Thaindian News

Apr 13 (THAINDIAN NEWS) A remote controlled robot sub which was deep beneath the Caribbean Sea came upon what is the world’s deepest known hydrothermal vents. Extremely hot water, rich in minerals shoots from chimney-like structures which were formed by metal ore deposits.

Experts which were aboard the RRS James Cook have announced that they found the vent 3.1 miles deep in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean Sea. This is the same gap which was the setting for the Underwater Thriller “The Abyss” by James Cameron. Before this discovery, the deepest known undersea vent was 2.6 miles below the surface. The team was very excited with their discovery.

“It was like wandering across the surface of another world,” said geologist Bramley Murton of the National Oceanography Centr (NOC) in Southampton, who piloted the HyBIS underwater vehicle that filmed the Caribbean vent. “The rainbow hues of the mineral spires and the fluorescent blues of the microbial mats covering them were like nothing I had ever seen before.”

Because of the depth and isolation of the vent, as well as the mineral rich environment, many are hoping that new and exotic life forms will be found in the super heated waters. Living around the hot vents were blind shrimp, giant white crabs, and huge red-lipped tub worms. There will possibly be many other new creatures found with more explorations. The team plans to compare the life forms which they find in this abyss with the life forms found in other deep sea vents. They will also conduct studies of the chemistry of the super hot water and the geology of the areas.

Although it might seem that the hot water spewing from the vents would be a danger to any life forms, these creatures can withstand the heat and suffocating pressure and actually thrive there. The pressure alone there is about 500 times the normal atmospheric pressure. According to researchers, this is around the equivalent to the weight of a big family car pushing down on every square inch of the creatures that live in the area. Studying how creature can thrive in such areas, which are not considered life sustaining, could provide insight to scientists as to how there could be life on other planets, and how life could be sustained in impossible places.