Hydrothermal Vent

A hydrothermal vent is a deep-sea biome centered on fissures in the ocean floor where geothermally heated water discharges, typically near volcanically active mid-ocean ridges such as the East Pacific Rise and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where tectonic plates are pulling apart. Water emerging from a vent can range from about sixty degrees Celsius up to as high as four hundred sixty four degrees Celsius, an extreme contrast with the near-freezing water of the surrounding deep sea. Despite total darkness and crushing pressure, the areas around hydrothermal vents are unusually productive, because the community food chain runs on chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea that draw energy from dissolved chemicals in the vent fluid rather than on sunlight, supporting giant tube worms, vent clams and specialized shrimp species found almost nowhere else on Earth.