Geochemical characteristics of sinking particles in the Tonga arc hydrothermal vent field, southwestern Pacific

Abstract

Studies of sinking particles associated with hydrothermal vent fluids may help us to quantify mass transformation processes between hydrothermal vent plumes and deposits. Such studies may also help us understand how various types of hydrothermal systems influence particle flux and composition. However, the nature of particle precipitation out of hydrothermal vent plumes in the volcanic arcs of convergent plate boundaries has not been well studied, nor have the characteristics of such particles been compared with the characteristics of sinking particles at divergent boundaries. We examined sinking particles collected by sediment traps for about 10 days at two sites, each within 200m of identified hydrothermal vents in the south Tonga arc of the southwestern Pacific. The total mass flux was several-fold higher than in the non-hydrothermal southwest tropical Pacific. The contribution of non-biogenic materials was dominant (over 72%) and the contribution of metals such as Fe, Mn, Cu, and Zn was very high compared to their average levels in the upper continental crust. The particle flux and composition indicate that hydrothermal authigenic particles are the dominant source of the collected sinking particles. Overall, our elemental ratios are similar to observations of particles at the divergent plate boundary in the East Pacific Rise (EPR). Thus, the nature of the hydrothermal particles collected in the south Tonga arc is probably not drastically different from particles in the EPR region. However, we observed consistent differences between the two sites within the Tonga arc, in terms of the contribution of non-biogenic material, the radiocarbon content of sinking particulate organic carbon, the ratios of iron to other metals (e.g. Cu/Fe and Zn/Fe), and plume maturity indices (e.g. S/Fe). This heterogeneity within the Tonga arc is likely caused by differences in physical environment such as water depth, phase separation due to subcritical boiling and associated sub-seafloor precipitation.