Mission Serpentine

Three ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal zones will be looked at. These sites were discovered a couple of years ago only! And two of them haven’t been sampled by a submersible yet! There are hardly any data about them.

Achadze (13°N)

Its own particularity is to be the deepest (4100m) hydrothermal system in the world known so far.
Ultramafic rocks and animals are present at this site, which is active as such.

Logatchev (14°45'N)

Located at 2970m depth. Its mineral composition is very similar to the one of the Rainbow site. Animals are present. This is an active site.

Krasnov (16°38)

It spreads out from 15° to 17°N. The whole area is covered with continuous hydrothermal vents, which consist of sulphur mounts at 3700 to 3900m depth.
It is the largest sulphur deposit known in the Atlantic Ocean. It seems to be off and in a process of splitting into two. If this is right, a natural geological cut will appear. This will enable sampling of the third dimension of the hydrothermal deposit.
This site will help to understand the future of hydrothermal deposit and of the biological activity when the activity stops! No studies have been carried out on this topic.

Localisation of hydrothermal systems known on the ridge on both sides of the fracture zone at 15°20'N.