2023-04-20 05:01:49
Pythia’s Oasis is the name of a seafloor crack discovered a few years ago in the Central Oregon segment of the Cascadia subduction in the Pacific Ocean.
This focused ventilation emits highly altered fluids, with 9°C above background temperature. Added to this is the fact that the chemical composition of these fluids is unique in the fault zone and includes an extreme enrichment of boron and lithium and a depletion of chloride, potassium and magnesiumas reported by the Initiative for Regional Cabled Array Ocean Observatories.
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Eight researchers from the washington university They undertook the task of investigating the finding that was made in 2015 and came to the conclusion that the fluids come from the compaction of pore water and from mineral dehydration reactions with minimum origin temperatures between 150° and 250°. °C, which places the origin at or near the plate boundary, off the coast of Oregon Centralwhich extends from Northern California to Canada, as mentioned in the journal Science Advances.
This crack that is located within the Cascadia submarine fault, is unlike any other seepage point described so far along active margins, with unprecedented fluid chemistry. Besides, It is located in the subduction zone of two tectonic plates, the Juan de Fuca plate and the North American plate.
According to the research, the almost fresh water that escapes through the hole can act as a tectonic lubricant, which if it fails might affect the plate it sits on and lead to disaster.
This geological accident would be capable of triggering a magnitude 9 earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, and the hole might be the fuel the falla of Cascadiasay the experts.
The finding of the crack
This deposit was discovered in 2015 by Brendan Philip, a graduate of the University of Washington, who was tracking methane bubbles that naturally rose from the seafloor at the edge of the continental shelf.
For the investigation, the ROPOS remote-controlled vehicle was used to follow the plume to a strange opening in the seafloor from which sediments and methane-rich fluids gushed.
The deposit is located regarding 4 hours steam from Newport, Oregon.
A “trench” several meters deep surrounds the collapse zone. The area is teeming with life: rock fish, hagfish, anemones, sea cucumbers, crabs, snails, soft corals, and clams.
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