Widespread fluid expulsion along the seafloor of the Costa Rica convergent margin

Abstract

Active fluid and gas transport were measured and observed along more than 200 km of the convergent margin of Costa Rica during cruise SO144-2 aboard RV Sonne. Ten profiles were run with the TV-sled OFOS, eight of which detected the dense occurence of cold vent sites. This discovery shows that seafloor fluid expulsion is widely spread along the Pacific margin of Costa Rica. Surficial evidence of fluid expulsion is indicated by the appearance of chemosynthetic vent organisms such as bacterial mats, vesicomyid, solemyid and mytilid bivalves and tubeworms. Numerous active vents were indicated by elevated methane concentrations (≲ 200 nmol L-1) in the bottom water. Although fluid-venting activity was known previously from a small area south of Nicoya Peninsula, the present study documents active seepage at landslides, headwall scarps related to seamount subduction, morphological intersections of faults and mid-slope mud volcanoes.