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Hot Vents at Home
 Earth acts like a super duper water heater. Any water reaching the blazing hot core of Earth through cracks in the ocean floor will be heated up. Then what happens to it?
What You Need
1 balloon
5 pennies
Food colouring
Tall, clear container
What to Do
1. Stretch open the neck of the balloon and add the pennies. Add a few drops of food colouring.
2. Fill the container three-quarters full of cold water.
3. Run water in a tap until it is warm. Add enough water to the balloon to make it bulge.
4. Pinch the neck of the balloon and place it on the bottom of the container. (If the balloon floats, add more coins or let out some of the water.) Let the balloon go and see what happens.
How it Works
Warm water is less dense, or lighter, than cold water. You can see the plume of warm water rising because it is coloured. As this warm water cools, it begins to fall again. This is similar to what happens in some spots in the ocean. At hot vents, boiling hot water blasts out through the ocean floor. It has been heated by the molten rock at the centre of Earth. This hot water carries minerals. As the water cools, these minerals rain down. In some places, they form chimney-like structures like the one shown on the left.
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