Probably yes in connected fractures or transiently opened pore space, especially where a transform fault admits circulating seawater; a uniform water-filled porous layer several kilometres thick is not guaranteed. Porosity and permeability of a porous medium generally decrease as cracks close or seal, while ongoing faulting can reopen pathways. Fluid can occur at high pressure and temperature, including a supercritical state; it need not resemble cold surface water.
Several complementary tests address presence and origin:
- Geological: recover fresh cores or dredged fault rocks. Hydrous alteration assemblages, veins, serpentinite replacing peridotite, and altered gabbro record water-rock interaction. Sealed fluid inclusions can preserve former fluids. These establish fluid access in the past; they do not by themselves demonstrate currently connected free pore fluid.
- Geochemical: analyse sampled fluids and fluid inclusions for salinity and chlorine, oxygen and hydrogen isotope ratios, and strontium or boron isotope ratios in alteration products. Compare with seawater, host rocks, and possible magmatic or metamorphic sources. A seawater-like input modified systematically by water-rock interaction supports deep circulation from the ocean. Exchange, isotope fractionation, mixing and phase separation mean that altered fluids need not retain the exact surface composition.
- Geophysical: combine seismic tomography, Compressional-to-shear wave speed ratio and seismic attenuation with magnetotelluric sounding or controlled-source electrical measurements. A connected saline fluid network can reduce electrical resistivity and change elastic wave speeds. Sample hydrothermal vents, measure heat flux and, if drilling is possible, make direct pore pressure and permeability measurements.
No one anomaly uniquely identifies water. Seismic velocity can also reflect cracks, composition and temperature; electrical conductivity can reflect melt or conductive minerals. Serpentinization demonstrates incorporation of water into minerals, which must be distinguished from fluid currently occupying pore space. At an oceanic transform fault, an external seawater supply is the natural first hypothesis, but isotope ratios and chemical budgets can test contributions from deep fluids rather than presuming the source. A research example of coupled deformation and hydrothermal alteration is Mass transfer and fluid flow during detachment faulting and development of an oceanic core complex, Atlantis Massif by Chiara Boschi and others; a detachment system illustrates the methods without proving identical flow at every transform fault.
Articles by others on the same topic
There are currently no matching articles.