Abstract
The discovery of black smokers, massive sulphides and vent biota in the rift valley of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge demonstrates that this assemblage of hydrothermal phenomena is not limited to intermediate-to-fast-spreading oceanic ridges. Hydrothermal exchange processes may thus be important at the ridges which extend through the Atlantic Ocean and western Indian Ocean, comprising more than half of the 55,000-km global length of seafloor spreading centres.
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Rona, P., Klinkhammer, G., Nelsen, T. et al. Black smokers, massive sulphides and vent biota at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Nature 321, 33–37 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/321033a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/321033a0
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