🌋 HYDROTHERMAL VENTS: LIFE WITHOUT SUNLIGHT
PAGE 1 OF 5, HOT CRACKS ON THE SEAFLOOR
VENTS
SUPERHEATED WATER BLASTS FROM SEAFLOOR CRACKS
Far below the sunny waves, Earth's crust has cracks on the ocean floor. Cold seawater sneaks into those cracks, gets heated by rock below, and shoots back out. That blasting spout is called a hydrothermal vent. The water can be hundreds of degrees Celsius, hotter than boiling at the surface. In the dark deep, these vents look like chimneys puffing mineral clouds.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
At deep-ocean pressure, the vent water can stay liquid even when it is hotter than kitchen boiling water.
BLAST!
CRACKS
🪨 Seafloor cracks let cold ocean water slip down into hot rock layers.
🔥 Heat from inside Earth warms that water until it races upward again.
🔥 Heat from inside Earth warms that water until it races upward again.
DARK
🌑 Many vents sit in total darkness, far below where sunlight can reach.
🚤 Scientists visit them in special submersibles with bright lamps.
🚤 Scientists visit them in special submersibles with bright lamps.