Hydrothermal Vent Community 
Animation created by,
University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies.
Manganese
Bacterial Mat
Heads
Tubes
First Image
Front
White Vent
A
Match
Calcium Deposits Cut Away 1 & 2
Back
All three have a
Teardrop Shape This vent held this Pompeii Worm
Live Pompeii Pompeii
Sketch
Tube Worms*
Rhyolite Pumice
w/Shell Mussel Shell
Vent Top
Fossil Vents
Tiny Worms
Fossil Worms
Cronus
Obsidian
Trilobite
Fossil
Fish Bone
24" x 16" x 8"
Fossil Worm
Bee Hive Vent
Room Full
I discovered this Hydrothermal Vent Community, here in Florida. I initially thought,
they were meteors, or perhaps some shrapnel created by the impacting, of a meteor. Just
such a meteor, struck the north coast of the Yucatan, 60 million years ago. It has been calculated, that the blast from that impact would have thrown
the debris, over 600 miles away. The atmosphere is approximately 60 miles up, beyond that,
you're in outer space. So for these vents, to have traveled 600 miles, they would have
been in outer space, for part of the trip. So they could have been meteors, as well as
vents. To travel 1200 miles, meant a catastrophe of immense proportions, and the vents,
and all the water associated with them, would have been thrown into outer space.
But after researching
for a while, I discover, an accordion shaped, organic material, on the side of one of the
rocks, this find lead me to Craig Cary's Site. When I search the web for "accordion shaped
animals", page after page came up about the Pompeii Worm.
It's the highest heat tolerant animal on earth, and are also thought to be, one of the
first multi-celled animals. When I got to Cary's site, I realized I had discovered
Hydrothermal vents, and not meteors. But that didn't explain how the vents got here. Or
the reason why, I was finding evidence, pointing to the vents landed here in Florida,
landing in a northeast direction. 
Then I found a pair of Trilobites, on the same vent, which houses the Pompeii Worm. It seems that trilobites went extinct 250 million years ago, during the Great Permian Extinction. This find, would indicate, that the Pompeii worm is between 250 to 290 million years old. It's level of preservation is outstanding, it's still flexible, and you can find out why this is still possible, at: London Museum of Natural History
For your knowledge, there are no geological records indicating the existence of any Hydrothermal Vents ever existing in Florida. No Hydrothermal Vent deposits - nothing. I've check the US Geological Survey, and check with geologists at the local colleges, and all confirm there are no records of Hydrothermal Vents ever existing in Florida. The closest known vents are 1200 miles from Florida to the southwest, yet I've got over 200 examples, locally collected.
The closest Hydrothermal Vents to Florida are, 1200 miles southwest, as the vents fly, some 200 miles west of Mexico, and approximately 2 miles deep in the ocean.
Research Sources and Reference Links
Click on image to view a Flash Presentation.
Exploring Geysers on the Seafloor
The Physics of Hydrothermal Dynamics
As Applied To A Black Smoker Vent.
Website © LaszloArt 2004-2009
All Rights Reserved
*Worms placed in rock as an example.
