Hydrothermal vents are the result
of seawater percolating down through fissures in the ocean crust
How are hydrothermal vents formed quizlet?
Hydrothermal vents are formed
along divergent plate tectonic boundaries in the deep ocean
. Cold sea water seeps into the cracks and fissures along these boundaries. They are heated by the hot underlying magma under the ocean floor. The hot water is forced back up to the ocean floor, carrying dissolved minerals.
How are hydrothermal vents formed for kids?
Hydrothermal vents are the result
of seawater seeping down through fissures in the ocean crust
. The cold seawater is heated by hot magma and comes back to the surface to form the vents.
How deep do hydrothermal vents form?
Most of the hydrothermal vents that have been investigated have been
more than 2000 meters below the surface of the ocean
because this is the depth at which most of the mid-ocean ridges are found. However, there are places where mid-ocean ridges are much shallower.
How do plate tectonics create hydrothermal vents?
Hydrothermal vents are formed
when the movement of tectonic plates causes deep cracks to form in the ocean floor
. Seawater flows into these cracks, is heated by magma, and then rises back to the surface of the seafloor.
What is a hydrothermal vent in simple terms?
Hydrothermal vents are
the result of seawater percolating down through fissures in the ocean crust
How old are hydrothermal vents?
Many scientists think life got its start
around 3.7 billion years ago
in deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
What are two types of hydrothermal vents?
Hydrothermal vents are often divided into two types: ‘
black smokers' and ‘white smokers'
.
Can anything survive in around a hydrothermal vent?
Most bacteria and archaea
cannot survive
in the superheated hydrothermal fluids of the chimneys or “black smokers.” But hydrothermal microorganisms are able to thrive just outside the hottest waters, in the temperature gradients that form between the hot venting fluid and cold seawater.
Why are hydrothermal vents capable of nurturing deep sea life?
Hydrothermal vents support unique ecosystems and their communities of organisms in the deep ocean. They
help regulate ocean chemistry and circulation
. They also provide a laboratory in which scientists can study changes to the ocean and how life on Earth could have begun.
Where is the hydrothermal vent located?
Like hot springs and geysers on land, hydrothermal vents form in volcanically active areas—often
on mid-ocean ridges
, where Earth's tectonic plates are spreading apart and where magma wells up to the surface or close beneath the seafloor.
How long do hydrothermal vents last?
They become inactive when seafloor-spreading moves them away from the rising magma or when they become clogged. Some vent fields may remain active
for 10,000 years
, but individual vents are much shorter-lived.
What kind of hydrothermal vent is the hottest?
This process – called
amagmatic spreading
– produces water temperatures above 400 degrees C at the Mid Cayman – among the hottest hydrothermal vents ever recorded.
What is the best definition of hydrothermal vent?
:
a fissure in the ocean floor especially at or near a mid-ocean ridge from which mineral-rich superheated water issues
.
How many hydrothermal vents are there?
The team found
184 hydrothermal vents
for 1470 kilometers of ocean floor, or one vent every 2 to 20 kilometers, according to research published online in Earth and Planetary Science Letters . That's far greater than the one vent for every 12 to 220 kilometers that used to be the norm, they reported.
Why are hydrothermal vents important to humans?
Hydrothermal vents act
as natural plumbing systems that transport heat and chemicals from the interior of the Earth
and that help regulate global ocean chemistry. In the process, they accumulate vast amounts of potentially valuable minerals on the seafloor.
