The first find of buried low-temperature hydrothermal deposits in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rift valley

Abstract

Buried ferromanganese deposits (FMD) were recovered in the course of vibrodrilling at Station 1361 within the terrace on the western slope of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) rift valley at 13 ° N during Cruise 24 of the R/V Professor Logachev in 2004. In the same region, at dredging stations 913, 1057, 1058, 1066, 1083, 1311, and 1362, FMD samples were taken from the surface of metabasites (Fig. 1). Discussed in this work are distinguishing features of the structure and chemical and mineral compositions of these deposits, which allowed us to consider in a new fashion the genesis of some low-temperature hydrothermal systems in the MAR rift valley.