In 2022, an international research team aboard the MARIA S. MERIAN made a remarkable discovery in a hydrothermal field. They found it 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) below the ocean surface. The team discovered the first known hydrothermal field along the 500-kilometer-long Knipovich Ridge. This mountain range is located near Spitsbergen, a Norwegian archipelago in the … Read more
Scientists have discovered a never-before-seen hydrothermal vent system located in an unlikely place on the Arctic ocean floor. The deep-sea vents, which pump out scorching water and mysterious metals, are in an area that researchers thought was geologically dead. The newly discovered vents, named after various entities from Norse mythology, lie at a depth of … Read more
A beautiful new wonderland has been discovered, hidden deep beneath the ocean waves of the Arctic Circle. Off the coast of Svalbard, Norway, a field of hydrothermal vents unfolds more than 3,000 meters deep along the Knipovich Ridge, an underwater mountain range previously considered fairly inconspicuous. Instead, like underfloor heating, the volcanic activity beneath the … Read more
The temperature reading at the outlet of the black smoker showed fluid temperatures in excess of 300°C. Credit: University of Bremen Hydrothermal vents are found all over the world at the intersections of floating tectonic plates. But there are still many hydrothermal fields yet to be discovered. During a 2022 MARIA S. MERIAN expedition, the … Read more
Low-temperature hydrothermal vents could potentially survive for billions of years on the dark ocean floors of moons such as Jupiter’s Europa, new computer simulations have shown, as astrobiologists strive to find out whether these alien oceans could be habitable. Hydrothermal vents are a source of chemical energy as well as heat, and represent one of … Read more
This article was reviewed according to Science fact checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread OK! Field system on Earth and basis for simulations used in this study. Credit: Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2023JE008202 × close to Field system on Earth and basis for simulations used in this study. Credit: Journal of Geophysical … Read more
We’ve all seen the surreal images in nature documentaries showing hydrothermal vents on the frigid ocean floor – roaring black plumes of superheated water – and the life forms that cling to them. Now, a new study by researchers at UC Santa Cruz suggests that the lower-temperature vents, which are common on Earth’s seafloor, could … Read more