1. Juan de Fuca Ridge
Stretching 300 miles along the coast of Washington and Oregon, the Juan de Fuca Ridge is an
underwater volcanic mountain range. Created by the separation of the Juan de Fuca Plate and the
Pacific Plate, the Juan de Fuca Ridge is home to an extraordinary community of life whose
source of energy is not the sun, but sulfur-rich chemicals. Deriving energy
through chemosynthesis, bacteria form the basis of a deep-sea food chain that supports unusual
creatures such as red-and-white tubeworms, deep-sea crabs, and mussels. Undersea springs
called hydrothermal vents release scalding plumes of 400°F lava-heated water. Carrying sulfur-
bearing minerals, the plumes look like black clouds and the vents are thus named “black
smokers.” On contact with frigid seawater, the minerals crystallize and settle on the seafloor
around the vent openings. Over time, the mineral deposits grow like chimneys to heights of a
hundred feet or more. The chemistry of the ocean is controlled, in part, by this transfer of heat
and chemicals through hydrothermal vents, making undersea hot springs important to
understanding ocean systems.
EXPLORE BY THEME

2. Ecological Uniqueness
Exploration and Research
Oceanographic and Bathymetric Features
LEARN MORE
Black Smokers
Expedition to the Underwater Volcanoes of the Northeast Pacific
Biogeography of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Faunas
The Cascade Episode - 37 mya to present
Hydrothermal Vents on the Ocean Floor
Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vents
VIDEO
Hydrothermal Vent Video Clips - From NOAA voyages to the Juan de Fuca
Ridge
Black smokers and tube worms. Photo: NOAA

3. The tube worm Riftia. Photo: NSF, Nicolle Rager Fuller
Divers releasing submersible Alvin. Photo: NOAA