Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
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Further reading:
K022, K023, K024
Kennish 1993). The very first vent site with sea-bed
dwelling large benthic organisms was discovered 1977
on the Galapagos rift in the eastern Pacific, where hy-
drothermal vent organisms are associated with sulfide
mineralizations and surround black and white smokers
within an area of a few hundreds of square meters. To-
day, examples of seep and vent communities are known
from the Pacific (Fig. 2.12), the Monterey Bay of Cali-
fornia, the Gulf of Mexico, the continental slope off
Louisiana, the North Sea and the Black Sea (Nybakken
1993). Modern cold-seep communities are nearly al-
ways found in oligotroph waters of the aphotic zone,
and occur from shallow to deep water down to about
3000 m (Callender and Powell 1999, Little et al. 2002).
The success of the low-diversity vent communities
(consisting of bivalves, vestimentiferan tube-worms,
arthropods) depends on specialized anaerobic bacteria,
which build carbon molecules using reduced inorganic
compounds (particularly sulfides) that are contained in
the heated water gushing from the vents. The low-di-
versity vent communities depend on these endosym-
biontic bacteria. Bivalves (giant vesicomyid clams, in-
faunal lucinids) are able to exploit directly gas seepage
by hosting chemoautotrophic bacteria in symbiosis in
the gills. The symbionts produce organic matter via
chemosynthesis using methane or sulfur from vented
fluids or available in the environment. Hydrothermal
vent communities and cold seep communities are phy-
logenetically related and show similarities in the physi-
ology and anatomy of their dominant organisms.
Cold-seep communities contribute to the formation
of a specific carbonate rock type. Characteristics of
these limestones are (1) carbonate beds embedded in
shales or mounds exhibiting irregular textures, and oc-
curring within a strongly differing facies, (2) low-di-
versity but abundant mollusks, and (3) abundant
authigenic carbonate cements. Ancient vent and seep
carbonates are becoming increasingly more frequently
reported from the Phanerozoic rock record (see Sect.
16.5).
2.4.6 Seep and Vent Carbonates
One of the most exciting discoveries in the last years is
the recognition of authigenic and biogenic carbonates
formed in deep-water settings by fluid and gas
expulsions near cold seeps and hydrothermal vents
(Beauchamp and von Bitter 1992).
Biomass concentrations of organisms with calcare-
ous shells occur near hot hydrothermal vents on mid-
ocean ridges and cluster around cold seeps of natural
gas, brines, hydrocarbon and methane in varying depths
of the oceans, particularly within faulted continental
margin environments (Tunnicliffe 1992; Lutz and
Basics: Seep and vent carbonates
Aharon, P. (2000): Microbial processes and products fueled
by hydrocarbons at submarine seeps. - In: Riding, R.E.,
Awramik, S.M. (eds.): Microbial sediments. - 270-282,
Berlin (Springer)
Beauchamp, B., von Bitter, P. (eds., 1992): Chemosynthesis:
geological processes and products. - Palaios,
7
, 337-484
(with papers on modern and ancient chemosynthetic car-
bonates)
Callender, W.R., Powell, E.N. (1997): Autochthonous death
assemblages from chemosynthetic communities at petro-
leum seeps: biomass, energy flow and implications for
the fossil record. - Hist. Biology,
12
, 165-198
