New high-sampling rate measurements of fluid pressures in oceanic crust reveal unresolved fractures and pathways for fluid flow.
hydrothermal systems
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Mechanisms of Hydrothermal Ocean Plate Cooling Revealed
A combination of waveform tomography and hydrothermal modelling allows characterizing the mechanisms and reach of fluid flux and ocean plate cooling near mid-ocean ridges with unprecedented detail.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Coupled Mechanisms of Fluid Transport Across the Crust
Magmatic fluid moves up in the ductile zone through porosity waves, accumulates in high-porosity lenses, and migrates across the brittle zone in a convection pattern involving also meteoric fluid.
Posted inFeatures
Why Study Geysers?
Aside from captivating our senses, geysers have much to tell us about subsurface fluids, climate change effects, and the occurrence and limits of life on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Hydrothermal Vents May Add Ancient Carbon to Ocean Waters
Data from a long-distance research cruise provide new insights into carbon cycling in the eastern Pacific and Southern Oceans.
Posted inScience Updates
Geoscientific Monitoring of Olkaria’s Geothermal Motor
In situ geophysical measurements from Kenya’s Olkaria geothermal field, integrated with remote sensing and meteorological data, shed light on subsurface energy transport to and from the surface.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Life in the Chicxulub Crater Years After It Was Formed
While the seas were still churning from the impact and the seawater temperatures were high due to the hydrothermal activity, life was reestablishing itself inside the crater.
Posted inNews
Chicxulub Impact Crater Hosted a Long-Lived Hydrothermal System
Chemical and mineralogical evidence of fluid flow—potentially conducive to microscopic life—was revealed in rock cores extracted from the crater’s “peak ring.”
Posted inNews
Basalts Turn Carbon into Stone for Permanent Storage
Scientists have shown that mineral carbonation can permanently capture and store carbon quickly enough and safely enough to rise to the challenge of climate change.
Posted inNews
Microbes Discovered Hanging Out in the Ocean’s Crust
“The lower ocean crust is one of the last frontiers of the exploration for life on Earth.”