A rapidly circulated tidal-influenced hydrothermal system temporarily cooled by a tropical storm
Xue-Gang Chen 1*, Ming-Zhen Yu 1, Pei-Sun Loh 1, Dieter Garbe-Schönberg 2, Zhongyan Qiu3, Mark Schmidt 4, Chen-Tung Arthur Chen 1, 5, Hao Zheng 1, Ying Ye 1
1 Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan 316021, China
2 Institut für Geowissenschaften, Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel, 24118 Kiel, Germany
3 Key laboratory of submarine Geosciences, Second Institute of Oceanography, Minister of Natural Resources, Hangzhou 310012, China
4 Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel GEOMAR, Kiel 24118, Germany
5 Department of Oceanography, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan
*e-mail: chenxg83[at]zju.edu.cn
Abstract
Main text: The Lutao hydrothermal field is an intertidal arc-volcanic system located at offshore southeast Taiwan, hosting a Zhudanqu (ZDQ) vent and a Huwaichi (HWC) spring. The totally depleted Mg, moderately enriched chloride and H+ with respect to seawater indicated that the ZDQ endmember was solely derived from the brine phase resulted from low-degree subcritical phase separation. The vapor phase comprised the endmember for the HWC vent fluids. The temperature and pressure of the phase separation were estimated as ~ 150 oC and ~ 5 bar, respectively. The water/rock ratio was calculated as about 2. The Lutao hydrothermal system was slightly affected by semi-diurnal tides, either by tidal loading, or tidal currents, or a joint effort of both. The active circulation period of the Lutao system was about 3 h according to the time delay of its response to tides. Freshwater was almost absent in the HWC vent fluids at normal conditions. The typhoon Fung-wong that attacked the island on Sep 21st, 2014, however, imported freshwater into the vent fluids with a percentage of ~ 16%. Both the ZDQ and the HWC endmembers were a little changed after the typhoon event, suggesting a cooling of the reaction zone. Presumably, the seawater was cooled by the tropical storm by 2-5 oC which consequently quenched the reaction zone and declined the degree of phase separation. After the typhoon passing by, the hydrothermal system began to recover, evidenced by increasing percentages of the HWC endmember and decreasing freshwater contributions. The flux of the HWC endmember was estimated as ~ 500 L h-1 based on these observations. This study, for the first time, reports a shallow-depth hydrothermal system that was cooled by a tropical storm and affected by tides.
Keywords: Hydrothermal system; Tide; Typhoon;
Topic: Coastal and Ocean Dynamics