Black smokers, massive sulphides and vent biota at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Abstract

The discovery of black smokers, massive sulphides and vent biota in the rift valley of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge demonstrates that this assemblage of hydrothermal phenomena is not limited to intermediate-to-fast-spreading oceanic ridges. Hydrothermal exchange processes may thus be important at the ridges which extend through the Atlantic Ocean and western Indian Ocean, comprising more than half of the 55,000-km global length of seafloor spreading centres.