Hypothermal Vents

With only 5% of the ocean explored and mapped by scientists, it is an undeniable fact that the ocean is a mysterious world with a medley of undiscovered marine life. At the surface of the waters where sunlight can pierce through, scientists expect a wide variety of aquatic creatures to live at this depth of the ocean since all living organisms depend on sunlight as the main source of energy. If so, then how do marine life survive at the deepest part of the ocean, where the sun ceases to shine and the environmental condition becomes ever so harsh? Nature once again bears a surprising answer to our interesting question.

Over 3,800 meters below the ocean into the dark abyss are active hypothermal vents, which was discovered in 1977 by Ballard and his team of scientists near the Galapagos Islands. These fascinating structures form when ocean water seeps into the fractures found near the volcanic regions of the ocean floor; the water then reemerges after being heated by the magma below, forming chimney-like structures with the variety of minerals it had picked up within the Earth’s layers. Emerging from these vents are rich mineral/chemical substances such as iron sulfide, which is present in black smokers, and barium & silicon, which is present in white smokers. Around these hypothermal vents are an abundance of otherworldly aquatic creatures that are able to thrive within this harsh environment due their symbiotic relationship with the chemosynthetic bacteria that are present within the vents’ microbiome. Similar to how plants rely on sunlight to perform photosynthesis to produce food, these chemosynthetic bacteria rely on the chemicals released from the underwater vents to perform chemosynthesis to produce energy. Organisms such as the Riftia Pachyptila, or the Giant Tubeworm, provide the chemosynthetic bacteria with the hydrogen sulfide it collected from the vents, and these bacteria supply these organisms with the energy they produced from chemosynthesis.

Only 5% of the ocean had been explored and mapped. With fascinating aquatic lifeforms like these, it truly makes one wonder what other unworldly creatures are swimming about in the 95% of the ocean that are still uncharted.

Picture Source: oceanservice.noaa.gov