Fluid containing precipitates rises from a "black smoker" chimney at the Tica vent at 9°N on the East Pacific Rise, photographed during a 2004 expedition sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Hot-vent animal communities (such as seen in the foreground of this image from the November to December 1989 expedition) were observed to have been buried by lava flows in 1991. Another eruption in 2005-2006 produced lava flows that covered seismometers.

Photo courtesy of Ridge2000, 2004 (http://www.ridge2000.org/eo/expeditions.php).

This image is made available under the Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 license terms.

Galleries: Geothermal Features | Submarine Volcanoes

Keywords: submarine volcano | vent | hydrothermal | black smoker | geothermal | mineral deposit

Northern EPR at 9.8°N