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Some hydrothermal vents form roughly cylindrical chimney structures. These form from minerals that are dissolved in the vent fluid. When the superheated water contacts the near-freezing sea water, the minerals precipitate out to form particles which add to the height of the stacks.
Hydrothermal circulation in the oceans is the passage of the water through mid-oceanic ridge systems. The term includes both the circulation of the well-known, high-temperature vent waters near the ridge crests, and the much-lower-temperature, diffuse flow of water through sediments and buried basalts further from the ridge crests. [3]
Hydrothermal vents are the direct contrast with constant temperature. In these systems, the temperature of the water as it emerges from the "black smoker" chimneys may be as high as 400 °C (it is kept from boiling by the high hydrostatic pressure) while within a few meters it may be back down to 2–4 °C. [12]
New seafloor forms in places where magma is forced upward toward the surface at a mid-ocean ridge and cools to form volcanic rock. The hydrothermal vents spew into the cold sea the super-heated ...
The evidence suggests that deep-sea hydrothermal vent viral evolutionary strategies promote prolonged host integration, favoring a form of mutualism rather than classic parasitism. [32] As hydrothermal vents outlets [clarification needed] for sub-seafloor material, there is also likely a connection between vent viruses and those in the crust. [39]
A rare but important terrain feature found in the bathyal, abyssal and hadal zones is the hydrothermal vent. In contrast to the approximately 2 °C ambient water temperature at these depths, water emerges from these vents at temperatures ranging from 60 °C up to as high as 464 °C.
In the deep water, hydrothermal vents may occur where chemosynthetic sulfur bacteria form the base of the food web. Marine ecosystems are characterized by the biological community of organisms that they are associated with and their physical environment.
Water content in magma determines how explosive a volcanic eruption is; hot water is the main conduit for economically important minerals to concentrate in hydrothermal mineral deposits; and water plays an important role in the formation and migration of petroleum. [123]
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