Tag Archive for 'Hydrothermal vent'

Seafloor surface and crustal subseafloor vents at Fava Flow Suburbs, the East Pacific Rise. Image credit: Bright et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52631-9.

Researchers Discover Animal Life in Subseafloor Crust at Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents

Oct 15, 2024 by News Staff

Marine biologists have found adult tubeworms and other vent animals below the seafloor in the East Pacific Rise, a volcanically active, fast-spreading...

This graphic illustrates how Cassini scientists think water interacts with rock at the bottom of Enceladus’ ocean, producing hydrogen gas. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Southwest Research Institute.

Study: Active, Seafloor Hydrothermal Systems on Small Ocean Worlds Could Support Life

Jun 25, 2024 by News Staff

Ocean worlds are planetary bodies that have a liquid ocean, often under an icy shell or within the rocky interior. In our own Solar System, several moons...

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.

Researchers Discover Five New Hydrothermal Vents in Pacific Ocean

Mar 27, 2024 by News Staff

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....

A new octopus hatchling swims away from its egg near a small outcrop of rock unofficially called El Dorado Hill. Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute.

Four New Deep-Sea Octopus Species Discovered in Pacific Ocean

Feb 1, 2024 by News Staff

Marine biologists aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor discovered at least four new species of deep-sea octopuses during two 2023 expeditions...

Chirodota heheva in the Gulf of Mexico. Image credit: Aquapix and Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007.

Scientists Sequence Genome of Hydrothermal Vent-Dwelling Sea Cucumber

Jan 3, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Researchers in China have mapped the entire genome of Chiridota heheva, a species of sea cucumber collected at a depth of 2,428 m during a submarine trip...

Halomonas phage vB_HmeY_H4907. Scale bar - 100 nm. Image credit: Su et al., doi: 10.1128/spectrum.01912-23.

Virologists Find Previously Unknown Virus in Mariana Trench

Sep 21, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Dubbed Halomonas phage vB_HmeY_H4907, the new bacteria-infecting virus is the deepest isolated siphovirus from the ocean, and it represents a novel abundant...

Model of Asgard viral infection mechanisms and protein similarity with other viruses: (a) genes identified in Asgard viruses involved in infection (i), replication (ii), transcription (iii) and translation (iv); Asgard viruses are shown as different colored hexagons, Asgard hosts as different colored circles, and host transcription machinery is labeled with ovals color coded by function (see legend); (b) distribution of 35 genes (lower x axis) among Asgard viruses (y axis); filled circles indicate annotated orthologues, while white circles indicate that an orthologue was not identified. Image credit: Rambo et al., doi: 10.1038/s41564-022-01150-8.

Mysterious Asgard Archaea-Infecting Viruses Discovered

Jun 30, 2022 by News Staff

Asgard archaea are globally distributed microorganisms related to eukaryotes — complex organisms including animals, plants, fungi, and amoeba. However,...

Hematite tubes from the NSB hydrothermal vent deposits that represent the oldest microfossils and evidence for life on Earth. Image credit: Matthew Dodd, University College London.

Diverse Microbial Life Forms Existed At Least 3.75 Billion Years Ago, Study Confirms

Apr 14, 2022 by News Staff

In 2017, paleontologists found 3.75- to 4.28-billion-year-old microscopic filaments and tubes, which appeared to have been made by iron-loving bacteria,...

The 3.42-billion-year-old filamentous microfossils from the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa. Image credit: Cavalazzi et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abf3963.

3.42-Billion-Year-Old Filamentous Microfossils Found in South Africa

Jul 15, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered the exceptionally well-preserved, 3.42-billion-year-old filamentous microfossils in a paleo-subseafloor hydrothermal vein...

Enceladus’ tiger stripes are known to be spewing ice from the moon’s icy interior into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon’s south pole and creating Saturn’s mysterious E-ring. Evidence for this has come from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Pictured here, a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown from a close flyby. Tiger stripes are visible in false-color blue. Image credit: NASA / ESA / JPL / SSI / Cassini Imaging Team.

New Modeling Study Points toward Biological Origin of Enceladus’ Methane

Jul 7, 2021 by News Staff

Observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft established that Enceladus, the sixth-largest of Saturn’s moons, has a global subsurface ocean. An analysis...

Barite associated with originally sulfidic stromatolites in the Dresser mine in Western Australia. Image credit: Mißbach et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21323-z.

Researchers Find Ingredients for Microbial Life in 3.5-Billion-Year-Old Rocks

Feb 19, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of geobiologists from Germany has found biologically-relevant primordial organic molecules and gases in fluid inclusions trapped in 3.5-billion-year-old...

A researcher collects gas samples at Soda Springs in the Philippines. Image credit: Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin.

Researchers Discover Bubbling CO2 Hotspot in Philippines

Jan 23, 2020 by News Staff

Groundwater flow from land to sea could have important coastal impacts but it is usually unrecognized. Delicate reefs may be particularly sensitive to...

A deep-sea hydrothermal vent. Image credit: Oregon State University / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Life Originated in Hydrothermal Vents, New Study Suggests

Nov 5, 2019 by News Staff

By creating protocells — seen as a key stepping stone to the development of cell-based life — in hot, alkaline seawater, a team of scientists...

Molecular hydrogen points to hydrothermal activity in an ocean beneath the icy surface of Enceladus. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Cassini Finds New Evidence for Hydrothermal Processes in Enceladus’ Ice-Covered Ocean

Apr 13, 2017 by News Staff

During NASA’s Cassini spacecraft’s deepest-ever dive through Enceladus’ plume of gas and ice grains, researchers discovered molecular hydrogen in...

World’s Oldest Known Fossils Found in Canada Push Evidence for Life back by 70 Million Years

Mar 1, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has discovered in Quebec, Canada, the oldest physical evidence of life on Earth — fossils that date back...

These rocks, recovered by the Ocean Drilling Program on board the drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution, are from the Earth’s upper mantle that underwent intense alteration by heated seawater. The rocks show a systematic change in color from rusty brown (top) to green and black (bottom), reflecting the chemical gradients across the fluid mixing zone. These chemical gradients played a key role in supporting microbes with chemical energy and the substrates they needed to thrive. Fossilized microbes were found in white veins consisting of the minerals calcite and brucite. Image credit: Ocean Drilling Program.

Scientists Find Evidence of Ancient Microbial Life in Sub-Seafloor Mantle Rocks

Sep 1, 2015 by News Staff

Traces of ancient microbial communities have been found in rock samples of Earth’s mantle from a seafloor hydrothermal system that was active more than...

Kiwa tyleri, female (left) and male (right). Scale bar – 5 cm. Image credit: Thatje S et al.

Kiwa tyleri: Marine Biologists Discover New Species of Yeti Crab

Jun 25, 2015 by News Staff

Marine biologists from British Antarctic Survey and the University of Southampton, UK, have described the first species of yeti crab known from the Southern...

A hydrothermal vent at Brothers volcano, Kermadec arc, New Zealand. Image credit: NOAA.

Hydrothermal Vents Able to Create Simple Organic Molecules, Study Says

Apr 29, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study in the journal Chemical Communications, alkaline hydrothermal vents on the seabed are able to produce simple carbon-based molecules,...

Alviniconcha strummeri, a new species of deep-sea snail named after Joe Strummer of The Clash. Image credit: Shannon B. Johnson et al.

Five New Species of Spiky Sea Snails Discovered, One Named after Joe Strummer

Dec 16, 2014 by News Staff

A group of marine biologists headed by Dr Robert Vrijenhoek from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has described five new species of deep water...