Abstract
The hot (350 °C) black smoker springs of the ocean floor are the vents of hydrothermal systems in which cold seawater descends below the ocean floor, is heated, reacts with the host rock and is transformed into metal-bearing brine. The salinity of these brines varies between vents from ∼0.7 to 2.0 times seawater salinity1–4 this variation has been ascribed to crustal hydration5, crystallization of chloride-bearing minerals6 or two-phase separation of seawater into components of differing salinity4,7–12. Here we present fluid inclusion evidence for two-phase separation in the ancient Troodos sulphide-forming systems of Cyprus and discuss, with the NaCl-H2O system as a model, how this process could explain observed salinity variations in hydrothermal fluids.
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Cowan, J., Cann, J. Supercritical two-phase separation of hydrothermal fluids in the Troodos ophiolite. Nature 333, 259–261 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/333259a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/333259a0
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