Read this excerpt from Exploring the Titanic. In 1979, off Baja California, we made the most spectacular discovery of all – the amazing black smokers. These underwater vents belch out fluids hot enough to melt lead, and shoot them straight up from the ocean floor through chimneys of lava. What are black smokers? spouts in the ocean floor a type of lead that is found in lava vents that divers bring underwater a nickname for fluids found underwater