Hydrothermal processes on Earth have played an important role in the evolution of our planet. These processes link the lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere in continuously evolving dynamic systems. Terrestrial hydrothermal processes have been active since water condensed to form the hydrosphere, most probably from about 4.4 Ga. The circulation of hot aqueous solution (hydrothermal systems) at, and below, the Earth’s surface is ultimately driven by magmatic heat. This book presents an in-depth review of hydrothermal proceses and systems that form beneath the oceans and in intracontinental rifts, continental margins and magmatic arcs. The interaction of hydrothermal fluids with rockwalls, the hydrophere and the biophere, together with changes in their composition through time and space, contribute to the formation of a wide range of mineral deposit types and associated wallrock alteration. On Earth, sites of hydrothermal activity support varied ecosystems based on a range of chemotrophic microorganisms both at surface and in the subsurface. This book also provides an overview of hydrothermal systems associated with meteorite impacts and explores the possibility that hydrothermal processes operate on other terrestrial planets, such as Mars, or satellites of the outer planets such as Titan and Europa. Possible analogues of extraterrestrial putative hydrothermal processes pose the intriguing question of whether primitive life, as we know it, may exist or existed in these planetary bodies. Audience: This volume will be of interest to scientists and researchers in geosciences and life sciences departments, as well as to professionals and scientists involved in mining and mineral exploration.

1. General Significance of Geochemical Models of Hydrothermal Systems,- 2. Concepts, Classification and Chemistry of Geothermal Systems,- 3.Theory of Chemical Modeling,- 4. Specific Features of Coupled Fluid Flow and Chemical Reaction,- 5. Fossil Hydrothermal Systems,- 6. Recent Hydrothermal Systems,- 7. Reservoir Management.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 188. Diversity of Hydrothermal Systems on Slow Spreading Ocean Ridges presents a multidisciplinary overview of the remarkable emerging diversity of hydrothermal systems on slow spreading ocean ridges in the Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic oceans. When hydrothermal systems were first found on the East Pacific Rise and other Pacific Ocean ridges beginning in the late 1970s, the community consensus held that the magma delivery rate of intermediate to fast spreading was necessary to support black smoker-type high-temperature systems and associated chemosynthetic ecosystems and polymetallic sulfide deposits. Contrary to that consensus, hydrothermal systems not only occur on slow spreading ocean ridges but, as reported in this volume, are generally larger, exhibit different chemosynthetic ecosystems, produce larger mineral deposits, and occur in a much greater diversity of geologic settings than those systems in the Pacific. The full diversity of hydrothermal systems on slow spreading ocean ridges, reflected in the contributions to this volume, is only now emerging and opens an exciting new frontier for ocean ridge exploration, including Processes of heat and chemical transfer from the Earth's mantle and crust via slow spreading ocean ridges to the oceans The major role of detachment faulting linking crust and mantle in hydrothermal circulation Chemical reaction products of mantle involvement including serpentinization, natural hydrogen, abiotic methane, and hydrocarbon synthesis Generation of large polymetallic sulfide deposits hosted in ocean crust and mantle Chemosynthetic vent communities hosted in the diverse settings The readership for this volume will include schools, universities, government laboratories, and scientific societies in developed and developing nations, including over 150 nations that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

"The third volume of the series “Large Meteorite Impacts” provides an updated and comprehensive overview of modern impact crater research. In 26 chapters, more than 90 authors from Europe, the United States, Russia, Canada, and South Africa give a balanced, firsthand account of the multidisciplinary field of cratering science, with reports on field studies, geophysical analyses, and experimental and numerical simulations. Nine chapters focus on structure, geophysics, and cratering motions of terrestrial craters. Recent advances in impact ejecta studies and shock metamorphism are assembled, each with seven chapters, and three chapters extend the scope from a terrestrial to a planetary perspective."--pub. desc.

The book introduces the topic of geochemical modeling of fluids in subsurface and hydrothermal systems. The intention is to serve as a textbook for graduate students in aqueous, environmental and groundwater geochemistry, despite the fact that its focus is on the special topic of geochemistry in hydrothermal systems, it also provides new insights for experienced researchers with respect to the topic of reactive transport. The overall purpose is to give the reader an understanding of the processes that control the chemical composition of waters in hydrothermal systems and to highlight the interfaces between chemistry, geothermics and hydrogeology. From the reviews: "..is a nice, compact introduction to the principles of modeling coupled fluid flow and fluid-mineral reactions in active geothermal systems, as used for heating and electricity generation." ( Christoph A. Heinrich, ECONOMIC GEOLOGY, June 2004)

This book is the comprehensive volume of the TAIGA (“a great river ” in Japanese) project. Supported by the Japanese government, the project examined the hypothesis that the subseafloor fluid advection system (subseafloor TAIGA) can be categorized into four types, TAIGAs of sulfur, hydrogen, carbon (methane), and iron, according to the most dominant reducing substance, and the chemolithoautotrophic bacteria/archaea that are inextricably associated with respective types of TAIGAs which are strongly affected by their geological background such as surrounding host rocks and tectonic settings. Sub-seafloor ecosystems are sustained by hydrothermal circulation or TAIGA that carry chemical energy to the chemosynthetic microbes living in an extreme environment. The results of the project have been summarized comprehensively in 50 chapters, and this book provides an overall introduction and relevant topics on the mid-ocean ridge system of the Indian Ocean and on the arc-backarc systems of the Southern Mariana Trough and Okinawa Trough.

The International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS) has produced this book in order to provide an accessible, up-to-date overview of important aspects of the physical chemistry of aqueous systems at high temperatures and pressures. These systems are central to many areas of scientific study and industrial application, including electric power generation, industrial steam systems, hydrothermal processing of materials, geochemistry, and environmental applications. The authors' goal is to present the material at a level that serves both the graduate student seeking to learn the state of the art, and also the industrial engineer or chemist seeking to develop additional expertise or to find the data needed to solve a specific problem. The wide range of people for whom this topic is important provides a challenge. Advanced work in this area is distributed among physical chemists, chemical engineers, geochemists, and other specialists, who may not be aware of parallel work by those outside their own specialty. The particular aspects of high-temperature aqueous physical chemistry of interest to one industry may be irrelevant to another; yet another industry might need the same basic information but in a very different form. To serve all these constituencies, the book includes several chapters that cover the foundational thermophysical properties (such as gas solubility, phase behavior, thermodynamic properties of solutes, and transport properties) that are of interest across numerous applications. The presentation of these topics is intended to be accessible to readers from a variety of backgrounds. Other chapters address fundamental areas of more specialized interest, such as critical phenomena and molecular-level solution structure. Several chapters are more application-oriented, addressing areas such as power-cycle chemistry and hydrothermal synthesis. As befits the variety of interests addressed, some chapters provide more theoretical guidance while others, such as those on acid/base equilibria and the solubilities of metal oxides and hydroxides, emphasize experimental techniques and data analysis.- Covers both the theory and applications of all Hydrothermal solutions - Provides an accessible, up-to-date overview of important aspects of the physical chemistry of aqueous systems at high temperatures and pressures- The presentation of the book is understandable to readers from a variety of backgrounds

During the past ten years, evidence has developed to indicate that seawater convects through oceanic crust driven by heat derived from creation of lithosphere at the Earth-encircling oceanic ridge-rift system of seafloor spreading centers. This has stimulated multiple lines of research with profound implications for the earth and life sciences. The lines of research comprise the role of hydrothermal convection at seafloor spreading centers in the Earth's thermal regime by cooling of newly formed litho sphere (oceanic crust and upper mantle); in global geochemical cycles and mass balances of certain elements by chemical exchange between circulating seawater and basaltic rocks of oceanic crust; in the concentration of metallic mineral deposits by ore-forming processes; and in adaptation of biological communities based on a previously unrecognized form of chemosynthesis. The first work shop devoted to interdisciplinary consideration of this field was organized by a committee consisting of the co-editors of this volume under the auspices of a NATO Advanced Research Institute (ARI) held 5-8 April 1982 at the Department of Earth Sciences of Cambridge University in England. This volume is a product of that workshop. The papers were written by members of a pioneering research community of marine geologists, geophysicists, geochemists and biologists whose work is at the stage of initial description and interpretation of hydrothermal and associated phenomena at seafloor spreading centers.