Thread: How are hydrothermal vents examples of lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere

interactions? I'm really confused

Black smokers and white smokers (both of which are hydrothermal vents) are mechanisms whereby ions are removed from (mostly) basalt (the crustal portion of oceanic lithosphere) and placed in ocean water (the hydrosphere). These vents, along with upwelling basaltic lava, provide thermal energy (heat) that hosts a large community of plants and animals in a region devoid of sunlight energy. Some biologists think this may have been the place where life originally formed, since a thick water column provides an excellent shield from solar radiation, which destroys fragile organic chemicals necessary for life. The ozone layer and the magnetosphere currently provide that shield for land and shallow marine organisms..