anomaly deviation fields in various domains and the associated expansion coefficient or principal component time series which are used to construct global regression maps of sst sea level pressure slp and a number of related variables the use of anomaly deviations i e departures of local sst anomalies from the concurrent global mean sst anomaly reduces the influence of global mean sst trends upon the structure of the eofs and their expansion coefficient time series an important auxiliary time series used in this study is a southern oscillation index based on marine surface observations by means of several different analysis techniques the time variability of the leading eof of the global sst field is separated into two components one identified with the enso cycle related variability on the interannual timescale and the other a linearly independent residual comprising all the interdecadal variability in the record the two components exhibit rather similar spatial signatures in the global sst slp and wind stress fields the sst signature in the residual variability is less equatorially confined in the eastern pacific and it is relatively more prominent over the extratropical north pacific the corresponding slp signature is also stronger over the extratropical north pacific and its counterpart in the cold season 500 mb height field more closely resembles the pna pattern the amplitude time series of the enso like pattern in the residual variability reflects the above mentioned shift in 1976 77 as well as a number of other prominent features including a shift of opposite polarity during the 1940s

evidence for a wind driven intensification of the kuroshio current extension from the 1970s to the 1980s the spatial and temporal characteristics of oceanic thermal variations in the mixed layer and main thermocline of the midlatitude north pacific are distinctive suggesting different physical origins within the main thermocline 400 m depth the variability is dominated by a westward intensified pattern of decadal scale indicative of enhanced eastward geostrophic flow along the southern flank of the kuroshio current extension during the 1980s relative to the 1970s the authors argue that the decadal scale change in the strength of the kuroshio extension was a result of the dynamical adjustment of the oceanic circulation to a decadal variation in wind stress curl according to sverdrup theory four times daily wind stress fields from the national center for atmospheric research national centers for environmental prediction reanalysis project are used to compute the decadal change in sverdrup transport associated with the 1976 77 climate transition it is shown that the decadal changes in sverdrup transport inferred from the wind stress curl field and in observed geostrophic flow inferred from the upper ocean thermal field are consistent both in terms of spatial pattern and magnitude the decadal change in depth averaged geostrophic transport along the kuroshio extension referenced to 1 km is 11 6 sv similar to the sverdrup transport change 11 5 13 9 sv the decadal scale thermocline variation along the western boundary between 308 and 408n exhibits a lag of approximately 4 5 yr relative to the decadal variation in the basin wide wind stress curl pattern this delay may be indicative of the transient adjustment of the gyre scale circulation to a change in wind stress curl via long baroclinic rossby waves

chemical reaction rates and entrainment within the endeavour ridge hydrothermal plume the aging of the hydrothermal plume over the endeavour segment of the juan de fuca ridge was estimated by measuring the222rn3he ratio in the plume as it dispersed despite uncertainties in the source function of hydrothermal input it wa determined that the relative sequence of removal from the plume ish2 c 222rn ch4 mn where c is a measure of particle concentration and the mean life of222rn is 5 5 days h2 is removed from the plume within hours of input while mn is not removed within the two week timescale of the radon helium clock entrainment of bottom water within the buoyant plume may introduce additional chemical signatures into the spreading effluent layer over that which would be introduced by hydrothermal discharge alone this is particularly significant for those chemical species which are not greatly enriched in the vent fluids relative to bottom water concentration and which display a nutrient like profile in the deep ocean thus we found that significant fractions of the si and226ra anomalies in the plume were not of hydrothermal origin but were derived from entrained bottom water which has a higher concentration of these elements than ambient water at plume height

predicting western north pacific ocean climate abstract it is shown that wintertime sea surface temperature anomalies in the confluence region of the kuroshio oyashio currents in the western north pacific can be skillfully predicted at lead times of up to 3 yr the predictions are based on the history of the wind stress over the north pacific and oceanic rossby wave dynamics the predictions may be exploitable in fisheries research and other ecological applications

hydrothermal plume dynamics on europa implications for chaos formation 1 hydrothermal plumes may be responsible for transmitting radiogenic or tidally generated heat from europa s rocky interior through a liquid ocean to the base of its ice shell this process has been implicated in the formation of chaos regions and lenticulae by melting or exciting convection in the ice layer in contrast to earlier work we argue that europa s ocean should be treated as an unstratified fluid we have adapted and expanded upon existing work describing buoyant plumes in a rotating unstratified environment we discuss the scaling laws governing the flow and geometry of plumes on europa and perform a laboratory experiment to obtain scaling constants and to visualize plume behavior in a europa like parameter regime we predict that hydrothermal plumes on europa are of a lateral scale at least 25 50 km comparable to large chaos regions they are too broad to be responsible for the formation of individual lenticulae plume heat fluxes 0 1 10 w m 2 are too weak to allow complete melt through of the ice layer current speeds in the plume 3 8 mm s are much slower than indicated by previous studies the observed movement of ice blocks in the conamara chaos region is unlikely to be driven by such weak flow index terms 6218 planetology solar system objects jovian satellites 5418 planetology solid surface planets heat flow 5430 planetology solid surface planets interiors 8147 4540 oceanography physical ice mechanics and air sea ice exchange processes 4568 oceanography physical turbulence diffusion and mixing processes keywords chaos europa hydrothermal plumes

experimental study on the shearing behavior of saturated silty soils based on ring shear tests the shearing behavior of saturated silty soils has been examined extensively by performing undrained and partially drained the upper drainage valve of the shear box was open during shearing ring shear tests on mixtures of a sandy silt with different loess contents by performing tests at different initial void ratios the shear behavior of these silty soils at different initial void ratios is presented and discussed undrained shear test results showed that the liquefaction phenomena in ring shear tests were limited within the shear zone for a given void ratio or interfine void ratio both the peak and steady state shear strengths decreased with increase of loess content the partially drained shear tests revealed that a great reduction in the shear strength could result after the shear failure due to the buildup of excess pore water pressure within the shear zone the magnitude of reduction in shear strength after failure was affected by the initial void ratio the shear speed after failure as well as the loess content in the sample for a given void ratio or interfine void ratio with increase of loess content the drained peak shear strength became smaller while the brittleness index became greater it was also found that due to localized shearing the permeability of the soil within the shear box after drained shearing could be three orders of magnitude smaller than before shearing

hydrothermal plumes over the carlsberg ridge indian ocean 1 indian ocean ridges north of the rodriguez triple junction remain poorly explored for seafloor hydrothermal activity with only two active sites confirmed north of 25 s we conducted water column surveys and sampling in 2007 and 2009 to search for hydrothermal plumes over a segment of the carlsberg ridge here we report evidence for two separate vent fields one near 3 42 n 63 40 e and another near 3 41 5 n 63 50 e on a segment that is apparently sparsely magmatic both sites appear to be located on off axis highs at the top of the southern axial valley wall at depths of 3600 m or shallower 1000 m above the valley floor at the 63 40 e site plume sampling found local maxima in light scattering temperature anomaly oxidation reduction potential orp dissolved mn and3he no water samples are available from the 63 50 e site but it showed robust light scattering and orp anomalies at multiple depths implying multiple sources orp anomalies are very short lived so the strong signals at both sites suggest that fluid sources lie within a few kilometers or less from the plume sampling locations although ultramafic rocks have been recovered near these sites the light scattering and dissolved mn anomalies imply that the plumes do not arise from a system driven solely by exothermic serpentinization e g lost city instead the source fluids may be a product of both ultramafic and basaltic gabbroic fluid rock interaction similar to the rainbow and logatchev fields on the mid atlantic ridge

undrained behaviour of clayey sands in load controlled triaxial tests an experimental investigation of the untrained behaviour of a sand with small amounts of kaolin at moderate to large strains was carried out using a computer controlled triaxial cell the specimens were prepared by wet tamping using a sand obtained from southern mexico mixed with 3 5 and 7 kaolin by weight the testing programme concentrated on the study of normally consolidated samples subjected to different effective stress ratios during consolidation shearing was applied in compression and extension stiffness strength and the capability for generating pore pressures depend on the initial intergranular void ratio on the position of the stress state after consolidation relative to the failure envelope and on the loading path the intergranular void ratio and the normalized stress state at the onset of structural collapse and at the point of minimum strength are used to interpret the results using modifying factors that account for the effect of the consolidation stress ratio and the loading path

artefacts of isotropic inversion applied to magnetotelluric data from an anisotropic earth summary 2 d isotropic approaches are standard for magnetotelluric mt data modelling and inversion unfortunately the real subsurface structure is not isotropic everywhere and one should be aware of the possible consequences of applying an isotropic inversion to data from an anisotropic earth the work presented herein was motivated by discovering an unusual mid to lower crust conductor that appeared to be bent downward into the lithospheric mantle compared to the neighbouring terranes when applying routine 2 d isotropic inversion one major difference between the terranes is the presence of the okavango giant mafic dyke swarm northeastern botswana beneath which the conductor is imaged to be in the lithospheric mantle rather than the lower crust the limited width of the dykes makes them an anisotropic feature rather than a normal 2 d structure at mt scale to examine the possible effects of the dykes synthetic data were generated from an 1 d model accounting for the dyke swarm by using an anisotropic block and then inverted isotropically the synthetic tests showed that the normal 2 d decomposition and strike analysis techniques are not removing these large scale anisotropic effects and that an isotropic inversion result obtained in the presence of an anisotropic structure has to be treated with caution the comparison of the synthetic data with the presented case history strongly suggests that the lithospheric depths of the conductor is an artefact and it is most likely located in the lower crust as everywhere else in the area focused anisotropic inversion of the dyke swarm area supports the assumption of a crustal anisotropic structure related to the okavango dyke swarm that affects the isotropic inversion results

