Page 8 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

The origin of sulphur
Sulphur is thought to have been made in the stars as enormous temperatures and pressures caused elements of lower atomic weight to fuse together.
Native sulphur is formed in many environments associated with volcanic activity, and the characteristic bright yellow sulphur crystals can be seen in many rocks surrounding volcanoes as well as in the rocks formed near geysers. Sulphur is found in most of the Earth’s rocks, often as a sulphide, as well as in small amounts in all living tissue. It is also associated with salt domes.
Undersea volcanic activity
Many of the world’s volcanoes erupt under the deep oceans along lines where the Earth’s crustal plates split apart. At these places water seeps into the rocks and combines with the sulphur gases rising from the magma below the ocean floor. This produces eruptions of superheated acidified water which can also contain dissolved elements such as iron, zinc and copper. Flows of such water are called hydrothermal vents.
As the water flows out into the cold ocean, the cooling hydrothermal water can hold less and less sulphur in solution, and the sulphur starts to crystallise out. Over time, vents can become the sources of vast deposits of sulphur compounds called sulphides. The sulphides are compounds with other elements such as copper and iron, and as such provide potentially vital sources of metal ore.
Also...
In the deep reaches of the ocean, a wide range of
living creatures depend on sulphur for life. These places have little oxygen, but a wide variety of sulphur-using bacteria have evolved that make their tissues using sulphur instead of oxygen. These form the
basis of a food chain that includes worms and clams.
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