Geological setting and ecology of the Broken Spur hydrothermal vent field: 29°10'N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Hydrothermal activity within the Broken Spur vent field is controlled by a combination of recent volcanic and tectonic activity. Three sulphide mounds, with high-temperature fluid vents, and two weathered sulphide mounds, with low-temperature fluid seeps, are aligned across an axial summit graben that lies along the crest of a neovolcanic ridge within the axial valley floor. The fauna colonizing the vents are distinct, at least at a species level, from those found at other hydrothermal sites on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Low populations of the bresiliid shrimp, in an otherwise active and long-established hydrothermal habitat, suggests that the hydrothermal activity at Broken Spur is in a state of change and may have been recently rejuvenated. -from Authors
