A hot spring on the ocean floor, where heated fluids
exit from cracks in the Earth's crust. Most hydrothermal
vents occur along the central axes of
mid-oceanic ridges, which are underwater mountain
ranges that wind through all of the deep oceans.
Florida Atlantic University. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute contribution 1362
This manuscript is an author version with the final publication available
and may be cited as: Goldfarb, M., & Young, C. M. (2002). Hydrothermal vents. In McGraw-Hill
encyclopedia of science & technology: an international reference work in twenty volumes including an
index, 9th ed. (vol. 8. pp. 724-727). New York: McGraw-Hill.