Introduction

Back in the old days before 1994, students had to use textbooks, magazines, television and the library to collect information. These are still good things, but now you can also use the World Wide Web. Explore the Internet links on this page and look for good facts, quotations, examples, images, sound clips and video files. Imagine that you're an explorer in cyberspace and your job is to come back from a virtual journey with lots of artifacts and souvenirs to teach people back home what you learned! What's collected can then be pinned on a classroom bulletin board, pasted into an in-class newsletter, featured in a student-made slide show, or posted as a Web page.

The topic of hydrothermal vents or 'black smokers' as they are known, with their unique geology and ecology, is very well catered for on the Web. There is an abundance of photographs, diagrams, maps, movies and other resources to illustrate this unique environment.

Keep this question in mind as you work:

What's it all about? How do the links on this page describe what we're studying?

Instructions

1. Explore the Internet sites linked below. You're looking for facts, quotes, examples, images, sound clips, videos, and animations that you think are important aspects of the topic.

2. When you find something you like, check its Web page for a copyright notice. Often, students are encouraged to copy things that will only be used in the classroom. Sometimes people don't want their work copied at all. A good practice is looking for an e-mail link on the page and then using it to ask permission.

3. Copy any text you want by dragging across the words, then using the Edit - Copy command on the menubar. Paste what you highlighted into a basic text editor, word processor, desktop publishing program or multimedia program.

4. Save images you like by downloading them. Paste the images you've downloaded into a multimedia, paint or desktop publishing program (like Powerpoint, FrontPage, Adobe Photoshop Elements or Appleworks for MAC OS X that will save files as PowerPoint presentations which can be opened in Windows PowerPoint.

   Sample Tutorials
   

   How to Make a Slide Show with PowerPoint

   PowerPoint 2000 Tutorial

   Appleworks 6 - a brief set of instructions for using Appleworks 6 includes Presentations on page 7 Appleworks Overview as .pdf

   Graphics tools are provided with digital cameras and scanners and may be all you need to make a slide show.

5. Be prepared to cut anything that copyright owners tell you they don't want you to have.

6. Once you have collected your information, go over it carefully so that you can give clear and thoughtful reasons why you found the things you collected especially important.
   

The Internet Resources

Background Information

• The Discovery of Marine Hydrothermal Vents - from Ocean Link Website
• Key chemical in life creation - ammonia - created at hydrothermal vents - a summary of an article published in Nature, from Spacenews

• Life with Toxic Sulfide - this illustrated talk from Access Excellence covers three environments including hydrothermal vents

• Submersible Vehicles - from Oceans Alive
• Black Smokers - an online expedition to 'black smokers' including life forms, formation, and oceanographic vessels, from American Museum of Natural History

• Black smoker fossils and vent fauna - description of a volcanic massive sulfide deposit formed by ancient hydrothermal vent activity from Natural History Museum

• Looking for clues to our mineral wealth - from NOVA, Australian Academy of Science, describes the concentration of minerals around 'black smokers'

• Into the Abyss - from NOVA online from PBS online, this comprehensive site covers life in the abyss, oceanographic vessels and tools and a timeline of discovers in the deep, with images

• Black Smokers - from Savage Seas, PBS online

• Beneath the Sea: Life Above Boiling - a Web feature from PBS Online, an interview with Bob Ballard the oceanographer who discovered 'black smokers'

• Black Smoker Chimneys - from Access Excellence

• Vent Animals - from Access Excellence

• Creatures of the Thermal Vents - description of a variety of organisms found at hydrothermal vents, from Ocean Planet, Smithsonian Institute

• Lessons From Deep, Hot Places - account of personal experiences of hydrothermal vents from the Ocean Research Foundation, University of Victoria

• Oases on the ocean floor - gives coverage of the issues facing research and development of hydrothermal vents - from World Wildlife Fund

• The emergence of life from iron sulphide compartments at a submarine hydrothermal redox and pH front - a detailed scientific article from Origin of Life Research at University of Glasgow

• Cooking up Life - from Science Now
• Strange Oases in Sea Depths Offer Map to Riches - an article from New York Times relating to the mineral deposits associated with 'black smokers'

Current News

• A Deep Sea Hydrocarbon Factory - from University of Minnesota
• Exploring the Deep Frontier 2004 an amazing 21-day expedition to hydrothermal vents - from Univeristy of Delaware
  
• First Public Images of Hydrothermal Vents in Indian Ocean - short article from Scientific American News

• FAQ Answers about Deep Sea Biology - from Ask a Scientist at Ocean Link
• Scientists Discover Novel Type of Hydrothermal Vent - short article from Scientific American News

• Exciting New Discoveries in Submarine Hydrothermal Systems, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands - from USGS
  

