Today on National Geographic's website, a news release displaying the first ever sound recording of "black smokers". The mysterious deep ocean feature has been explored previously, however recordings have always failed. "Just by looking at them, it is really surprising they wouldn't be making noise," said Timothy Crone, a doctoral student in oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle.
"They're violent little features."
Water shoots out of the fastest and largest black smokers at about 300 gallons (1,135 liters) a minute—twice the flow from a typical fire hose and enough to fill a bathtub in a few seconds.
The discovery of the sounds may help scientists study how vent flows respond to tides, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
Such information, Crone said, is key to understanding the cycling of chemicals from the Earth's crust into the ocean.
Most instruments used to measure flow, however, are short-lived when inserted in the scalding hot, acidic, and mineral-rich fluid.
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