Ridge flank hydrothermal contributions to global biogeochemical cycles and archives of changing global conditions: Insights from the IODP South Atlantic Transect
Throughout its life the ocean crust is a key boundary between Earth’s interior and the oceans/atmosphere. Hydrothermal circulation of seawater-derived fluids through the cooling and aging crust results in chemical exchange between Earth’s interior and oceans and atmosphere, playing an important role in long-term biogeochemical cycles. Altered ocean crust provides a time-integrated record of its geochemical exchange with seawater. Furthermore, hydrothermal minerals formed from ridge flank fluids record the evolving chemistry of the overlying oceans – itself an integrator of a range of Earth processes. I will present an overview of how scientific ocean drilling experiments across ridge flanks contribute to our understanding of the processes that control ridge flank hydrothermal exchanges, the role these exchanges play in global geochemical cycles, and the extent to which they record and respond to wider changes in the Earth system. In particular, the South Atlantic Transect (IODP Expeditions 390/393), designed to recover the upper crust and overlying sediments across the western flank of the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge to investigate hydrothermal aging and microbiological evolution of the ocean crust, and the paleoceanographic evolution of the overlying South Atlantic.
Date: 6 March 2026, 12:00
Venue: Department of Earth Sciences, South Parks Road OX1 3AN
Venue Details: Seminar rooms
Speaker: Dr Rosalind Coggon (University of Southampton)
Organising department: Department of Earth Sciences
Part of: Earth Sciences departmental seminars
Booking required?: Not required
Booking url: https://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/event/ridge-flank-hydrothermal-contributions-to-global-biogeochemical-cycles-and-archives-of-changin
Audience: Public
Editor: Maria Petrunova