Chimney — precipitated minerals
Black smoke — metal sulfides
Tube worm plume — symbiotic bacteria
This 2D cross-section simulator shows a deep-sea black-smoker vent from the side: superheated, mineral-rich fluid escapes a chimney on the seafloor and billows upward into near-freezing bottom water, precipitating dissolved metal sulfides into a dark plume as it cools. Raise the vent temperature to widen the gap between the fluid and the surrounding 2°C water and speed the plume's rise, or raise the mineral concentration to thicken the smoke and the sulfide crust building the chimney. Tube worm colonies and bacterial mats cluster around the base, running entirely on chemosynthesis — bacteria that oxidize hydrogen sulfide from the vent fluid instead of using sunlight — and the chemosynthesis readout rises and falls with how much fuel the plume is delivering.