Submarine hydrothermal vents occur over a wide depth range from a few meters to several thousands of meters. Most existing hydrothermal fluid samplers are focused on deep-sea environments and are not suited for collec...Submarine hydrothermal vents occur over a wide depth range from a few meters to several thousands of meters. Most existing hydrothermal fluid samplers are focused on deep-sea environments and are not suited for collecting shallow-water fluids. In this study, a new gas-tight sampler which can be easily deployed by both submersibles and scuba divers to collect fluid samples from both deep-sea and shallow-water hydrothermal vents is presented. The proposed sampler uses an electric control sampling valve for fluid collection and a system to measure and display the temperature of the hydrothermal fluid while sampling. It is capable of working in manual mode to be controlled via external signals, or in automatic mode to collect a fluid sample according to the temperature. The master-slave architecture of the electronic system makes the sampler flexible in meeting many different deployment requirements. The performance of the sampler has been demonstrated by preliminary field tests at a shallow-water hydrothermal vent site.展开更多
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （No. 41106081）, and the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China （No. 51221004）
文摘Submarine hydrothermal vents occur over a wide depth range from a few meters to several thousands of meters. Most existing hydrothermal fluid samplers are focused on deep-sea environments and are not suited for collecting shallow-water fluids. In this study, a new gas-tight sampler which can be easily deployed by both submersibles and scuba divers to collect fluid samples from both deep-sea and shallow-water hydrothermal vents is presented. The proposed sampler uses an electric control sampling valve for fluid collection and a system to measure and display the temperature of the hydrothermal fluid while sampling. It is capable of working in manual mode to be controlled via external signals, or in automatic mode to collect a fluid sample according to the temperature. The master-slave architecture of the electronic system makes the sampler flexible in meeting many different deployment requirements. The performance of the sampler has been demonstrated by preliminary field tests at a shallow-water hydrothermal vent site.
