Hydrothermal vents begin to form beneath the seafloor where superheated water flows through cracks in the earth's crust, becoming enriched with dissolved elements from the crust that the water can contain only at extreme temperatures. When it rushes out and mixes with cold seawater, the dissolved elements from the hydrothermal fluid react with elements in the cold seawater, forming new minerals. These minerals precipitate out of the vent fluid and form piles of sediment on the surrounding seafloor, like the mineral sediment in the image above. Image courtesy of UCSB, Univ. S. Carolina, NOAA, WHOI.
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