![]() ![]() Two years after the first vent was found off Galápagos, scientists exploring another mid-ocean ridge a few hundred miles north found never-before-seen geysers of hot, dark, mineral-rich fluid erupting from tall, chimneylike structures jutting up from the seafloor. It was pretty amazing to find these creatures.” ![]() “It was like processing a nonlinear equation. “Everyone sat around speechless,” said Ballard. Along with photosynthesis, there was chemosynthesis supporting an entirely new kind of ecosystem in the abyss. The long-held notion that life at the bottom of the ocean couldn’t exist without food that rained down from the sunlit surface was tossed out the window. ![]() Just microbes converting carbon dioxide in the ocean into organic compounds-for themselves and for their hosts. The microbes were hosted symbiotically by the strange creatures of the deep, which provided shelter in exchange for food. Communities of microbes fed off chemicals in the vent fluids. It turns out that nutrients and chemicals belching out of the vents were fueling a rich and productive ecosystem. The heat stimulates chemical reactions that pull in minerals and chemicals from the rocks, before the fluids percolate back up through vent openings as a chemical-laden soup. Cold seawater seeps into cracks in the seafloor and can be heated up to a raging 750° F (400° C) by interacting with magma-heated subsurface rocks. Hydrothermal vents form in volcanic areas where subseafloor chambers of rising magma create undersea mountain ranges known as mid-ocean ridges. Foot-long clams and human-sized tube worms with tulip-looking heads made the already extraterrestrial landscape look, well, alien. There were no biologists aboard-because no one had expected the second shocking discovery that came soon after: Life was thriving in the abyss. They unveiled a discovery that would turn our understanding of life on Earth on its head: Warm water was drifting out of the seafloor along the Galápagos Rift.īallard, along with a team of thirty marine geologists, geochemists, and geophysicists, had found the world’s first known active hydrothermal vent. The photos had been taken by cameras towed 8,000 feet (2,500 meters) below the surface on a platform called ANGUS. “I think there’s shimmering water right over here to the left, coming out right off the top.” It was February 1977, and Robert Ballard, a marine geologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), sat aboard the research vessel Knorr 400 miles off the South American coast, staring at photos before him. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |