Dynamics of hydrothermal flow and response to crustal forces at the Loki’s Castle and East Pacific Rise 9◦50’ hydrothermal vent fields
PhD project of Marie Eide Lien
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Project title
Dynamics of hydrothermal flow and response to crustal forces at the Loki’s Castle and East Pacific Rise 9◦50’ hydrothermal vent fields
Supervisors
Thibaut Barreyre
Project description
The PhD project is directed at the geophysics and sub-surface fluid flow dynamics characterization of hydrothermal systems. Hydrothermal systems are typically conceptualized as steady-state flow environments, field-based observations indicate that flow rates and temperatures are highly variable over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. These observations demonstrate that hydrothermal systems respond to sub-surface processes such as earthquakes, magmatic activity, dissolution/precipitation of hydrothermal minerals, and the poroelastic response to tidal loading.
With this project the aim is to improve our understanding of the sub-surface dynamics of hydrothermal systems by leveraging on a mix of observational work, data analysis, and modeling for ultimately integrating and reconciling complex flow observations into a coherent theoretical framework. A central objective of this project is to unravel the complex mechanisms that perturb – periodically or episodically – fluid flow by changing the thermal and/or stress conditions of the sub-surface crust on short time scales.