New research suggests that surface - generated eddies help distribute heat, chemistry and life at deep -
ocean hydrothermal vents
Pohlman believed chemosynthetic bacteria, like the kinds found around deep -
ocean hydrothermal vents, must be the answer.
Not exact matches
More amazingly, we now know that beneath the crust of Enceladus is a global
ocean of liquid saltwater and organic molecules, all being heated by
hydrothermal vents on the seafloor.
Bacteria thrive virtually everywhere on Earth — from sub-zero temperatures to over 750 degrees F (in
hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the
ocean), and in widely varying oxygen, pressure and nutrient conditions.
Yet we know that life on Earth can thrive in extreme conditions: from the Antarctic (where temperatures can drop to almost -90 °C) to
hydrothermal vents on the
ocean floor (where temperatures can exceed 460 °C).
We started finding the same organisms that people were reporting from deep - sea
hydrothermal vents [where hot, mineral - laden fluid flows through volcanic rock into the
ocean from deep within the Earth].
We found that the particles seen in our images, which were droplets of
ocean only hours earlier, bore evidence of large organic molecules and compounds that indicated
hydrothermal activity similar to that observed at deep - sea
vents on Earth's seafloor.
Since then, many other possible crucibles have been identified: deep underground, in the open
ocean, by
hydrothermal vents on the
ocean floor, on a radioactive beach and on the surface of a lump of clay.
These include a groundwater sample found nearly 2 miles deep in a South African gold mine and at
hydrothermal vents on the
ocean floor.
Related sites Scientific report from
Ocean Drilling Program cruise Research on
hydrothermal vents off the Pacific Northwest coast Andrew Fisher's home page
This chemical reaction between rock and water occurs, for example, in
hydrothermal vents on the
ocean floor.
Plunging into the
ocean off the west coast of Vancouver Island, the more than 800 kilometers of fiber optic cables that connect the research stations stretch across the continental shelf, plummet down the slope and across an abyssal plain, and skirt
hydrothermal vents near a mid-
ocean ridge where the Earth gives birth to new
ocean crust.
Hydrothermal vents pulse hot water out of the seabed and into the
ocean.
More than 540 international expeditions sailed to coral reefs,
hydrothermal vents, seamounts, and open
ocean waters to assemble a comprehensive picture of the diversity, habitats, and abundance of animals and microbes living in the sea.
The authors argue that it comes from
hydrothermal activity on the
ocean floor, perhaps seafloor
vents like those on Earth that spew H2 and support rich microbial life.
The organisms likely survive using mechanisms similar to the ever - increasing parade of creatures that have been discovered living in the total darkness of
hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the
ocean, deriving energy from minerals in seafloor rocks.
Map of current land and ice separating the Weddell and Ross seas, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons / Wutsje / CIA Octopuses have made themselves at home in most of the world's
oceans — from the warmest of tropical seas to the deep, dark reaches around
hydrothermal vents.
And other data suggest that this
ocean sits on a rocky mantle that could be dotted with
hydrothermal vents — potential hotspots for life.
A marine biologist describes her upcoming mission to some of the deepest
hydrothermal vents in the
ocean
They can be several tens of metres tall, and grow as minerals are deposited when the hot water meets the cold
ocean water at the outlet of the
hydrothermal vents.
University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography scientist Aron Stubbins joined a team of researchers to determine how
hydrothermal vents influence
ocean carbon storage.
Geysers and deep - sea
vents are
hydrothermal phenomena in which water, heated and pressurized by molten rock, is released through
vents at the land surface or into the
oceans.
Lead scientist Jeffrey Hawkes, currently a postdoctoral fellow at Uppsala University in Sweden, directed an experiment in which the researchers heated water in a laboratory to 380 degrees Celsius (716 degrees Fahrenheit) in a scientific pressure cooker to mimic the effect of
ocean water passing through
hydrothermal vents.
The entire
ocean volume circulates through
hydrothermal vents about every 40 million years.
