Hydrothermal Vents

http://www.flickr.com/photos/noaaphotolib/5015582586/

Dive and Discover!

1) How and where are hydrothermal vents created?

They form in places where there is volcanic activity, such as along the Mid-Ocean Ridge.

Cold ocean water seeps into the earth’s mantle and gets heated to incredibly high temperatures.

The hot water/steam is ejected from a fissure in the ocean floor.

2. What are the vent chemical processes?

http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/vents/vent-chemistry.html#

1. Cold seawater sinks down through cracks in the crust.

2. The fluids have reached their highest temperatures. Copper, zinc, iron, and sulfur from the crust dissolve in the fluids.

3. Hot fluids carrying dissolved metals rise up through crust.

4. The hydrothermal fluids mix with cold, oxygen-rich seawater. Metals and sulfur combine to form black metal-sulfide minerals.

3. What are similarities and differences of Chemosynthesis vs. Photosynthesis?

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/nemo/education/curr_p1_12.html

• Photosynthetic animals use the sun’s light energy to reduce carbon to get energy. Gives off oxygen.

• Chemosynthetic animals use sulfide from hydrothermal vents to reduce carbon compounds to get energy. Produces sulfur.

• Both methods involve an energy source: 1) Carbon Dioxide and 2) water to produce sugars.

4. What are the chemical reactions for photosynthesis and chemosynthesis?

Sunlight Photosynthesis:6CO2 + H2O > C6H12O6 + 6O2

In the above reaction, sunlight supplies the energy to convert carbon dioxide and water to glucose and oxygen.

BacteriaChemosynthesis: 6CO2 + 6H2O + 3 H2S > C6H12O6 + 3H2SO4

In the above reaction, hydrogen sulfide supplies the energy to convert carbon dioxide and water to glucose and hydrogen sulfide.

Answer: 1. What is different about the two reactions?2. What is similar about the two?

5. Where were they 1st discovered?Hydrothermal vents were first discovered in 1977

near the Galapagos islands.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/11/5-things-everyone-should-know-about-galapagos.php

6. What is the Angus Mission?Angus Mission (1977):

8,250 feet deep for periods of 12 – 14 hours.

Temperature: 36 degrees Fahrenheit.

Photographs: 30,000 pictures of barren rock.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/noaaphotolib/5424699937/

*This is not Angus but Alvin another famous research submersible

7. What life forms exists in these extreme

conditions?

Mr. Bantay in front of a Hydrothermal vent display at the New York City Museum of Natural History.

Video: Hydrothermal Vents

http://www.flickr.com/photos/neptunecanada/5058251236/