Evidence of a modern deep water magmatic hydrothermal system in the Canary Basin (eastern central Atlantic Ocean)

Abstract

AbstractNew seismic profiles, bathymetric data, and sediment‐rock sampling document for the first time the discovery of hydrothermal vent complexes and volcanic cones at 4800–5200 m depth related to recent volcanic and intrusive activity in an unexplored area of the Canary Basin (Eastern Atlantic Ocean, 500 km west of the Canary Islands). A complex of sill intrusions is imaged on seismic profiles showing saucer‐shaped, parallel, or inclined geometries. Three main types of structures are related to these intrusions. Type I consists of cone‐shaped depressions developed above inclined sills interpreted as hydrothermal vents. Type II is the most abundant and is represented by isolated or clustered hydrothermal domes bounded by faults rooted at the tips of saucer‐shaped sills. Domes are interpreted as seabed expressions of reservoirs of CH4 and CO2‐rich fluids formed by degassing and contact metamorphism of organic‐rich sediments around sill intrusions. Type III are hydrothermal‐volcanic complexes originated above stratified or branched inclined sills connected by a chimney to the seabed volcanic edifice. Parallel sills sourced from the magmatic chimney formed also domes surrounding the volcanic cones. Core and dredges revealed that these volcanoes, which must be among the deepest in the world, are constituted by OIB‐type, basanites with an outer ring of blue‐green hydrothermal Al‐rich smectite muds. Magmatic activity is dated, based on lava samples, at 0.78 ± 0.05 and 1.61 ± 0.09 Ma (K/Ar methods) and on tephra layers within cores at 25–237 ky. The Subvent hydrothermal‐volcanic complex constitutes the first modern system reported in deep water oceanic basins related to intraplate hotspot activity.