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hydrothermal vents

            Hydrothermal Vents are considered by scientists to be very unique and complex communities of organisms. The reason for this is due to the fact that unlike most other organisms, Hydrothermal Vents are not powered by the sun's energy. Most organisms on the Earthsurface depend on plants to produce nutrients from sunlight. This process is called photosynthesis. These communities are unique in that they depend on a different food-making process other than photosynthesis. Bacteria at the vents make sugar by a process called chemosynthesis. Rather than light they depend on the chemicals that are released into the water by the vents. Bacteria use chemical energy to produce organic food molecules. The Vent organisms are dependent on the bacteria just as animals at the surface depend on plants for food production. .
             Hydrothermal Vents form at mid-ocean ridges. This is where the planet's crustal plates are slowly spreading apart and magma is coming up from below to form mountain ranges. As cracks form at these spreading centers, seawater seeps a mile or two down into the hot rock. Enriched with minerals leached from the rock, the water heats and rises to the ocean floor to form a vent (Stover). .
             Vents are usually clustered in fields. Individual vent openings typically range from less than a half-inch to more than six feet in diameter. Such fields are normally found at a depth of more than a mile. Most have been discovered along the crest of the Mid-Oceanic Ridge, a 46,000- mile-long chain of mountains that seem to stretch all around the earth. A few vents have also been found at seamounts. Seamounts are underwater volcanoes that are not located at the intersection of crustal plates (Stover).
             Hydrothermal vents provide habitat for many creatures that are not found anywhere else in the ocean. More than 300 new species have been identified since the first discovery of Hydrothermal Vents. Most of these organisms are tube-like worms of varied shapes, colors and sizes.


Essays Related to hydrothermal vents

1. How Deep Sea Fish Survive

... -person submersible alvin tank sank through the cold and inky darkness of the Pacific to find, nearly 8000 feet on the ocean floor, an underwater mountain range with newly formed hydrothermal vents. What they found was a whole new ecosystem. Down in this deep underworld, scientist found species where they thought no living thing could survive. The conditions are a harsh combination of toxic ... chemicals, high temperatures, high pressures, and total darkness. These animals have adapted to these conditions by a variety of ways, including body shape, bioluminescence, vertical migration and...

  • Word Count: 773
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

2. deep sea exploration

... was also found by Alvin. In 1977, while Alvin explored the ocean basin for a geographic research, one scientist discovered hydrothermal vents that were the first ever seen by humans. According to the researcher who found the vents first time, he could not think anything but shouted that Camera, camera, gimme a camera!! (4). From this moment ... , another vents have started to discover all over the world, and we still wonder if it is related to the origin of ... I and II in 1987. This name is similar to the former Russian space lab. Mir is also still active currently and explores lots of ...

  • Word Count: 2371
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Lake Vostok: An untouched, una

... also closely compares to the icecaps on Mars. The bottom of the lake it is laying on a bed of sediment 229 feet thick. Some geologists believe there to be geothermal vents at the bottom of the lake that could give off enough heat and minerals to sustain life forms, similarly to those on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (Columbia University ... entire planet looked something like Lake Vostok, some Columbia University biologists believe. These biologists envision a primitive "snowball Earth" covered in ice with small pockets of water heated by geothermal vents. These geothermal vents may c...

  • Word Count: 2522
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Lake Vostok why should we drillit?

... also closely compares to the icecaps on Mars. The bottom of the lake it is laying on a bed of sediment 229 feet thick. Some geologists believe there to be geothermal vents at the bottom of the lake that could give off enough heat and minerals to sustain life forms, similarly to those on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (Columbia University ... entire planet looked something like Lake Vostok, some Columbia University biologists believe. These biologists envision a primitive "snowball Earth" covered in ice with small pockets of water heated by geothermal vents. These geothermal vents may c...

  • Word Count: 2395
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography

5. The Cost of Space Exploration

... solar system besides Earth where hot water and rocks interact underground." This could lead to the discovery of life on Enceladus not unlike the strange life forms found in hydrothermal vents deep in our oceans on Earth. These organisms on Earth don't even need sunlight to thrive, meaning that there very well could be extraterrestrial life on Saturn's moon. Another major ... ...

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  • Has Bibliography

6. Biology Lab Report - Invertebrates

... that lack a backbone and they make up over 95% of known animal species. Almost every habitat on Earth, "from the scalding water released by deep-sea 'black smoker' hydrothermal vents to the frozen ground of Antartica" is occupied by them" (Reece, 680). The evolution in these miscellaneous environments has produced a vast diversity of forms. They range from a species composed ... ...

  • Word Count: 898
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography

7. Five Kingdoms

... the Moneran group. Archaebacteria are the ancient bacteria. Being the minority of the Moneran group they are only found in extreme environments such as swamps, salt lakes, and deep-ocean hydrothermal vents. Many species of the Moneran kingdom are yet to be discovered. Monerans are also the only group in the five kingdoms that are all prokaryotes. Prokaryotes are one-celled or ... ...

  • Word Count: 782
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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