Definitions for "Black smoker"
The cloud of suspended minerals formed where hot water spews out of a vent along a mid-ocean ridge; the dissolved sulfide components of the hot water instantly precipitate when the water mixes with seawater and cools.
A vent on the seafloor from which hydrothermal fluids are emitted. On mixing with seawater and cooling, the fluids precipitate a cloud of fine-grained sulfide minerals that resembles a cloud of black smoke.
a deep-sea hydrothermal (hot water) vent