You've probably seen or heard of natural hot springs on land, like Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park. Similar phenomena occur under the oceans within midocean ridge volcanoes and are called deep-sea hydrothermal (hot water) vents. They are known as black smokers.
These black smokers are chimneylike structures made up of sulfur-bearing minerals or sulfides that come from beneath Earth's crust. They form when hot (roughly 350¡C), mineral-rich water flows out onto the ocean floor through the volcanic lava on a mid-ocean ridge.
Where are they?
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents occur along the midocean ridges. Several different vents have been discovered since the first site was found in 1977 near the Galapagos Islands by earth scientists in the small research submersible ALVIN.
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents support extraordinary ecosystems deep beneath the surface of the oceans. These ecosystems are the only communities on Earth whose immediate energy source is not sunlight. Life on Earth, and even possibly on other planets, may have formed in environments similar to these.
The photo seen below are tube worms near a black smoker. Each of those tube structures is actually a worm. Tube worms are one type of life that is found near hydrothermal vents. Tube worms vary in size depending on where they live.
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