Mauro Passarella

The SEAS project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101034309. SEAS project is aimed at training future research leaders for the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean, seas, and marine resources. We are an interdisciplinary group of postdoctoral fellows at the University of Bergen, Norway who aim to deliver high-quality research with a positive, on the ground impact. Our goals are healthy marine ecosystems and equitable livelihoods.

My position at Centre for Deep-Sea Research (supervised by Associate Prof. Andreas Beinlich) is linked to the Arctic spreading ridges, with a main focus on spreading processes, hydrothermal activity and formation of mineral resources. My work will be concentrated on laboratory simulations of mafic/ultramafic rock-fluid interactions at subcritical and supercritical condition (max T=400˚C / max P=400 bar), in flow-through. These conditions are active in the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (AMOR) in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea at sub-seafloor hydrothermal conditions. The study will give the opportunity to explore fundamental geochemical processes occurring in the submarine AMOR environment, as for example: rock physical property changes (porosity, density, rheology), formation of economic mineral deposits (Seafloor Massive Sulfide, SMS, deposits) and energy source for seafloor microbial vent communities. In addition, during the laboratory experiments, particular attention will be also given to the study of CO₂ behaviour at different T-P. This will permit a better comprehension of the mechanisisms that regulate the carbon capture and storage (CCS) in oceanic environment. In previous experimental works, some insight was gained into the fluid-rock exchanges that gave rise to the fluid chemical signature. However, many fundamental questions involving the equilibrium and kinetic aspects of reactions, and secondary mineral formation from fluid-rock interaction, remain. In addition, the chemical evolution of the fluid compositions and the elemental fluxes of major and trace elements, with respect to pressure-temperature conditions over time, are still poorly understood.