Deep volcanic vents discovered
5 May 2010 by Evoluted New Media
A British scientific expedition has discovered the world’s deepest undersea volcanic vents in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean – known as black smokers, the vents are 3.1 miles deep and erupt water hot enough to melt lead.
A British scientific expedition has discovered the world’s deepest undersea volcanic vents in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean – known as black smokers, the vents are 3.1 miles deep and erupt water hot enough to melt lead.
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Deep-ocean volcanic vent Credit: National Oceanography Centre |
The vents – half a mile deeper than any previously observed – were discovered by a deep-diving vehicle controlled from the Royal Research Ship James Cook. Autosub 6000 surveyed the seafloor, while HyBIS filmed the vents, which take the form of slender spires consisting of copper and iron ores on the seafloor erupting sea water.
“Seeing the world’s deepest black-smoker vents looming out of the darkness is awe-inspiring,” said Dr John Copley from the University of Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science, “Superheated water was gushing out of their two-storey high mineral spires, more than three miles beneath the waves.”
Deep-sea vents are underwater springs where superheated water erupts from the ocean floor. They nourish colonies of deep-sea creatures and studying life that thrives in this unlikely place is providing insights into patterns of marine life, and possibly of life on other planets.
The team – all scientists from Southampton – will now compare the marine life in the Cayman Trough to that near other vents in order to understand life in the deep ocean. They will also study the chemistry of the hot water gushing from the vents and the geology of the submarine volcanoes to understand the geological and geochemical processes shaping the world.
“We hope our discovery will yield new insights into biogeochemcially important elements in one of the most extreme naturally occurring environments on our planet,” said Dr Doug Connelly, principal scientist on the expedition.
The expedition is part of a research project funded by the UK Natural
Environment Research Council to study deep undersea volcanoes. The team will return for a second expedition using ISIS, a deep-diving remotely-operated vehicle, once a research ship is schedules for the next phase.
