Publication

Better understanding metallogenesis in oceanic crust depends on costly sea-floor drilling projects in areas where metal-bearing deposits, such as sea-floor massive sulfide deposits, are currently forming. In 2018, International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 376 recovered drill cores from an active hydrothermal field at Brothers volcano, in the Kermadec arc. These provide insight into the formation of mineral deposits along arcs, the structure and permeability of hydrothermal sites, and the relationship between the discharge of magmatic fluids and the deep biosphere. We report whole-rock major and trace element compositions and the Re-Os isotope geochemistry of hydrothermally altered volcanic rocks in a core from Hole U1530A, extending 453 m beneath the sea floor, and unaltered volcanic rocks in cores from four other drilling sites, and interpret these data to better understand subseafloor mixing of hydrothermal fluids and ambient seawater. The core exhibits more radiogenic 187Os/188Os values than typical basal values in four intervals. We propose two causal mechanisms of these radiogenic values: (1) mixing between seawater and hydrothermal fluid, associated with abundant deposition of sulfide or sulfate minerals; and (2) ingress of seawater with radiogenic 187Os/188Os values, associated with abundant chlorite and high porosity. Extreme Os enrichments up to 61.5 ppb are interpreted as the result of mobilization of Os as OsO4 or OsF6 and transport by volcanic gas, which also affected the Re-Os geochemistry of the rocks from the other Expedition 376 holes. Mobilization and transport of Os by volcanic gas may be an appreciable factor in the influx of unradiogenic Os into the ocean.