Abstract
SEDIMENTS from the East Pacific Rise that are unusually enriched with iron, manganese, and other metals1,2,3 are correlated with areas of high heat flow on oceanic ridges. With the discovery that sediments rich in iron directly overlie oceanic basaltic basement, it has been suggested that such deposits were formed by circulating hydrothermal fluids generated during mid-oceanic rift volcanism4,5. Other suggested origins are: authigenic precipitation of iron and manganese from seawater6, submarine weathering of basaltic debris, and precipitation during diagenetic remobilisation of manganese in the sediment column7. Our geochemical evidence supports the hydrothermal metallogenesis hypothesis.
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MCMURTRY, G., BURNETT, W. Hydrothermal metallogenesis in the Bauer Deep of the south-eastern Pacific. Nature 254, 42–44 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/254042a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/254042a0
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