Mission Objective: to obtain Seafloor Massive Sulfide (SMS) Deposits for Mothership
Location: Underwater in the lower southern part of the strait between camp and Drop Point B.
Players involved: Tony Stark runsonbatteries, Samus Aran screwattack, Optimus Prime thanksoptimus, and Dirk Strider getwrecked

SMS deposits are produced on the seafloor in waters that are usually over 4,000 miles deep, where new ocean crust is formed. Just as they are created on earth, seawater is drawn down through the fractures in the oceanic crust, where it makes contact with the hot magma that’s buried underneath. The heated seawater then transforms into a hot, acidic hydrothermal fluid and convection (otherwise known as the transfer of heat from one place to another by the movement of fluids) causes it to rise up again towards the seafloor. On the way, the hot acidic hydrothermal fluid extracts metals from the surrounding rocks, and may interact with other hot fluids rising from the magma chamber. Once these fluids--now carrying dissolved metals and sulfur and at a temperature of four-hundred degrees Celsius--reach the seafloor, they encounter the cold seawater. The sudden change in temperature and ambient conditions causes metals and sulfur to be deposited in solid form as metal-rich sulfide, and accrues on the bottom of the seafloor.

These accretions form chimney-like structures, almost like miniature volcanos, that consist of a central vent mound around the area where the hydrothermal circulation exits, and a wide cone of loose sulfide oozes out of the top. There are two different types of hydrothermal vents: white smokers, which tend to have lower temperature plumes, and emit lighter-hued minerals such as barium, calcium, and silicon. And black smokers, which emits clouds with high levels of iron sulfides (hence the black color), and other rich sulfur-bearing material. The majority of the hydrothermal vents found in the southern half of the strait are black smokers.

There are nine hydrothermal vents in total in the lower southern part of the strait, spaced out from one another. All of which collectively contain a few thousand metric tons of massive sulfide deposits.

The deposits are polymetallic (a substance that contains more than one metal), and just as Mothership requested, they will be bringing back three of each permutation, resulting in twelve samples total. They will differ from one another in both texture and mineral composition, depending on which thermal vent they came from. Some will contain high concentrations of lead, copper, zinc, silver, and gold. Some will be a cocktail of pyrite, sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, and tin. Others will consist of pyrrhotite, bornite, isocubanite, anhydrite, and amorphous silica. And jordanite, stibnite, tennatite, and tetrahedrite.

In addition to the samples, Tony will also be providing a map pinpointing where exactly the vents are located, and what minerals they’re pumping out.