Scientists aboard the research vessel Atlantis have discovered five new deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites on the seafloor at 2,550 m (1.6 miles) depth. The venting fluids are all hotter than 300 degrees Celsius (570 degrees Fahrenheit).
The human occupied vehicle Alvin arriving at the seafloor. Image credit: J. McDermott, Lehigh University / T. Barreyre, CNRS / R. Parnell-Turner, Scripps Institution of Oceanography / D. Fornari, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution / National Deep Submergence Facility / Alvin Group.
Hydrothermal vents are rich in chemicals that supply energy to animal life, fueling rich and productive ecosystems.
The new hydrothermal vent sites were discovered by a team of scientists during a research expedition funded by the National Science Foundation.
They are located on the East Pacific Rise near 10°N latitude, a part of the globe-spanning mid-ocean ridge volcanic mountain chain, where two tectonic plates are splitting apart at a rate of about 11 cm (4.3 inches) per year.
The researchers on the expedition mapped the area at night using the undersea robot Sentry.
After Sentry was recovered each morning, high-resolution maps from the vehicle’s sensors were then used to plan the day’s dive by the human-occupied vehicle Alvin, which enables scientists to view firsthand the complex and constantly changing environment of a place like the East Pacific Rise.
“The high-resolution maps from Sentry allow us to spot likely new hydrothermal fields soon after Sentry comes back on deck,” said Dr. Jill McDermott, a researcher at Lehigh University.
“This gives us great targets for Alvin and the opportunity to make multiple discoveries in a single dive.”
Scientists diving in Alvin first discovered hydrothermal vents in 1977 while exploring an oceanic spreading ridge north of the Galápagos Islands.
The discovery re-shaped scientists’ understanding of the conditions capable of supporting life on Earth and potentially elsewhere in the Solar System.
“The mid-ocean ridge accounts for more than 75% of all volcanic activity on our planet,” said Dr. Thibaut Barreyre, a researcher at CNRS.
“It is dotted with thousands of deep-sea hot springs like these, which all together extract 10% of the Earth’s total internal heat.”
“We want to increase our understanding of how hydrothermal vents release heat and chemicals as they flow through the seafloor and affect the global ocean.”
“The new Sentry maps allow us to see the very important details of lava flows that erupted in the deep ocean and target them for collecting rock samples, just like geologists do on land,” said Dr. Daniel Fornari, a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
“These new perspectives and the analyses of rock samples will let us figure out how quickly the lava erupted, how far it traveled, and the impacts deep sea lava eruptions have on hydrothermal venting.”
“By jointly operating these two cutting-edge deep-sea submersibles, we are able to make remarkable new discoveries about how seafloor in the deep oceans is constructed, in some of the most inhospitable environments on Earth,” said Dr. Ross Parnell-Turner, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
