The InterRidge Global Database of Active Submarine Hydrothermal Vent Fields (the “InterRidge Vents Database”) is now available at: http://www.interridge.org/irvents
Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive list of active and inferred active (unconfirmed) submarine hydrothermal vent fields for use in academic research and education. Version 2.0 has 554 vent field listings (in the 5 March 2010 release). It is comprehensive for active and inferred active (unconfirmed) submarine hydrothermal vent fields discovered through to the end of 2009. The full database is uploaded into a Drupal 6 Content Management System. Taxonomy terms with controlled vocabulary were introduced for Activity, Tectonic Setting, Region, Ocean, National Jurisdiction, and Maximum Temperature Category. Each unique Vent Field Name ID is matched to a hierarchical vocabulary Feature ID for the same vent field in the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS).
