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Abstract

Summary

Along mid-ocean ridges, locations where hydrothermal fluids emerge onto the seafloor and potentially significant mineral ore bodies form, have been considered for future mineral exploitation. However, before the mining takes place at hydrothermal vents we need to better understand circulation paths of the fluids that are the main transporters of the minerals that eventually lead to important mineral accumulations. Here, for the first time, we apply elastic wave-equation tomography and full-waveform inversion to a 2-D seismic dataset collected along the East Pacific Rise, ridge system with abundant hydrothermal activity. Due to a large and robust Fresnel zone used in wave-equation tomography, we were able to start with a rough estimate of the initial velocity model. Consideration of complex seismic wave propagation phenomenon through elastic wave-equation modelling allowed us to image low velocity zones that can be tracked down to 1 km below the seafloor. We interpret them as up- or down-going paths of hydrothermal fluid circulation as they match with locations of high-temperature vents, previously mapped on the seafloor. Furthermore, higher velocity zones in the vicinity of two prominent vent fields may mark presence of mineral deposits.

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/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.201601183
2016-05-30
2024-04-20

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http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.201601183
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Imaging Hydrothermal Circulation Paths along the East Pacific Rise Using Elastic Wave-equation Based Inversion Technique
Conference Proceedings 2016, 1 (2016); https://doi.org/10.3997/2214-4609.201601183
/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.201601183
/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.201601183
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