«Deepest high - temperature
hydrothermal vents discovered in Pacific
Ocean.»
A study described here today at the American Geophysical Union's biennial
Ocean Sciences Meeting shows that RNA's chemical building blocks fall apart within days to years at temperatures near boiling — a finding that poses problems for some origin of life theories, especially ones picturing that life arose in scalding settings such as deep - sea
hydrothermal vents.
The model therefore reinforces the idea that there is strong heat production in Enceladus's deep interior that may power the
hydrothermal vents on the
ocean floor.
The RNA world might have been born in clay, Ferris argued, perhaps the clay that coated the
ocean floor around
hydrothermal vents.
Forty years ago when
hydrothermal vents on the
ocean floor were first discovered, scientists were amazed to find life where no sunlight penetrated, feeding off of sulfur gases.
At certain hotspots, the
hydrothermal fluids
vent back into the
ocean.
Hydrothermal vents may have existed once on Mars and may still exist in an
ocean under Europa's icy crust, some scientists say, making them prime targets in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Hydrothermal vents, where heated, mineral - laden seawater spews from cracks in the
ocean crust, are home to various diverse organisms.
We have shown that
hydrothermal vent fluids contain almost none of the organic carbon which accumulates in the
oceans, which means that
vents are a sink for this unreactive «stored» carbon.»
Dr Jeff Hawkes, the lead author of this study, from the NOC said: «There has been a long outstanding question about whether
hydrothermal vents are a source or sink of organic carbon to the
oceans.
Europa has a global
ocean locked away beneath a crust of ice; deep below, the moon's internal heat might create hospitable conditions, akin to
hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the mid-Atlantic ridge and East Pacific Rise on Earth.
Further analysis of these organisms may shed light on how the fauna living at
hydrothermal vents to the east and west of them, in the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans, are genetically related.
To study the movement of
vent products, the researchers set up sediment traps and current meters near the
hydrothermal vents along the East Pacific Rise, an
ocean ridge located about 800 kilometers off the southern coast of Mexico and a mile and a half below sea level.
One question that has long and intensively been discussed in research is: Where and how deep does seawater penetrate into the seafloor to take up heat and minerals before it leaves the
ocean floor at
hydrothermal vents?
Three new papers co-authored by Mike Russell, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., strengthen the case that Earth's first life began at alkaline
hydrothermal vents at the bottom of
oceans.
This alien - like creature is actually an
ocean worm (Nereis sandersi) that lives near
ocean - floor
hydrothermal vents in the Atlantic.
What we have found out since then: These «black smokers,» also called
hydrothermal vents, exist in all
oceans.
The acetate is a product of methane and hydrogen from the alkaline
hydrothermal vents and carbon dioxide dissolved in the surrounding
ocean.
The pathways for the
hydrothermal vents at a mid
ocean ridge are marked clearly.
But the dominant theory nowadays is that primitive microorganisms first assembled in hot, chemical - rich water at
hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the
ocean.
Each contained jumbles of DNA sequences collected from environments such as soil, the
ocean,
hydrothermal vents, industrial effluent, and cow and baboon faeces.
Now, new research offers a potential solution: Longer RNA chains could have hidden out in porous rocks near volcanic sites such as
hydrothermal ocean vents, where unique temperature conditions might have helped complex organisms evolve.
He has done similar work aboard ships, rocking and swaying high above
hydrothermal vents on the
ocean floor, when he wasn't in the submersible itself, exploring the steaming depths.
Scientists working off the California coast use chemical - sniffing probes, robotically driven subs, and seafloor - tethered temperature sensors to watch flows of lava pave over a once - thriving ecosystem at
hydrothermal vents several kilometers below the
ocean's surface.
To study the animal, Cary goes on cruises to
hydrothermal vents like the one located in the Pacific
Ocean's Mid-Oceanic Ridge, about 1,200 miles off the coast of Costa Rica.
Enceladus data point to a liquid
ocean under the icy crust and
hydrothermal vents at the south pole.