Gas venting rates from submarine hydrothermal areas around the island of Milos, Hellenic Volcanic Arc

Gas seeps were located, by echo sounding, SCUBA divers and ROV observations, at hydrothermal sites around the island of Milos, in the Hellenic Volcanic Arc. Samples were collected by SCUBA divers and by a ROV from water depths between 3 and 110 m. Fifty-six flow rates from 39 individual seeps were measured and these ranged from 0.2 to 18.51 h−1 at the depth of collection. The major component, 54.9–91.9% of the gas, was carbon dioxide. Hydrogen (≤3%), methane (≤9.7%) and hydrogen sulphide (≤8.1%) were also measured. Hydrothermal free gas fluxes from the submarine hydrothermal areas around Milos were estimated to be greater than 1010 moles y−1. It was concluded that submarine gas seeps along volcanic island arcs may be an important carbon dioxide source.