GEOTHERMAL VENT

Hydrothermal vent

is a fissure on the seafloor from which geothermal

heated water discharge

Hydrothermal vent are commonly found near

volcanically active place, area where tectonic
plate are moving apart of spreading centers
•Occur near the oceanic ridges. Cold, dense seawater
seeps down through fractures in the ocean floor and gets
heated to very high temperatures by the hot mantle
material.
•The heated water then forces its way back up through the
crust and emerges in hydrothermal vents, or deep-sea hot
springs.
• As the hot water seeps through cracks in the earth’s
crust, it dissolves a variety of minerals.
• When the mineral-laden hot water emerges at the
vent, it mixes with the surrounding cold water and is
rapidly cooled.
• This causes many of the minerals to solidify, forming
mineral deposits around the vents in chimney-like
structures called smokers. The “smoke” is actually a
dense cloud of mineral particles.
Types of Smokers
• White smokers
are warm water vents (10-20°C) and they have lower
temperature compared to black smoker vent ,because there
are generally distant from their heat source
containing white particles of barium sulfate

• Black smokers
are hot water vents (350°C - 400°C) containing black metal
sulfides