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Vent Flange
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The Lost City hydrothermal system is dramatically different from those that form black smokers in almost every way. The chimneys are hosted on mantle rocks that are >1.5-2 million years in age, not young volcanic rocks like basalt. They are made out of calcium carbonate minerals, not iron sulfides, and they have fluids that are basic, not acidic. The distinct nature of these chimneys results from the fact that the Atlantis mountain is made out of magnesium-rich rocks formed deep within the Earth.
