Tongguan hydrothermal field, Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge complex, Atlantic Oceani

Regional Level Types
Tongguan hydrothermal field	Group of Hydrothermal Vents
Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge complex	Mid-Ocean Ridge
Atlantic Ocean	Ocean

The Tongguan hydrothermal field is the southernmost hydrothermal field discovered so far on the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR; 27.1° S). It is located on a continuous neovolcanic zone (NVZ) with a water depth of ~3330 m. The ridge segment is ~380 km long and it has developed a continuous rift valley with an average width (i.e., the distance between the ridge crests on either side) of ~30 km. Moreover, this segment can be divided into three secondary segments with ~equal lengths (segments I to III) that are separated by two significant non-transform discontinuities (Figure 1). Tongguan is located in the rift valley of Segment II, which has a full spreading rate (based on the NUVEL-1 model) of 35.98 mm/yr (V-lat = −7.3 mm/yr, V-lon = −35.2 mm/yr) [14]. Two prominent pseudo-fault scarps were identified on the non-transform offsets at both tips of this segment, and such morphological characteristics suggest that along-axis propagation has occurred toward each tip.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References