What is a hydrothermal environment?

Question

Please a real answer from an informed person.

Answer 1

I actually have studied these. You can have two types of hydrothermal environments. The first are volcanic vents in the bottom of the ocean, like black smokers. I admit I don't know much about those. The second are surface hot sulfur springs and geysers. They are usually heated by magma relatively close to the surfaces. They have specialized bacteria and life that live in these environments, in fact some scientists have presented the hypothesis that it was the hydrothermal vents were where life first originated.

Answer 2

Hydrothermal environment: T = 150 °C to 320 °C P = 275 bar

The hydrothermal environment we hear the most about are probably the hydrothermal vent communities.

Here's a good site to check it out:
http://www.resa.net/nasa/ocean_hydrothermal.htm