Glossary

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Black Smokers
The structures known as black smokers form when the superheated water emerges on the seafloor and meets near-freezing ocean water. The minerals in the water separate, or precipitate, out and become solid particles. These particles can either build the chimney of the black smoker (much as a bricklayer builds the walls of a house) or rise in a plume of hot water that can look like black smoke.