Coupled hydrothermal venting and hydrocarbon seepage discovered at Conical Seamount, Papua New Guinea.

ABSTRACT: During research expedition SO299 with the German RV Sonne, we discovered the first deep-sea hydrothermal vent system along the Tabar-Lihir-Tanga-Feni island chain in northeastern Papua New Guinea. The Karambusel vent field is hosted by a volcanic center on the western flank of Conical Seamount that formed ~ 89 ka ago. Karambusel is remarkable in that it hosts both a fossil high-temperature, gold-rich mineralization and an active low-temperature (< 51 °C) vent system precipitating arsenic-, antimony-, thallium-, and mercury-rich sulfide minerals. Chemosymbiotic fauna is associated with the vent system and we identified more endemic species than in previous studies on nearby seeps. Our study shows that the magmatic event at Karambusel likely triggered the epithermal mineralization at Karambu

SUBMITTER: Brandl PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12449473 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature