How are hydrothermal vents formed quizlet?

Hydrothermal vents are formed along divergent plate tectonic boundaries in the deep ocean. Cold sea water seeps into the cracks and fissures along these boundaries. They are heated by the hot underlying magma under the ocean floor. The hot water is forced back up to the ocean floor, carrying dissolved minerals.

How are hydrothermal vents formed for kids?

Hydrothermal vents are like geysers, or hot springs, on the ocean floor. Along mid-ocean ridges where tectonic plates spread apart, magma rises and cools to form new crust and volcanic mountain chains. Seawater circulates deep in the ocean’s crust and becomes super-heated by hot magma.

How deep do hydrothermal vents form?

In early 2013, the deepest known hydrothermal vents were discovered in the Caribbean Sea at a depth of almost 5,000 metres (16,000 ft). Oceanographers are studying the volcanoes and hydrothermal vents of the Juan de Fuca mid ocean ridge where tectonic plates are moving away from each other.

Where do hydrothermal vents form in the oceans?

Like hot springs and geysers on land, hydrothermal vents form in volcanically active areas—often on mid-ocean ridges, where Earth’s tectonic plates are spreading apart and where magma wells up to the surface or close beneath the seafloor.

What are hydrothermal vents and how do they work?

Hydrothermal vents are essentially underwater geysers created by tectonic plates. These huge plates in the Earth’s crust move and create cracks in the ocean floor.

How do hydrothermal vents support living things?

Hydrothermal vent communities are able to sustain such vast amounts of life because vent organisms depend on chemosynthetic bacteria for food. The water from the hydrothermal vent is rich in dissolved minerals and supports a large population of chemoautotrophic bacteria.

How hot can hydrothermal vent get?

The water coming directly from a hydrothermal vent can reach up to 350°C (662°F) and is rich in dissolved chemicals. The hot spring water forms a plume above the vent, somewhat like smoke rising from a chimney into the air.

What happens at a hydrothermal vent?

Hydrothermal venting occurs when seawater penetrates into the ocean crust, becomes heated, reacts with the crustal rock, and rises to the seafloor as fluid and gas. VENTS studies the hydrothermal fluids and gas that are found at vents and in the surrounding seawater.