What are cold puffs and hydrothermal holes?

Cold penetration and hydrothermal openings are structures found on the bottom of the ocean that support biomes completely independent of solar energy. Cold sulfur sulfur, methane and other hydrocarbon -rich fluids slowly release, while hydrothermal openings release geothermal heated water rich with the same melted minerals. Since ocean floors are usually 2-3 miles (3.2 - 4.8 km) from the surface, these biomas for millions of years are completely dark. They are also heavily pressurized due to the weight of water over-hydrothermal ventilation opening and cold biomas usually have the surrounding pressure several hundred times larger than on the surface.

Cold persecution and hydrothermal ventilation openings are the only long -term biomes whose primary producers do not depend on photosynthesis. Instead of photosynthetic bacteria or plants forming the spine of the ecosystem, this function is operated by chemotrophic bacteria and archaea, which have close symbiotic relations to heterotrophic organisms that consume them.In return, there are larger organisms -worms, clams and shrimp -consumed them to survive.

In addition to the diverse biota, which the hydrothermal holes and cold leaks, they also have interesting geological features. Hydrothermal holes may include black smokers, geysers that depict cloudy water at 400 ° C (752 ° F) or white smokers, approximately the same temperature, but instead of black white clouds. Because the pressure at these depths is so large, the water does not cook and instead remains in the liquid phase. When the overheated solutions come into contact with cold water, minerals are switched rapidly to create chimney structures that can grow up to 60 m (197 ft) before the collapse.

Cold pleasures resemble lakes at the bottom of the ocean. Cold persecution releases their fluids in the form of brine, which are thickening typical water, settling along the bottom. Along the edges of these brine lakes we observeMany thousand shells living from chemotrophic bacteria that feed on sulphides and methane that leak from the cold. Cold persecution, which is more stable than hydrothermal openings, contain some forms of life with a long life, including pipes that live between 170 and 250 years, the longest of all non -colonial invertebrates.