Synonyms
Active vent deposit; Black chimney, White chimney; Black smoker chimney, White smoker chimney; Hydrothermal chimney
Definition
Black and white smokers. Chimney-like edifices composed of mixtures of copper-, iron-, and zinc-sulfide minerals and calcium- and barium-sulfate minerals. They form as very hot (up to ~400 °C or 750 °F) fluids exit very young seafloor and mix with cold seawater, with the high-temperature fluids passing through channels within the edifices into the deep ocean.
Introduction
Black and white smokers are the portions of seafloor hydrothermal vent deposits through which ~200 °C–400 °C hydrothermal fluids travel and exit into the deep ocean, <1,000–5,000 m below sea-level. The hot fluids form as cold seawater percolates down into young, still hot seafloor near the spreading axes of the mid-ocean ridges and spreading centers in back-arc basins; during its transit, the seawater exchanges heat and undergoes chemical reactions with the young oceanic crust. The...
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Tivey, M.K. (2016). Black and White Smokers. In: Harff, J., Meschede, M., Petersen, S., Thiede, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6238-1_5
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