Cold seep
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A cold seep is an area of the ocean floor where seepage of fluids rich in hydrogen sulfide, methane, and other hydrocarbons occurs, often in the form of a brine pool. Cold does not mean that the temperature of the seepage is lower than that of the surrounding sea water; on the contrary, its temperature is often slightly higher. The "cold" is relative to the very warm conditions of a hydrothermal vent. Cold seeps constitute a biome supporting several endemic species.
These craters mark the formation of brine pools, from which salt has seeped through the seafloor and encrusted the nearby substrate.
Bacterial mat consisting of sulfide-oxidizing bacteria Beggiatoa spp. at a seep on Blake Ridge, off South Carolina. The red dots are range-finding laser beams.
A mussel bed at the edge of the brine pool
"Roots" of tubeworms also provide a supply of hydrogen sulfide from the sediment to the bacteria inside these tubeworms.
Seabed
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The seabed is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'.
Common stingray foraging for invertebrates in seafloor sediment.
gravel seabed in Italy
white sand seabed in Mexico
sand seabed in Greece