Seawater versus mantle sources of mercury in sulfide-rich seafloor hydrothermal systems, Southwest Indian Ridge

Abstract

The Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) is an ultraslow-spreading ridge where large hydrothermal fields (HFs) are widely distributed. The HFs differ in geological settings, basement rock compositions and mineral associations, but are commonly associated with massive sulfides and sulfide-rich hydrothermal vents that are rich in mercury (Hg). However, the source of Hg remains not well understood. This is a first report on the concentration and isotopic composition of Hg in sulfides from two large HFs, named Duanqiao and Yuhuang, in the SWIR. Sulfides from Duanqiao and Yuhuang showed elevated Hg concentrations, ranging from 3.5 × 102 to 8.1 × 103 ng/g and 4.4 × 102 to 4.4 × 104 ng/g, respectively, which suggest that seafloor mass sulfide deposits can be an important sink of Hg to the deep marine environment. In both HFs, pyrite (4.4 × 102–4.4 × 104 ng/g) and sphalerite (8.3 × 102–6.0 × 103 ng/g) show higher Hg concentrations than chalcopyrite (3.5 × 102 ng/g), suggesting that the replacement of Fe(II) and Zn(II) by Hg(II) is a major form of Hg incorporation in sulfides. Sulfides from Yuhuang show relatively larger δ202Hg and Δ199Hg ranges of −1.23 to −0.05‰ and −0.10 to 0.20‰, respectively, compared with those from Duanqiao (δ202Hg: −0.63 to −0.12‰; Δ199Hg: 0.02–0.10‰), suggesting that the Hg sources are different in the two HFs. The differences in Δ199Hg suggest the dominance of magmatic/mantle Hg in the Duanqiao HF, but a mixture of magmatic/mantle and seawater Hg to the Yuhuang HF. We thus propose Hg isotopes as a potential source tracer of Hg in HFs and infer that magmatism may not only serve as a direct Hg source in HFs, but may also drive seawater circulation and cause the precipitation of Hg from hydrothermally circulated seawater.