Hydrothermal vents are geysers
on the ocean floor.
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents form along
mid-ocean ridges,
the
volcanic
undersea mountain ranges where new seafloor is created.
Before seafloor vents were actually
observed,
their existence was
predicted
because new oceanic crust cools more quickly than otherwise
expected.
Cold
seawater
penetrates
deep into cracks in the earth's crust.
Heat from the rock is transferred to the water along with many
different kinds of
minerals.
Once the water is heated, it rises rapidly, rushing out of cracks in the ocean floor. The scalding vent fluid mixes with cold ocean bottom seawater and creates a rising plume of warm water. This plume is often black where it leaves the vent because mineral particles precipitate when hot vent fluid and cold seawater mix.
Fantastic mineral deposits are created where this hot water exits the seafloor. These structures are usually made of metal sulfides.
The chemicals
contained in the vent fluids support a thriving
ecosystem
on the ocean floor. This ecosystem is completely independent of the
sun's energy.
Microbes,
some
symbiotic,
combine vent chemicals with oxygen and use the resultant
energy to make food and to grow.
Large animals
populate the
sulfide mounds
and the surrounding bare
lava,
living on the energy harnessed by the microbes.
Exploring the seafloor is a surreal privilege at the birthplace of oceanic crust, where the hottest life on earth resides. The tight coupling in vent environments between traditional disciplines such as geology, chemistry, physical oceanography, and biology challenges scientists to integrate information from all branches of science to understand the nature of deep-sea hydrothermal systems.