Dr. Anna Lichtschlag 

Temporal Variability of Hydrothermal Activity at the Kemp Caldera, Southern Ocean

Submarine hydrothermal vents are of global importance as they return buried substances from the Earth’s interior to the seafloor and thus, over geologic times, control the composition of seawater and provide essential elements to the biosphere. In addition, they support complex ecosystems of organisms that have developed unique adaptations to these systems in otherwise often only sparsely inhabited parts of the ocean. However, due to their generally remote locations we often have only snapshots of the geochemical processes that proceeded at these hydrothermal sites, their spatial distribution and especially their evolution over time. One exciting example of hydrothermal activity is the Kemp caldera, located in the southernmost part of the Atlantic, where unique morphological features and many different types of hydrothermal venting exist. In this project I collaborate with scientist from the Universität Bremen to combine dataset from several German and UK expeditions to the Kemp caldera and work on geochemical data from sediment cores to explain the long-term variability of the hydrothermal activity of the Kemp caldera. Ultimately these analyses will help us to better understand the geochemical, biological and morphological evolution of hydrothermal systems and their driving forces and hence their impact on the planet.