the rainbow hydrothermal plume 36 15 n mar the rainbow hydrothermal plume was discovered during a recent geophysical survey along 200 km of the mid atlantic ridge mar sw of the azores triple junction in which at least seven new sites of hydrothermal activity were identified here we present the first hydrographic study of the rainbow plume 36 15 n the strongest of the features located during that survey the plume is detectable from real time in situ nephelometer anomalies and extends 10 15km w e in a non transform discontinuity ntd between two adjacent ridge segments maximum anomalies in the rainbow plume indicate particle enrichments at least as large as those seen directly above the trans atlantic geotraverse tag vent field 26 n mar analysis of hydrographic data indicates a vent source at rainbow with a thermal output of up to 98 mw representing 140 of the thermal output previously attributed to tag both lines of evidence indicate the rainbow plume to be the strongest such feature yet found on the mar

estimation of heat and chemical fluxes from a seafloor hydrothermal vent field using radon measurements the circulation of seawater through newly formed ocean crust at mid ocean ridge spreading centres is important in the oceanic heat and chemical budgets the heat transfer in submarine hydrothermal systems accounts for 25 of the total global heat loss1 the transfer of mass resulting from basaltic alteration affects the geochemistry of seawater2 and is responsible for the formation of ore deposits on and beneath the seafloor3 various geophysical techniques have been employed in efforts to determine the heat output from hydrothermal vent fields4 9 however the magnitudes of the heat and chemical fluxes through these systems remain uncertain here we introduce a geochemical approach for estimating the flux from a vent field based on radon 222rn measurements in the overlying effluent plume this method was applied successfully in september 1986 during a 23 day expedition to an active vent field on the 170 km endeavour segment of the juan de fuca ridge fig la we estimate the heat flux from this site to be l 5 l09 w

is the south pacific helium 3 plume dynamically active it is suggested that the hydrothermal vents of the south pacific rise produce a beta governed circulation at mid depth and that perhaps the associated plume of excess3he lupton and craig 1 points westward because of the dynamics of this circulation rather than as a passive tracer

modeling the large scale influence of geothermal sources on abyssal flow an approximate temperature perturbation equation for a continuously stratified deep ocean layer on an equatorial plane is presented a vertically integrated flow is allowed which in the present study is forced by uniform upwelling solutions with truncated vertical structure are presented which are forced by a representation of localized geothermal heat sources solutions exhibit a range of behavior from passive advection to plume depending on the ratio of barotropic flow speed to long rossby wave phase speed owing to the different phase speeds of the vertical modes the forced vertical structure is dispersed which can result in positive and negative temperature anomalies both upstream and downstream of the source furthermore it is clear that the ability of localized sources to influence upstream conditions is enhanced in equatorial regions compared with higher latitudes where the background flow is better able to advect the temperature perturbations downstream depending on the strength of the imposed temperature anomaly at the source there may or may not be a large scale reversal of the total flow field thus the correlations between temperature geostrophic shear and a passive tracer such as 3he can be positive negative or zero away from the geothermal source

characteristics of hydrothermal plumes from two vent fields on the juan de fuca ridge northeast pacific ocean deep ctd transmissometer tows and water bottle sampling were used during 1985 to map the regional distribution of the neutrally buoyant plumes emanating from each of two major vent fields on the southern symmetrical segment sss and endeavour segment es of the juan de fuca ridge at both vent fields emissions from point and diffuse hydrothermal sources coalesced into a single 200 m thick plume elongated in the direction of current flow and with characteristic temperature anomalies of 0 02 0 05 c and light attenuation anomalies of 0 01 0 08 m 1 10 80 g l above background temperature anomalies in the core of each plume were uniform as far downcurrent as the plumes were mapped 10 15 km downcurrent light attenuation trends were non uniform and differed between plumes apparently because different vent fluid chemistries at each field cause significant differences in the settling characteristics of the hydrothermal precipitates vent fluids from the sss are metal dominated and mostly precipitate very fine grained hydrous fe oxides that remain suspended in the plume vent fluids from the es are sulfur dominated and precipitate a high proportion of coarser grained fe sulfides that rapidly settle from the plume the integrated flux of each vent field was estimated from measurements of the advective transport of each plume heat flux was 1700 1100 mw from the es and 580 351 mw from the sss particle flux varied from 546 312 g s to 204 116 g s at the es depending on distance from the vent field and was 92 48 g s from the sss

shear strength and stiffness of sands containing plastic or nonplastic fines this paper presents the results of a systematic laboratory investigation on the static behavior of silica sand containing various amounts of either plastic or nonplastic fines specimens were reconstituted using a new technique suitable for element testing of homogeneous specimens of sands containing fines deposited in water e g alluvial deposits hydraulic fills tailings dams and offshore deposits the fabric of sands containing fines was examined using the environmental scanning electron microscope esem static monotonic isotropically consolidated drained triaxial compression tests were performed to evaluate the stress strain volumetric response of these soils piezoceramic bender element instrumentation was developed and integrated into a conventional triaxial apparatus shear wave velocity measurements were made to evaluate the small strain stiffness of the sands tested at various states the intrinsic parameters that characterize critical state dilatancy and small strain stiffness of clean silty and clayey sands were determined all aspects of the mechanical behavior investigated in this study e g stress strain volumetric response shear strength and small strain stiffness are affected by both the amount and plasticity of the fines present in the sand microstructural evaluation using the esem highlighted the importance of soil fabric on the overall soil response

extensive distribution of hydrothermal plumes along the superfast spreading east pacific rise 13 30 18 40 s a general model relating relative hydrothermal activity to the rate of plate creation requires data from the full spectrum of mid ocean ridge spreading rates to obtain data from a superfast spreading environment the japanese u s ridge flux project used continuous hydrographic optical tow yos in 1993 to map the distribution of hydrothermal plumes along the southern east pacific rise from 13 30 to 18 40 s plume incidence the fraction of the spreading axis length overlain by a significant plume was 0 6 including a virtually continuous vent field stretching 150 km from 17 20 to 18 40 s hydrothermal venting was most concentrated along portions of the ridge crest with an inflated cross sectional area and an observable axial magma chamber reflector this pattern agrees with previous results from the northern east pacific rise such consistency implies that hydrothermal circulation on fast spreading ridges is vigorous where the relative volume of partial melt is high and meager where melt volume is low or undetectable hot rock alone is generally insufficient to drive significant hydrothermal circulation using a mean temperature anomaly of 0 014 0 010 c we estimated the hydrothermal heat flux from the study area as 1 5 1 1 107 mw ux where ux is the cross axis flow at the ridge crest no direct measurements of ux are yet available combining the plume distribution found here with prior data from slow intermediate and fast spreading ridges yields a significant linear correlation between plume incidence and spreading rate that extends across the full range of plate motion this correlation which mirrors that for near axis heat flux calculated by recent models implies that magma supply rate is the principal control on the large scale distribution of axial hydrothermal venting

a major helium 3 source at 15 s on the east pacific rise an extensive plume of water enriched with helium 3 has been discovered in the deep pacific ocean at latitude 15 s on the east pacific rise in the core of the plume at a depth of 2500 meters over the ridge crest the helium 3 helium 4 ratio is 50 percent higher than the ratio in atmospheric helium indicating a strong injection of mantle or primordial helium at the spreading center axis through local hydrothermal systems the helium 3 plume is completely absent east of the rise but it can be traced over 2000 kilometers to the west above a newly observed physical feature a density discontinuity here caled the ridge crest front the injected plume provides a unique deep sea tracer with an asymmetric distribution which shows that the deep circulation across the rise is from east to west the striking intensity and lateral extent of this helium 3 anomaly compared to observations at known oceanic hydrohrmal sites suggest that the largest hydrothermal fields in the ocean are yet to be discovered and that they will be found near 15 s on the east pacific rise

locating hydrothermal vents by detecting buoyant advected plumes an improved method of detecting buoyant hydrothermal plumes and locating their source vents is introduced plumes are detected by computing fluid stability from conductivity temperature and depth measurements acquired during navigated towed vertically oscillating casts over the endeavour segment of the juan de fuca ridge for each instability detected the maximum range to its hydrothermal source is estimated by multiplying a theoretical plume equilibration time by a measured current velocity using an estimate of current direction the method reliably locates plume sources where they are known to exist in all of the focused vent fields mapped by submersible and in several isolated diffuse flow sites the method generates a distribution of hydrothermal sources that is more consistent with variations in surface permeability than with circulation cells spaced evenly along a uniformly permeable axis axial instabilities are nearly continuous along the heavily fissured and fractured western wall of the axial valley beyond the axial valley instabilities evidence that hydrothermal upflow penetrates the outer slopes of the ridge crest probably along a boundary between sheet and pillow flows