Geochemistry of fluids from submarine hot springs at Punta de Mita, Nayarit, Mexico

Abstract

Thermal springs with a maximum measured temperature of 89°C discharge hot water and gas from a depth of 11 m, 400 m offshore of Punta Pantoque, located in the northern part of Bahìa de Banderas, near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The composition of all water samples collected from the sea bottom is close to that of sea water. Nevertheless, it was possible to estimate the thermal endmember composition by extrapolating the sulfate concentration to zero. This endmember is similar in chemical composition both to waters of the Rio Purificacion and La Tuna thermal springs, located to the South along the Pacific coast of the Jalisco Block, and to pore waters from the deep-sea drilling cores from some accretionary complexes. Gas composition as well as isotopic composition of He and carbon from CO2, CH4 and C2H6 suggests an essentially thermo-biogenic origin for the gas and the presence of a high proportion of radiogenic, crustal helium. Isotopic composition of He in the Punta de Mita gas (0.4 Ra) is the lowest ever measured in Mexican hydrothermal gases. These findings do not support the idea that there exists a direct connection between the Punta de Mita springs and the last volcanic events which occurred in this area at V3 Ma. Rather, this hydrothermal activity is related to deep active faulting and the existence of a deep regional aquifer or local aquifers of connate waters underlying the granites of the Jalisco Block.