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Black Smoker.
This image is from a numerical simulation of a Mid-Atlantic "Black Smoker"
hydrothermal vent. The plot shows the temperature field and fluid flow directions
within the fractured ocean crust. A hot magma source at a depth of 2 km
below the ocean floor heats the fluid to about 400 degrees C. Due to thermal
buoyancy, the fluid rises, bringing cooler seawater in from the boundary
flanks. The vertical gray lines, 500m apart, represent fluid-filled fractures
within the crust.
The term "Black Smoker" is derived from the precipitation of dark sulphide
minerals where the hot fluid within the primary fracture zone discharges
to the cold seawater. The simulations can be compared to observed thermal
gradients along the sea floor, thereby inferring subsurface structure.
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