Hydrothermal vent chimneys fluid temperature

Manus Basin is a back-arc basin located north of the New Britain island arc that consists of NE-SW trending ridge segments offset by transform faults. On the Manus Spreading Center in central Manus Basin the Vienna Woods hydrothermal field consists of a 300 m-diameter sulfide mound with an extensive foresf of active and inactive sphalerite-barite-rich, sulfide-sulfate-oxide chimneys up to 15 m-long atop it. Vent fluids from one of the active chimneys reach temperatures as high as 302°C. In the eastern Manus Basin, two important hydrothermal fields are known. The PACMANUS field includes discontinuous sulfide occurrences over a 3 by 0.8 km area and active venting of unknown nature. Volcanic rocks are andesitic to rhyodacitic. 

Modem hydro- High-temperature hydrothermal vents currently active at mid-ocean ridges offer a thermal mineral- unique opportunity to study a hydrothermal mineral deposit in the process of ization at formation. The current working model assumes that cold seawater sulphate is mid-ocean ridges drawn down into sea-floor basalts, where it is heated in the vicinity of a magma chamber. Some sulphate is precipitated as anhydrite whilst the remainder is reduced to sulphide by reaction with the basalt. The fluid is vented back onto the seafloor at about 350 C laden with sulphides. On mixing with seawater these are precipitated onto the sea floor as a fine sulphide sediment whilst at the vent site itself the sulphides are built into a chimney a metre or so in height. 

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