Ocean AdVENTure!

Ocean AdVENTure
Geology

Underwater Chimneys!

The geological features of vents are just as bizarre as their biology. Some are topped with chimneys of various shapes, sizes, and colors. Chimneys are formed when the dissolved metals in the hot, acidic, salty vent water precipitate out in the cold, less saline, less acidic seawater.

Smoker #1 (536k) || Smoker #2 (801k)

These images are of two smokers, one a glistening white chimney with
three jagged tops, and the other purplish and beige with flatter tops.
Both are discharging super-hot streams of water into the surrounding ocean.

Black smokers precipitate zinc, copper and iron atoms that combine with sulfur in seawater to form sulfide minerals. Some sulfides in chimneys are radioactive. Cooler white smokers often contain elements such as barium, calcium and silica.

Geologists have discovered a new mineral, magnesium hydrosulphate hydrate, in chimneys. It is called, appropriately enough, caminite, from the Latin word for chimney.

The influence of vent fauna on vent mineralization and vice versa is only beginning to be understood. Marine geologists Debra Stakes and Terri Cook believe that tube and other types of worms help build templates for black-smoker chimneys with barite molds of their bodies.

For a closer look at the exciting, multidisciplined vent research going on at the Juan de Fuca Ridge and elsewhere under the auspices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's VENTS program, check the VENTS program Website at <http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/>.

Chimneys grow quickly-- up to 9 m (30 feet) in 18 months. Geologically speaking, this is phenomenally quick growth. Godzilla, a chimney off the Oregon coast, was as tall as a 15-story building before it collapsed.

This image shows a picture of the 15-story high vent known as "Godzilla."
We will not take a sample of the chimneys for analysis.

Go on to the Significance section! -->
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