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Grades 6-8

Student Investigation: How Black Smoker Chimneys Form

Grade Level:

6th – 8th (Geology/Chemistry)

Lesson Description:

Near spreading centers or subduction zones cold seawater percolates down through fissures in the ocean crust, is heated by hot magma, and reemerges, forming hydrothermal vents. At some vents known as black smokers, rocky chimneys can rise more than 50 meters from the sea floor. In this investigation, students explore how a solid forms from the mixing of two liquids and use the science ideas they develop to explain the phenomenon: How do chimneys form at black smoker hydrothermal vents?

Lesson Components:

Standards:

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS): 

  • Performance Expectation: MS-PS1-2
  • Disciplinary Core Ideas: PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter; PS1.B: Chemical Reactions

Ocean Literacy Essential Principles: 

  • Principle 1: FC b

Supporting Images/Videos:

Vent Formation Demonstration. Video courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration.
Download larger version. (mp4, 11.2 MB)

Supplemental Materials:

Introductory Activity

Fact Sheets

Exploration Notes – stories from the field

Poster