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.
Facts
Climate
Typical Low Temperature (C)This is the ambient deep-sea water temperature around vents, the background against which the vent fluid itself (see temperature-high-c) is far hotter; recorded here as the biome own low figure since it is the water most of the surrounding habitat actually sits in. Typical High Temperature (C)464C is the documented upper extreme of vent fluid temperature itself, ranging from about 60C up to this figure; it is the defining thermal extreme of this biome, not the surrounding ambient water (see temperature-low-c). Disputed
Annual Precipitation (mm)0
Hydrothermal vent communities sit on the deep ocean floor around volcanically active mid-ocean ridges, with no atmospheric contact. The surface-blended precipitation figure used on the Marine, Open Ocean, Neritic Zone and Coral Reef biome entities does not meaningfully apply to a seafloor vent, so 0mm is recorded as the physically honest figure rather than forcing an inapplicable surface figure. Connections
Demonstrates
Home To
Source Riftia (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Hydrothermal Vent (Wikipedia)
WikipediaArticle body, vent fluid temperature paragraph (ambient water figure)
In contrast to the approximately 2 °C (36 °F) ambient water temperature at these depths, water emerges from these vents at temperatures ranging from 60 °C (140 °F) up to as high as 464 °C (867 °F).
Article body, vent fluid temperature paragraph (vent fluid extreme figure)
In contrast to the approximately 2 °C (36 °F) ambient water temperature at these depths, water emerges from these vents at temperatures ranging from 60 °C (140 °F) up to as high as 464 °C (867 °F).
View the Source Riftia (Wikipedia)
Home To: Giant Tube Worm, Habitat and ecology sectionQuote, Home To: Giant Tube Worm, Habitat and ecology section
Riftia worms are sessile and are found clustered together in large colonies around deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the East Pacific Rise and the Galapagos Rift.
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