Spearheaded by the McDermott lab at Lehigh, the research demonstrates there are more hydrothermal vents in the deep-sea than previously thought and underscores a need for bathymetric mapping to locate them.
Spearheaded by the McDermott lab at Lehigh, the research demonstrates there are more hydrothermal vents in the deep-sea than previously thought and underscores a need for bathymetric mapping to locate them.
Finding a new, high-temperature, off-axis hydrothermal vent field on the floor of the Pacific Ocean at 2,550 meters depth could change scientists’ understanding of the impact that such ocean-floor vent systems have on the life and chemistry of Earth’s oceans.
A team of researchers including Jill McDermott, chemical oceanographer and faculty member in Lehigh's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, discovered the off-axis hydrothermal field, named YBW-Sentry, in the area of the global mid-ocean ridge known as the East Pacific Rise. The study area is about 200 miles off the coast of western Mexico. The new vent site covers an area equivalent to a football field, roughly twice the size of the nearest active hydrothermal vents in the region. The chimneys resemble candelabras that are the height of a three-story building. The findings have been published in an article entitled: “Discovery of Active Off-Axis Hydrothermal Vents at 9° 54’N East Pacific Rise,” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Read more at Lehigh University
Image: Sulfide structures at the YBW-Sentry vent field have yellow iron staining, and host white Bythograeid crabs. (Photo Credit: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, National Deep Submergence Facility, remotely operated vehicle Jason team, WHOI-MISO Facility, National Science Foundation)
