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<v 3>They sort of fire our imagination about exploration,</v>

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because there are things that are found in the deep sea.

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They've got weird creatures on them. They look strange.

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And I think that people can sort of relate to the alien nature of,

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of the vents that you see at the bottom,

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but they also play a role in chemical cycling in the ocean.

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They play a role in the biology and biogeography of the ocean.

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And it's very important for us to be able to know where these oases of the deep

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are and how they change over time.

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<v 4>Scientists have found hundreds of hydrothermal vents since they were first</v>

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discovered in 1977.

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Today,

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there are many questions about the forces that create hydrothermal vents and the

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ecosystems that live around them.

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I'm Susan Haynes with the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.

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And I recently spoke with two scientists who studied hydrothermal vents.

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Ashton Flinders is a research scientist with the US Geological Survey in Hawaii.

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He's explored volcanoes on land and hydrothermal vents at sea.

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Hey Ashton, it's good to see you today. Hi.

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<v 5>Susan. Thanks for inviting me along.</v>

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<v 4>Can you tell us the difference between hydrothermal vents in the ocean and hot</v>

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springs or volcanoes on land?

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<v 6>Practically the biggest differences associated with them are really just their</v>

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accessibility.

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You can go pretty much right up to a hot spring in most volcanic environments,

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anywhere in the world on land,

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but to reach a hydrothermal vent in the deep sea requires a ship,

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dozens of people, millions of dollars. And that's just to observe it.

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And you're talking a whole another question in terms of,

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if you actually want to take a sample of it or measure something in situ in,

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in the actual setting.

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<v 4>Where do we find hydrothermal vents?</v>

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<v 5>We know that these vents form where there's active volcanic processes and these</v>

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active volcanic processes typically are associated with tectonic environments.

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This is kind of in the full reign from mid-ocean ridges,

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which is our type of divergent plate boundary where new oceanic crust is formed.

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We also find them at what we call convergent plate boundaries,

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so subduction zones.

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And then we also find them kind of in the middle of the ocean,

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away from these tectonic plates that we're familiar with in places we call

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hotspots. So these are areas forming Island, chains hotspot island chains.

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So examples, those are like Hawaii, and Galapagos islands.

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<v 4>How do they form now?</v>

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<v 5>What happens with the hydrothermal vent system is that we have water that's</v>

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percolating down through the oceanic crust,

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fractures and fissures in that volcanic landscape.

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And as it goes down into the shallow oceanic crust,

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it gets in contact with that deep heat source.

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That's forming that mid-ocean ridge.

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So these are the kinds of the magma reservoirs.

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It also becomes buoyant because now it's under more pressure and it's hot and

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it's being heated up and it's forming geothermal water.

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And as it's being heated,

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it's dissolving the minerals that formed the rock that formed that oceanic

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crust. So it starts rising back up and as it rises back up,

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it's eventually comes in contact with cold seawater and that cold seawater,

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catalyzes precipitation. So minerals come out of that hydrothermal solution.

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And as they're coming out of the hydrothermal solution,

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they're deposited on the oceanic floor around them and those form,

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those kind of classic chimney structures that we associate with nitrogen.

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<v 4>I know there are different types of events and different types of chimneys.</v>

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There are black smokers and there are white smokers. What's the difference?

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<v 5>A black smoker is a high temperature hydrothermal vent.</v>

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So really amazingly hot and the fluids from these vents are usually really

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acidic, right? So,

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just like kind of acid and these fans contain high concentrations of what we

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call metal sulfides. These acidic fluids contain metals like copper,

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zinc, lead, and iron.

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<v 4>White smokers, um, are significantly different. They're formed by cooler water.</v>

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That's anywhere from maybe mid two hundreds to 300 degrees Celsius.

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The white smoker fluids are much more alkaline. They're much more basic.

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These white smokers are much more enriched in things like silica,

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barium, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, and it's that,

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calcium and, similar minerals that give them their white color.

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When you're on an ocean exploration vessel, how do you find these vents?

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<v 5>We throw something into the deep ocean. You know,</v>

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we're a couple hundred meters above the sea floor and we look for these telltale

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signs that we might be in a hydrothermal region.

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So we look for heavy metals. We look for increases in temperature.

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We look for decreases in the clarity of the water, from, you know,

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kind of this black or white smoke that's being formed as these hydrothermal

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events are pushing out these fluids,

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they're forming essentially a plume of hydrothermal fluids.

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That's going up into the ocean,

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almost analogous to a plume of smoke in the atmosphere.

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And so we can look for those telltale signs of that plume.

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<v 4>Diva Amon is a deep sea biologist and scientific associate at the Natural</v>

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History Museum of London.

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She's explored hydrothermal vent systems in the Pacific and Southern oceans,

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as well as the Caribbean sea. Hi diva. We're so glad to have you here today.

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<v 7>Hi Susan, my absolute pleasure.</v>

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<v 4>Diva, we spoke with Ashton Flinders about the geology of hydrothermal vents.</v>

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Can you tell us a little bit about the animals that live there?

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<v 7>So the life around these vents is completely amazing and not only is it amazing,</v>

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but it's really abundant and diverse. So for instance, in the Atlantic,

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the vent communities tend to be dominated by shrimp. In the Pacific,

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they tend to be giant tubeworms and in the West Pacific and the Indian ocean,

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we have snails dominating. And then in the Southern ocean,

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we've got Yeti crabs, really ruling the roost. You know,

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most of the animals found at each hydrothermal vents site are much rarer,

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about 60% of the species occur only at one vent

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site. And so it means that these are some pretty unique places.

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<v 4>How do these animals get their energy?</v>

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<v 7>And so they use a process called chemosynthesis and the animals don't. In fact,</v>

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actually bacteria do.

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Bacteria at the base of the food chain down at hydrothermal vent sites.

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And these bacteria via a process called chemosynthesis are

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able to use chemical energy to reduce sulfides and turn them

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into organic compounds, AKA food.

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<v 4>Why are these ecosystems so special?</v>

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<v 7>They're sites where we can gain new knowledge and understanding at that</v>

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intersection of biology and geology, which is really fascinating.

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And because of those extreme conditions at hydrothermal vents,

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many of the animals of course, are perfectly evolved to cope and thrive,

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really.

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And so that means they have some really remarkable genetic properties.

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And so those genetic properties are increasingly being sought after by the

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biotech industry, the medical industry,

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and really they can result in cures for diseases.

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And I think something that's often underestimated about hydrothermal vents and

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the deep ocean in general is that ability to inspire.

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It's not just about what we can get from the deep ocean.

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It's also about that sense of curiosity and wonder that it has for so

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many of us, but importantly,

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I think it can teach us a lot of lessons about exploration and about how we

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could potentially do that on other planets.

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Other planets that have oceans and potentially even have hydrothermal vents.

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<v 4>Some scientists believe that hydrothermal vents might exist on the moons of</v>

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Saturn and Jupiter. Could they support chemosynthetic life too?

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It'll take a while to prove that theory. In the meantime,

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we still more to learn about hydrothermal vents here on earth.

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NOAA and its partners are exploring hydrothermal vents in several ocean basins.

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I wonder what new things we might discover in the years to come!