Playing It Cool at Ocean Vents

“Black smokers,” or high-temperature hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, have generated a lot of scientific interest since they were discovered forty years ago. By belching hot, mineral-laden water, these vents support communities of microbes and animals far from sunlight.

Octopuses incubate their eggs near the slightly warmer streams of water from cool hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean. Credit: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

But not all ocean vents are hot. Cool hydrothermal systems, or cool vents, are much harder to spot because the fluids they release are clear and only a bit warmer than surrounding water. Yet they could play a major role in releasing minerals into the deep ocean.