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Other Atlas

Worldbuilding

Deep Sea Vents

Deep Sea Vents

Deep sea vents (hydrothermal vents) are fissures in volcanically active areas of the seafloor where heat and minerals escape from the earth. These vents may be a crack or, overtime with the deposit of minerals, may have built into a column that continues to spout heated mineral-enriched water from its tip. Deep sea vents are a unique underwater biome because they offer both heat and bacteria-rich water in an otherwise cold and barren deep-sea environment. They are often an oasis of strange life.

In fictional worlds, deep sea vents may pose a terrain hazard during recovery of a shipwreck, may be the territory of a great leviathan (or the place it keeps its eggs), or an important source of heat or power for underwater civilizations.

Active hydrothermal vents are thought to be present on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, as well as Enceladus, a moon of Saturn.

Water from the vents can range in temperature from 60 – 464 °C or 140 – 867 °F

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