• DOI:10.1126/science.203.4385.1073
• Corpus ID: 39869961

Submarine Thermal Springs on the Gal�pagos Rift

@article{Corliss1979SubmarineTS,
  title={Submarine Thermal Springs on the Gal�pagos Rift},
  author={John B. Corliss and Jack Dymond and Louis Irwin Gordon and John M. Edmond and Richard P. von Herzen and Robert D. Ballard and K. Green and David L. Williams and Arnold E. Bainbridge and Kathleen Crane and Tjeerd H. van Andel},
  journal={Science},
  year={1979},
  volume={203},
  pages={1073 - 1083}
}

• J. B. Corliss, J. Dymond, +8 authors T. V. van Andel
• Published 16 March 1979
• Geology
• Science

The submarine hydrothermal activity on and near the Gal�pagos Rift has been explored with the aid of the deep submersible Alvin. Analyses of water samples from hydrothermal vents reveal that hydrothermal activity provides significant or dominant sources and sinks for several components of seawater; studies of conductive and convective heat transfer suggest that two-thirds of the heat lost from new oceanic lithosphere at the Gal�pagos Rift in the first million years may be vented from thermal springs, predominantly along the axial ridge within the rift valley. The vent areas are populated by animal communities. They appear to utilize chemosynthesis by sulfur-oxidizing bacteria to derive their entire energy supply from reactions between the seawater and the rocks at high temperatures, rather than photosynthesis.