• The Light at the Bottom of the Ocean: Oceanographers struggle to explain a strange glow from seafloor vents - an article from Science News Online

• An Undersea Quest for New Life - a report from a 1997 expedition to investigate 'black smokers', from The New York Times on the Web

• Alvin's Log: DISPATCHES FROM THE DEEP - logs from the 1997 expedition, from The New York Times on the Web

• Scientists Determine How Chemistry Keeps Weird Worms 'Out Of Hot Water' At Steaming Deep-Sea Vents - an article from the News Center at University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies

• Seafloor 'chimney' recovered - an article on BBC News

• 'Lost City' found on Atlantic floor - an article from BBC News

• Scientists Discover Secrets of 'Lost City' - article accompanied by maps and photos of geology of a hydrothermal vent, from National Science Foundation

• Huge New Hydrothermal Vent System Found on Seafloor - from National Science Foundation News

• New type of hydrothermal vent looms large - article from Science News

• Life As We (Didn't) Know It - from Science@NASA

• Cast-Iron Foot: Undersea snail has mineral armor - from Science news
  
• Scientists Succeed at First-Ever Attempt to Sequence DNA at Sea - excellent photographs from National Science Foundation

Photos, maps, diagrams and animations

• Formation of Black Smokers - Image
• 'Black Smokers' on the Sea Floor - brief description and images of how 'black smokers' form, from United States Geological Survey

• Hydrothermal Environments on the Ocean Floor - part of a resource developed by Wayne County regional educational service agency on extreme environments

• Hot Vents - from The Biological Sciences State University of New York at Stony Brook, has excellent images of vents, vent creatures and oceanographic vessels

• Scientists Learn How Tube Worms Colonize Hydrothermal Vents - short article from Scientific American News

• An anatomy of a Hydrothermal Vent - diagram and explanantion of a hydrothermal vent from Scientific American

• Exploration: Submarine Ring of Fire - an online exploration of the ocean floor with information on many related topics such as vent chemistry, accompanied by a image gallery, from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration

• Hydrothermal Vent Geochemistry - comprehensive coverage of the chemistry of hydrothermal vents from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration

• Hydrothermal Plume Studies - details of a project set up to investigate the distribution and evolution of hydrothermal plumes, from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration

• Exploring the deep ocean floor: Hot springs and strange creatures - brief motes but excellent images of vent organisms and oceanographic vessels, from United States Geological Survey

• Seafloor Geology - explores the geology of the seafloor including hydrothermal vents, from Extreme 2000: Voyage to the Deep, University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies

• Toxic Chemistry - covers chemosynthesis, bacteria and tools used to investigate the hydrothermal vents, from Extreme 2000: Voyage to the Deep, University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies

• High Tech Tools - oceanographic vessels and tools used to investigate hydrothermal vents, from Extreme 2000: Voyage to the Deep, University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies

• Mission and Crew - covers the expedition and crew involved from Extreme 2000: Voyage to the Deep, University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies

• Life in the Extreme: Tubeworm - from Planet Ocean, DiscoverySchool.com

• Black Smokers - Collection of photographs, from University of Heidelberg

• Savage Earth: Black Smokers - from Savage Earth, PBS online

• Black Smokers and Giant Worms - good coverage of organisms and food chains at hydrothermal vents, from the Remarkable Ocean World

• Habitats: Hydrothermal Vents - Characteristics - from Office of Naval Research, following pages cover hydrothermal vent life and humans and this unique environment

• Habitats: Hydrothermal Vents - Hydrothermal Vent Life - from Office of Naval Research

• Mollusks from hydrothermal vents - from Conchologists of America, scroll to bottom of page

• Sample location and characterization - images, diagrams and maps showing locations from University of California Berkeley

• Deep Sea Vents: Life at the Extreme - short article with excellent images from National Geographic Magazine with images

• Dendronotus comteti Valdés & Bouchet, 1998 - a rare creature from a hydrothermal vent, an Australian Museum site

• Hot Vents & Lava - excellent images from New Millenium Observatory, NOAA

• Deep sea aliens or long lost relatives? - short article with great images, from the Lab, ABC

• Chemosynthesis - from NOAA

• Chemosynthesis - from Voyage to the Deep

Audio & Video

• Life in Extreme Environments - movie from University of Delaware showing various life forms of the hydrothermal vents

• NEPTUNE Videos - gallery of Quicktime videos of hydrothermal vents and their ecology, from Washington State University

Interactives

• Hydrothermal Vents - a number of interactive investigations that explore the formation of hydrothermal vents from Dive and Discover at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

• Vent Biology - life forms of the hydrothermal vents from Dive & Discover, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution