by admin on Saturday, March 13, 2010 17:28 under Interesting Facts.
Read full story
- Black smokers are natural chimneys on the sea-bed. They billow black fumes of hot gases and water.
- Black smokers are technically known as hydrothermal vents. They are volcanic features.
- Black smokers form along mid-ocean ridges where the tectonic plates are moving apart.
- Black smokers begin when seawater seeps through cracks in the sea floor. The water is heated by volcanic magma, and it dissolves minerals from the rock.
- Once the water is superheated, it spews from the vents in scalding, mineral-rich black plumes.
- The plume cools rapidly in the cold sea, leaving behind thick deposits of sulphur, iron, zinc and copper in tall, chimney-like vents.
- The tallest vents are 50 m high.
- Water jetting from black smokers can reach 662°C.
- Smokers are home to a community of organisms that thrive in the scalding waters and toxic chemicals. The organisms include giant clams and tube worms.
- Over 2500 m below the surface black smokers spew out hot water, black with mineral-rich mud. Around them grow tubeworms, some as long as cars.
- Each drop of sea water in the world circulates through a smoker every ten million years.
