Theoretical origin of life: deep ocean vents extremophiles (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, October 24, 2024, 02:14 (30 days ago) @ David Turell

New findings:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/in-a-first-scientists-find-animals-thriving-b...

"In summer 2023, researchers deployed a remotely-operated underwater vehicle called SuBastian to investigate hydrothermal vents on the southeastern Pacific Ocean floor. But when SuBastian flipped over a small section of ocean crust, the team discovered something unexpected beneath it: Worms, snails and other marine invertebrates were living in cavities under the seafloor.

“'To our knowledge, it is the first time that animal life has been discovered in the ocean crust,” Sabine Gollner, a marine biologist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research,

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"Back in 2023, the researchers unleashed SuBastian from a Schmidt Ocean Institute research vessel to understand how tubeworms—narrow-bodied creatures that form iconic, towering colonies—spread from vent to vent. As adults, the worms anchor themselves to the seafloor. But scientists wondered if, during their unanchored larval stage, young tubeworms might spread through cavities beneath the seabed formed by the vapor created when lava comes into contact with seawater.

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"The team directed SuBastian to dig up parts of the seafloor 1.56 miles beneath the surface of the ocean near the Fava Flow Vents on the East Pacific Rise. That was when they found life: The sub-seafloor cavities of water mixed with magma were filled with giant tubeworms—both larvae and adults—carnivorous bristle worms, sediment-eating snails and more.

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"While scientists had previously identified animals living above the seafloor near hydrothermal vents, this was the first time animals had been found living underground near the vents—only microbes had been seen there before, per National Geographic’s Olivia Ferrari.

"SuBastian’s exploring revealed those unexpected findings, but it also shed light on the team’s central question about tubeworms.

“'The fact that live large tubeworms were found means that the hypothesis of larvae being able to colonize vents from below has been confirmed,” marine biologist Monika Bright of the University of Vienna, a co-lead author of the study, tells ScienceAlert’s Michelle Starr. “Some settle if conditions are right in the subsurface, some might with the vent flow be flushed out from the subsurface and colonize the surface.”

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"The cavities were about four inches beneath the seafloor and filled with 77 degree Fahrenheit water. But scientists still aren’t sure how far these cavities extend, both horizontally and vertically. Microbes might be able to live more than six miles below the seabed, but animals likely have a smaller range."

Comment: think of living at those presdsures.