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Nature 421, 252-256 (16 January 2003) | doi:10.1038/nature01351; Received 1 October 2002; Accepted 26 November 2002

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Discovery of abundant hydrothermal venting on the ultraslow-spreading Gakkel ridge in the Arctic Ocean

H. N. Edmonds1, P. J. Michael2, E. T. Baker3, D. P. Connelly4, J. E. Snow5, C. H. Langmuir6, H. J. B. Dick7, R. Mühe8, C. R. German4 & D. W. Graham9

  1. The University of Texas at Austin, Marine Science Institute, 750 Channel View Drive, Port Aransas, Texas 78373-5015, USA
  2. The University of Tulsa, 600 College Avenue, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104, USA
  3. Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, Washington 98115, USA
  4. Southampton Oceanography Centre, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
  5. Max-Planck Institut für Chemie, Postfach 3060, 55020 Mainz, Germany
  6. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  7. Department of Marine Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
  8. University of Kiel, Institute of Geosciences, Olshausenstrasse 40, 24118 Kiel, Germany
  9. College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA

Correspondence to: H. N. Edmonds1 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to H.N.E. (e-mail: Email: edmonds@utmsi.utexas.edu).

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Submarine hydrothermal venting along mid-ocean ridges is an important contributor to ridge thermal structure1, and the global distribution of such vents has implications for heat and mass fluxes2 from the Earth's crust and mantle and for the biogeography of vent-endemic organisms.3 Previous studies have predicted that the incidence of hydrothermal venting would be extremely low on ultraslow-spreading ridges (ridges with full spreading rates <2 cm yr-1—which make up 25 per cent of the global ridge length), and that such vent systems would be hosted in ultramafic in addition to volcanic rocks4, 5. Here we present evidence for active hydrothermal venting on the Gakkel ridge, which is the slowest spreading (0.6–1.3 cm yr-1) and least explored mid-ocean ridge. On the basis of water column profiles of light scattering, temperature and manganese concentration along 1,100 km of the rift valley, we identify hydrothermal plumes dispersing from at least nine to twelve discrete vent sites. Our discovery of such abundant venting, and its apparent localization near volcanic centres, requires a reassessment of the geologic conditions that control hydrothermal circulation on ultraslow-spreading ridges.