Artificial Smoker: Geophysical characterization of an ultraslow ridge system for sustainable resource management
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Hydrothermal circulation is a fundamental Earth process that transfers elements and minerals from the crust and mantle to the oceans. This circulation commonly occurs along tectonic plate boundaries in the oceans, where heat sources are located at relatively shallow depths (~2–3 km). Cold seawater percolates downward, becomes heated, and is enriched with minerals from the host rock and magmatic volatiles. The resulting hot fluids (exceeding 300°C) rise buoyantly and are expelled into the ocean through chimney-like structures on the seafloor, commonly referred to as "Black Smokers." The ejected particles settle on the seafloor, forming rich mineral deposits known as "Seafloor Massive Sulfide" (SMS) deposits, making mid-ocean ridges highly attractive for meeting future mineral demands. Moreover, ridge settings hold significant potential for geothermal energy, white hydrogen production, and other valuable resources. However, harnessing these resources requires a thorough understanding of the complex hydrothermal systems to develop sustainable resource management strategies.Hydrothermal venting sites are widespread along the mid-ocean ridge system, occurring at all spreading rates and across diverse geological settings. However, the mechanisms driving hydrothermal processes vary depending on factors such as the presence of magma bodies, permeable zones, tectonic activity, and temperature. At ultraslow spreading ridges, where spreading rates are less than 20 mm/yr—such as the Southwest Indian Ridge, Mohns Ridge, and Knipovich Ridge—tectonic processes dominate over magmatic activity, resulting in the exhumation of ultramafic material to the seafloor along large-scale detachment faults.In this study, we developed two-dimensional, high-resolution velocity models through the crust and uppermost mantle of the Southwest Indian Ridge using wide-angle ocean-bottom seismic data. We present two ~150 km-long, high-resolution P-wave velocity models orthogonal to each other, running across and along the ridge axis at 64°30’E. We employed a state-of-the-art imaging technique known as full waveform inversion (FWI) using data from 32 ocean-bottom seismometers positioned along the two profiles. FWI is a data-fitting method in which the forward operator iteratively predicts the observed data by backpropagating the misfits to update the velocity model, thereby producing higher-resolution images of the subsurface.Based on our high-resolution velocity models, we observe finer patterns of velocity anomalies compared to traveltime models, revealing more detailed variations in the degree of fluid-rock interaction. These interactions are influenced by the presence of faults and the extent of tectonic damage, aiding in the mapping of hydrothermal circulation. Additionally, our high-resolution images provide an improved understanding of the distribution of serpentinization and its correlation to mode of spreading. Overall, the high-resolution velocity models support the assessment of the feasibility of "Artificial Smoker," which replicates natural smokers, for the environmentally sustainable extraction of minerals, white hydrogen, and geothermal resources.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".