Thursday, March 13, 2008

Megaplumes

Megaplumes once were a mystery to scientists around the world, but now a few have been spotted, and they are no longer a mystery. In this essay I will tell you what a megaplume is, where some have been found, and why they are unique.
A megaplume is a cloud of slightly warmed water that is rapidly discharged from a hydrothermal vent. This is caused because of a rise of magma to a higher elevation. This whirlpool-like cloud contains concentrations of many dissolved minerals and gasses. They are only found under water, and cannot form on land. In case you were wondering, a hydrothermal vent is a volcanic hot spot that emits gasses. Megaplumes were once described as “an atom bomb down there.” So that shows that they have tremendous power, and they are quite big. In fact they can be up too 200km wide!
Two megaplumes have been found in the Pacific Ocean above the Juan de Fuca undersea ridge. They were only 45km away from each other. These two were spotted by scientist Edward T Baker. But these weren’t the only ones found. A couple have also been located in the Indian Ocean as well. There have not been very many recorded.
Megaplumes are a unique feature in our oceans. They are unique for multiple reasons. There are only a few recorded, and water is heated up in that area. Also they are unique because they are only found underwater.
Now you know more about megaplumes. They are very rare to find and are only found underwater. These are also very unique because the water heats up almost a whole degree in that one area. Megaplumes were once a mystery to the world, but thanks to Edward T Baker they no longer puzzle scientists. AH4

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

you had a lot of good information about megaplumes, good job!
-JZ1

Anonymous said...

Good work. You explained megaplumes very well.

NV2

Anonymous said...

i didn't know what a megaplume really was until now. thanks for the informational lesson. [CT3]

Anonymous said...

wow great job, i never knew that a megaplume could streach 200km wide!

Anonymous said...

I never knew what megaplumes were I thought they were a flower ,but now I know what they are. You did a great job. AH5