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Metal flux from hydrothermal vents increased by organic complexation

Nature Geoscience volume 4, pages 145–150 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Hydrothermal vents in the sea floor release large volumes of hot, metal-rich fluids into the deep ocean. Until recently, it was assumed that most of the metal released was incorporated into sulphide or oxide minerals, and that the net flux of most hydrothermally derived metals to the open ocean was negligible. However, mounting evidence suggests that organic compounds bind to and stabilize metals in hydrothermal fluids, increasing trace-metal flux to the global ocean. In situ measurements reveal that hydrothermally derived chromium, copper and iron bind to organic molecules on mixing with sea water. Geochemical model simulations based on data from two hydrothermal vent sites suggest that complexation significantly increases metal flux from hydrothermal systems. According to these simulations, hydrothermal fluids could account for 9% and 14% of the deep-ocean dissolved iron and copper budgets respectively. A similar role for organic complexation can be inferred for the hydrothermal fluxes of other metals, such as manganese and zinc.

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Figure 1: Processes in the hydrothermal fluid–seawater mixing zone.

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Acknowledgements

The background work for this article was embedded in the Special Priority Program SPP 1144 'From Mantle to Ocean: Energy, Material and Life Cycles at Spreading Axes' of the German Science Foundation (DFG). The preparation of this article was supported by the BMBF-IB grant NZL 09/008 and ISAT fund FRG09-21 and FRG10-26. This is SPP 1144 publication no. 56. We thank Eike Breitbarth and Katja Schmidt for valuable discussion at various stages of the manuscript and Lisa Bucke for the preparation of Fig. 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Marine and Freshwater Chemistry, University of Otago, PO Box 56, 9054, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Sylvia G. Sander

  2. School of Engineering and Science, Earth and Space Sciences Program, Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, D-28759, Bremen, Germany

    Andrea Koschinsky

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  1. Sylvia G. Sander
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Contributions

A.K. provided hydrothermal background information including Box 1. S.G.S. carried out the geochemical modelling (Box 2, Supplementary Information) and discussion of organic complexation. Both authors contributed equally to the preparation of the manuscript and the discussion of the results.

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Correspondence to Sylvia G. Sander.

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Sander, S., Koschinsky, A. Metal flux from hydrothermal vents increased by organic complexation. Nature Geosci 4, 145–150 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1088

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