Hydrothermal vents

Today we are north of the High Rise Vent Field, up north of the Mothra Vent Field. NEPTUNE Canada replaced the northeast mooring with a new one. The old mooring came up and the new one went down. Our dear friend CCGS Tully is still helping us in replacing the mooring today. I took a photo of the Tully from the computer lab:)

CCGS John P. Tully

We are actually in a very significant area, since it is a paradise of hydrothermal vents! Here is called Endeavour segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. It is 10 kilometers long and 1kilometer wide. It is like a valley while having 250 meter high hills on both sides.

Endeavour segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge

To understand what a hydrothermal vent is, we need to look into words separately. Hydro - thermal - vent:
Hydro: anything to do with liquid
Thermal: anything to do with heat
Vent: simply vent

Given the puzzle; hydrothermal vent should be something about hot liquid venting.

There are five Hydrothermal vents in Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. From south to north:

• Mothra Vent Field
• Main Endeavour Vent Field
• High Rise Vent Field
• Salty Dawg
• Sasquatch

Hydrothermal Vents

The tremendous amount of energy released from these hydrothermal vents is about the same as a middle size nuclear power plant! The superheated water goes up and cold water is forced to fill the displaced volume at the bottom. This circulation creates convection current within the axial valley.

More on hydrothermal vents.

As a physics note: Increase in temperature is the increase in kinetic energy of molecules. So, something hot has more energy than something cold.

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator


PS. Due to the technical issues with our internet connection, this entry from yesterday is posted today.

Photo Credits: CSSF-ROPOS/NEPTUNE Canada