Mid-ocean ridges are a primary site of mass and energy exchange between Earth’s mantle and hydrosphere and atmosphere. Prof. Toomey and Prof. Hooft went to sea in the summer of 2009 to study these feedback processes at the Endeavour segment of the Juan de Fuca ridge. We are tomographically imaging the magma plumbing system in the mantle and crust and the thermal boundary layer that transports energy between the magmatic and hydrothermal systems. Our results will: (1) Determine if the segmentation and intensity of the magma-hydrothermal systems at the Endeavour ridge are related to magma supply or to the magma plumbing between the mantle and crust, and (2) Constrain the thermal and magmatic structure underlying the Endeavour hydrothermal system in order to understand the patterns of energy transfer.
2008 Endeavour Tomography Experiment (ETOMO) and Publications
Publications from Endeavor research other than ETOMO:
*Weekly R.T., W.S.D. Wilcock, E.E.E. Hooft, D. Toomey, P. McGill, D. Stakes, Termination of a decadal-scale ridge-spreading event observed using a seafloor seismic network on the Endeavour Segment, Juan de Fuca Ridge, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, doi: 10.1002/ggge.20105, 2013.
Kelley, D.S. S M. Carbotte, D. Clague, D.W. Caress , J. Delaney, J.B. Gill, H. Hadaway, J.F. Holden, E.E.E. Hooft, J.P. Kellogg, M.D. Lilley, M. Stoermer, D. Toomey, R. Weekly, and W.S.D. Wilcock, Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, One of the Most Remarkable Places on Earth, Oceanography 25(1):44–61, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2012.03, 2012.
Hooft, E. E. E., H. Patel, W. S. D. Wilcock, K. Becker, D. A. Butterfield, E. E. Davis, R. Dziak, K. Inderbitzen, M. D. Lilley, P. McGill, D. R. Toomey, D. Stakes, A seismic swarm and regional hydrothermal and hydrologic perturbations: the northern Endeavour segment, February 2005., Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., Q12015, doi:10.1029/2010GC003264, 2010.
Wilcock, W. S. D., E. E. E. Hooft, D. R. Toomey, P. R. McGill, A. H. Barclay, D. S. Stakes, and T. M. Ramirez, The role of magma injection in localizing black smoker activity, Nature Geosci., 2, 509-513, doi:10.1038/ngeo550, 2009.
