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Third Decadal Plan
electromagnetic and potential field techniques. This is very
demanding on resources and therefore requires international
collaboration.
b. Integrating both wider scale global tomography experiments
with more local scale ones is essential, as well as improving
imaging resolution at greater depth.
c. High-resolution mapping of mantle heterogeneities through
detailed geochemical studies of rock samples (drilled, dredged,
or collected by deep-sea vehicles), complemented by nearbottom
(i.e. AUV-type) multibeam surveys are needed for
specific locations. This requires international collaboration.
d. The collection of geophysical and geochemical data should be
complemented by physical property analyses of mantle rocks,
where available.
e. Numerical geodynamic modelling should help to better
understand the mantle mixing processes. Key to this approach
is to combine geophysics with rock geochemistry to better
constrain melt fraction, crustal thickness and hence to unravel
the effects of mantle composition and melting history.
Olivine crystal collected from a dunite channel in the Horoman
peridotite complex, Hokkaido, Japan. (Acknowl. Anna Suetake,
Niigata University).
Section D
Ridge-Ocean Interactions and Fluxes
Megaplumes over the Carlsberg Ridge. (Murton et al. 2006).
Background:
From an oceanographic viewpoint, it has been generally assumed
that geothermal heating has a small effect on global circulation.
However, recent hydrographic modelling has demonstrated that this
assumption is wrong. Instead, geothermal heating has a significant
influence on mixing in the abyssal ocean with wider consequences
for global thermohaline circulation. Although these modelling
results, using coarse numerical grids, are based on passive heating
above an impermeable seabed, they do not include the dynamic
uplift created by the hydrothermal plumes. These plumes may,
through convective entrainment, provide an important mechanism
to lift some of the densest water away from the bottom boundary
layer. The models also neglect mixing caused by tidal and current
flow across the rough sea floor of the mid-ocean ridges. Mixing of
bottom water, the export of hydrothermal plumes and their
chemical interactions may play a role in the transport of nutrients to
the surface water and drawing down carbon. Over the next decade,
ocean circulation models will increase in resolution and will be able
to include more accurate bathymetry maps and geothermal flux
models. Our challenge is to provide accurate estimates of the heat
and mass fluxes at the ocean floor that can be integrated into these
new models. Better models will lead to better prediction of the
global circulation. We will be able to test the veracity of these models
using geochemical tracers and through biological mapping using
novel DNA mapping techniques.
Primary Questions:
1) Mixing and heating in the abyssal oceans
2) Biological/chemical tracer distribution - spatial/depth
3) Distribution of fluxes – focused vs. diffuse
1) Mixing and heating in the abyssal oceans
Heating of the abyssal ocean is necessary to maintain the global
thermohaline circulation system that transport heat, nutrients
(biological, chemical) around the globe. Cold abyssal water, formed
at the poles, fills the deep ocean basins from depths of about 1000
to over 5000 m. This water has to be warmed to make it buoyant to
rise to the surface to complete the circulation loop. To date, the
INTERRIDGE NEWS 7 VOL.21, 2012