Snowblower vents

Many vent microbes are symbionts. Others form dense filamentous mats, such as the sulfide oxidizers Beggiatoa (oxic) and Thioploca (hypoxic). Similar mats probably develop subsurface within hydrothermal conduits. These subsurface mats are ejected into the water column during first stage of vent formation. The resulting explosive discharge of this biomass, which has the appearance of a white floe, has given rise to the term snowblower vent. The ejected microbes are thought to eventually settle back down onto the seafloor where they increase in number to form surficial mats that support the successional colonization of vent animals. 

Snowblower Vents Post-eruptive venting of sulphur-rich floe Following seafloor volcanic eruptions, abundant matter may be expelled from a type of newly-formed, low-temperature hydrothermal vent (e.g. Haymon etal., 1993 ... 

Fig. 8.2 Erupting snowblower vent at Axial Volcano (JDFR).

These flakes are clumps of fat and happy bacteria,. .. See YouTube video Deep-Sea Snowblower Vents, www.youtube.com/watch v=Ki0boGH4-Kc. 

Fig. 8.3 Scanning electron microscope photomicrograph of floe material from a snowblower - type vent at Axial Volcano, JDFR. The material is dominated by sulphur with little carbon, though it is presumably a microbial product. Scale Bar = 20 pm. Photomicrograph and compositional analysis by C. Levesque.

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