Here we report the first data for W in hydrothermal vent fluids in the deep oceans. Vented hydrothermal fluids were collected from the Kairei Field, a mid ocean ridge hydrothermal field at the Rodriguez Triple Junction, Central Indian Ridge, and from arc-backarc hydrothermal systems at the Suiyo Seamount in the Izu-Bonin Arc, North Pacific Ocean and at the Hatoma and Yonaguni Knolls in the Okinawa Trough, East China Sea. While the dissolved W concentration in hydrothermal fluids linearly increased with a decrease in the Mg concentration for each system, the W concentration in endmember fluids was very different. It was 0.21 nmol/kg at the Kairei Field, 15 nmol/kg at the Suiyo Seamount, and 123 nmol/kg at the Hatoma Knoll, which was 4 orders of magnitude above the ambient level in seawater. The W concentration was not a simple function of Cl, alkalinity, B, and NH4. The hydrothermal fields are efficiently enriched with W through reaction with fractionated calc-alkaline dacite and with terrigenous sediments. Although Mo is a chemical analogue of W in oxic seawater, the Mo concentration decreased in the hydrothermal fluids to 2- nmol/kg probably due to precipitation of Mo sulfide. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.