Lucky Strike - A newly discovered hydrothermal site on the Azores platform

I the fall of 1992. a joint U S French cruise (the FAZAR expedition) surveyed and sampled the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between 33°N and 42"N in order to identify potentially active ridge segments of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that might be sites of hydrothermal activity. During this cruise, a dredge haul recovered sulfides and live hydrothermal animals, including mussels and shrimp, from the top of a large seamount on the Azores Platform. In late May /early June 1993, a team of U.S., French and Portuguese scientists carried out a six-dive, multidisciplinary Alvin program to find and sample the active hydrothermal vent sites within the "Lucky Strike" vent field. Eight discrete active vent sites and a large area of relict sulfides were discovered. Massive sulfides, basalts, hydrothermal fluids and