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A thermodynamic explanation for black smoker temperatures

Nature volume 403, pages 880–883 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

There is a remarkable difference between the maximum temperature of black smoker effluent (350 °C–400 °C) and the temperature of the solidifying magma which heats it (∼1,200 °C)1,2,3. It has been suspected4 for some time that the nonlinear thermodynamic properties of water5 might be responsible for this discrepancy. Here, we translate this hypothesis into a physical model, by examining the internal temperature structure of convection cells in a porous medium. We demonstrate that, at pressures appropriate to seafloor crust, plumes of pure water form naturally at ∼400 °C for any heat source with temperature greater than ∼500 °C. Higher temperatures are confined to a boundary layer at the base of the convection cell, where the flow is horizontal. The phenomenon is explained analytically using the thermodynamic properties of water, and is illustrated by numerical simulations. Our model predicts the existence of the high-temperature ‘reaction zone’ found in ophiolites6 and suggests that vent temperatures will remain steady as magma chambers solidify and cool7.

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Figure 1: The steady-state temperature distribution in a convection cell at sea floor pressures.
Figure 2: Early stages of the simulation, at the bottom of the domain shown in Fig. 1.
Figure 3: ‘Fluxibility’ F and ‘fluxibility gradient’ |∂F/∂T| (in normalized units) a, F as a function of temperature T and pressure p.

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Acknowledgements

We thank USGS for permission to use HYDROTHERM. The calculations were carried out on the Enigma high-performance computing centre at the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics. We acknowledge the support of that facility by the Higher Education Research Foundation for England. T.J. is supported by a studentship from the Natural Environment Research Council.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences University of Cambridge, Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, UK

    Tim Jupp & Adam Schultz

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Correspondence to Tim Jupp.

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Jupp, T., Schultz, A. A thermodynamic explanation for black smoker temperatures. Nature 403, 880–883 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35002552

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