Ocean Floor Hydrothermal Vents

Ocean vents are a type of hydrothermal vent.

Ocean floor hydrothermal vents. Yeti crabs cram into their habitat near a hydrothermal vent in the east scotia ridge located between south america and antarctica. So what s the big deal. Ocean vents eject hot often toxic fluid s and gas es into the surrounding seawater. A hydrothermal vent is a fissure on the seafloor from which geothermally heated water issues.

The cold seawater is heated by hot magma and reemerges to form the vents. In the 1970s when we found vents we saw organisms getting their energy from hydrogen sulfide but not directly. Along mid ocean ridges where tectonic plates spread apart magma rises and cools to form new crust and volcanic mountain chains. National environment research council.

Seawater circulates deep in the ocean s crust and becomes super heated by hot magma. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at spreading centers ocean basins and hotspots. They are found in both the pacific and atlantic oceans and concentrated near the mid ocean ridge which winds its way along the seafloor around the globe. Hydrothermal vents are found at an average underwater depth of about 7 000 feet.

What have we learned from studying deep sea vents. An ocean vent sits over a deep fissure in the ocean floor.