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At the bottom of the Gulf of California, scientists have discovered a fantastic expanse of hydrothermal vents, filled with crystalline gases, flickering puddles of hot fluids, and rainbow-colored life forms.
What punctuates all this are imposing structures made of minerals from the vents, up to 23 meters high. Ten years ago, scientists going to this place did not find anything unusual. this psychedelic seascape seems to have been built around an increase in the number of hydrothermal water discharge points – points at the bottom of the sea where jets of water laden with minerals and superhots – last 10 years.
"Amazing is not loud enough in a word," said Mandy Joye, a marine biologist at the University of Georgia, who led the team that discovered the vents. [See Stunning Photos of the Newfound Hydrothermal Vent System]
Shocking discovery
Joye and her colleagues were studying microbial mats in the Guaymas Basin in the central Gulf of California at the end of last year, when they conducted a nearby self-study, looking for interesting sites. to explore during their next research expedition.
"We saw a lot of really interesting topographies, which made me scratch my head," Joye said. Chemical traces in the water also suggest the possible presence of hydrothermal vents nearby.
The SuBastian ROV measures the temperature near a hydrothermal vent when a tube spills onto the wave.
Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute
In February, the team launched another expedition, sending autonomous vehicles equipped with high definition cameras in the depths of the deck of the Falkor research vessel of the Schmidt Ocean Institute. Near 1,800 meters below the surface, they saw the vents covered with microbes, marine worms and species they did not recognize.
"It's a shock, to speak nicely," Joye told Live Science. "I think my jaw literally hit the ground."
Unreal environment
The team discovered a hydrothermal vent site that did not exist in 2008. Most likely, new winds have opened since then, Joye added, or the flow of the hydrothermal fluid has increased. The minerals and metals dissolved in the fluid react with seawater to create huge 'pagodas', some of which reach 15 meters in diameter and many others rising to 10 meters. meters above the seabed. [Gallery: Creatures of the Deepest Deep-Sea Vents]
In some places, the fluid flow has created flanges, or flanges, that hold puddles of the sulfide-rich fluid and methane beneath it. The pools are refracting light, creating a mirror-like silver effect, Joye said. In some pools, the team saw delicate mineral precipitates a few inches long that looked like feathers. Nobody knows what they are, Joye says.
"It was just a constant bombardment of:" You must make fun of me, it can not be real, "she said.
Among the other surprises on the site, there were strange methane hydrates – natural gas bubbles trapped in a crystalline ice setting. The methane hydrated at these vents, however, seemed strangely irregular, with an almost melted appearance, said Joye.
Researchers still do not know why the features looked like this. It could be high pressure and extreme temperatures on the site, said Joye. Seawater is only 2.8 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit), while hydrothermal fluids are warm at 366 degrees Celsius. Or there may be impurities in the methane that cause strange shapes.
Mysterious life
Among the other mysteries on the site of the vent, there is the proliferation of life lining the hot towers of mineral-rich water that gushes vents. Some were recognizable, as the Riftia Tube worms that harbor symbiotic sulfur-eating bacteria. Others were totally new to science. The towers house rugs of rainbow-colored microbes, from pink to orange, from white to yellow to purple, Joye said.
Carpets of yellow and orange microbes color the seabed at the site of the vent, located in the Guaymas Basin, in the Gulf of California.
Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute
"I've never seen a purple microbial mat, ever, anywhere," Joye said. Researchers are now using genetic sequencing to study microbes and determine if their temperature, chemical composition, or other factor determines their color.
The researchers also deepened the composition of the hydrothermal fluid, already rich in manganese and iron. Finally, said Joye, the team's virologist is studying viruses that infect microbes on the site.
"This kind of thing does not happen very often," said Joye. "I just count the days until I can go home."
Originally published on Science live.
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