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Black smokers are a type of hydrothermal vent found on the ocean floor. Generally hundreds of meters wide, black smokers are formed when superheated water from below the Earth's crust comes through the ocean floor. They are rich in dissolved minerals from the crust, most notably sulfides, which crystallize to create a chimney-like structure around the vent. When the superheated water in the vent comes in contact with the frigid ocean water, many minerals are precipitated, creating the distinctive black color.Black smokers were first discovered in 1977 around the Galapagos Islands by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They were observed using a small submersible vehicle called Alvin. Today, black smokers are known to exist in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, at an average depth of 2100 meters. The temperature of the water they vent can reach 400 °C, but does not boil due to the high pressure it is under at that depth. The water is also extremely acidic, often having a pH value as low as 2.8 -- approximately that of vinegar.
Although life is very sparse at these depths, black smokers are the center of entire ecosystemIn ecology, an ecosystem is a community of organisms (plant, animal and other living organisms also referred as biocenose) together with their environment (or biotope), functioning as a unit. The term ecosystem first appeared in a 1935 publication by thes. Sunlight is nonexistent, so many organisms -- such as archaeaPhylum Crenarchaeota Phylum Euryarchaeota Halobacteria Methanobacteria Methanococci Methanopyri Archeoglobi Thermoplasmata Thermococci Phylum Korarchaeota Phylum Nanoarchaeota The Archaea are a major group of prokaryotes. They were first identified in 197 and extremophileAn extremophile is an organism, usually unicellular, which thrives in or requires "extreme" conditions. The definition of "extreme" is anthropocentric, of course. To the organism itself its environment is completely normal. Non-extremophilic organisms ares -- must convert the heat and sulfurSulfur (or sulphur see spelling) is the chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol S and atomic number 16. An abundant tasteless odorless multivalent non-metal, sulfur is best known as yellow crystals and occurs in many sulfide and sulfate compounds provided by black smokers into energy through a process called chemosynthesisChemosynthesis is the biological conversion of 1-carbon molecules (usually carbon dioxide or methane) and nutrients into organic matter using the oxidation of inorganic molecules (e. hydrogen gas, hydrogen sulfide) or methane as a source of energy, rather. In turn, more complex life forms like clamA clam is any of a number of edible marine bivalve mollusks living in sand or mud on the shores of oceans. Characteristics Clams can be hard-shelled or soft-shelled. The digestible portion of the clam consists of muscles, which allows it to open and closes and tubewormGiant tube worms Riftia pachyptila are marine invertebrates in the phylum Pogonophora (formerly grouped in phylum Annelida) related to tubeworms commonly found in the intertidal and pelagic zones. These giants live over a mile deep on the floor of the Pacs feed on these organisms. The organisms at the base of the food chainSee the Food Network for the basic cable channel. A food chain or more correctly, a food web is a succession of organisms in an ecosystem that serves as continuation of food energy. An organism "lower" in food chain is a source of food energy (is consumed also deposit minerals into the base of the black smoker, thus completing the life cycle.
New and unusual species are constantly being discovered in the neighborhood of black smokers: for instance, the Pompeii worm in the 1980s, and, in 2001, during an expedition to Indian Ocean's Kairei hydrothermal vent field, an armor-plated gastropod. The latter uses iron sulfides ( pyrite and greigite) for the structure of its dermal sclerites (hardened body parts), instead of calcium carbonate. The extreme pressure of 2500 m of water is thought to play a role in stabilizing iron sulfide for biological purposes. This armor plating probably serves as a defense against the venomous radula (teeth) of predatory snails, co-existing in the same community. This snail, which is unique in its kind, has not yet been named.
