Download HYDROTHERMAL VENT PPT

HYDROTHERMAL VENT
CHAPTER 42
Video-Hydrothermal vent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LoiInUoRMQ
Galapagos rift
• An area of the Pacific floor where the plates
that form Earth’s crust are separating.
• Vents emitting superheated water, black with
sulfur and miners were found by geologists.
Organisms surrounding the
hydrothermal vent
Mussel
Crab and
tubeworms
Role of sulfur bacteria
• Sulfur bacteria serve as the primary
producers. They harvest energy from
hydrogen sulfide discharged from cracks in
Earth’s crust. This process is called
chemosynthesis.
• Animals of the vent communities feed on
these bacteria. Some animals consume them
directly.
Giant tubeworms
• They harbor the bacteria within special organs
in their bodies. In this relationship, the
bacteria provide high-energy carbon
compounds, and the tubeworm provides
hydrogen sulfide.
• They live for 170250 years old.
Bacteria living in the vent
• Can survive at high temperatures.
• Scientists are investigating as to how the
enzymes and other proteins of the bacteria
function at temperature that would destroy
the proteins in our bodies.