Abstract
Although hydrothermal ferromanganese deposits often display variable 234U/238U ratios1,5, published values generally do not differ by more than 20% from the seawater value of their hydrogenous counterparts6. Here we report very high 234U/238U ratios in hydrothermal manganese crusts recovered from the Sanghihe island arc system in the West Pacific. Such ratios, about twice that of normal seawater, confirm a low-temperature hydrothermal supply of uranium, which is best explained by leaching of the underlying rocks by the hydrothermal fluids and deposition together with the manganese oxides before mixing with seawater. This suggests that the 234U/238U in seafloor deposits may be used as a tracer of low-temperature hydrothermal reactions in the ocean crust.
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Louis Reyss, J., Lemaitre, N., Bonté, P. et al. Anomalous 234U/238U ratios in deep-sea hydrothermal deposits. Nature 325, 798–800 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/325798a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/325798a0
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