Recently Revealed

Far from sunlight, sulfur supports strange life forms

In 1977 geologists exploring fractures in the ocean floor found more than they had anticipated. Large, odd-looking animals were surviving on the sunless, otherwise barren sea floor by what turned out to be an entirely unknown mode of life §.

Vent food web depends on sulfur--not sunlight.

Bacteria convert chemicals (from the sulfur-rich fluid spewed out of vents) to energy, in a process called chemosynthesis §.

Other animals eat bacteria, harbor bacteria in their bodies, or eat bacteria- eaters.

Vent worms have no mouth or digestive tract. Instead, chemosynthetic bacteria living in their tissues provide nourishment.

Hemoglobin (which transports hydrogen sulfide to the bacteria) makes the vent worms red.
illustration Linda Huff, courtesy of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society

"We were dancing off the walls . . . it was a discovery cruise . . . like Columbus."

John Edmond, geochemist, on the cruise that first found hydrothermal vents

The super-hot water laced with hydrogen sulfide and other minerals spews out of cracks in the earth's crust §. photo NOAA

More Information:

• Creatures of the Thermal Vents - an article by Dawn Stover from the Popular Science Special Oceans Issue
• Make a miniature deep sea vent - from the New England Aquarium
• REVEL Project Teaching activities including a Hydrothermal vent diorama
• Field Trip to a Hydrothermal Vent - UW Exploraquarium
• REVEL Project Teaching activities including a Hydrothermal vent diorama
• Processes and Fluxes on a Superfast Spreading Ridge: The Southern East Pacific Rise
• Microbiology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents
• Scientists witness creation of new hydrothermal vents on seafloor
• Deep-sea Hydrothermal Vents
• VENTS Program home page
• Hydrothermal processes at mid-ocean ridges by Susan E. Humphris
• Ocean Hydrothermal Chemistry - including a diagram on Vents Geochemistry
• The Deep-Sea Research Doorway
• Life without Light: Discoveries from the Abyss - by Robin Meadows
• Origins of hydrothermal vent and seep fauna
• Life in Extreme Environments - an Annotated Bibliography
• A Deep Sea Hydrothermal vent instead of a warm little pond?
• UW Oceanography Mid-Ocean Ridge Processes: Research Projects
• Answers to Ask a Scientist Questions - including HYDROTHERMAL VENTS/DEEP SEA BIOLOGY
• WHOI In Motion - Hydrothermal Vents
• Black smoker fossils and vent fauna
• Fisher Deep-Sea Laboratory - research on chemoautotrophic symbionts and hydrothermal vents
• The Light at the Bottom of the Ocean - a strange glow from seafloor vents
• Britannica Online Abstracts on Hydrothermal Vents
• Links to Hydrothermal Vent System Websites
• Diving with the ALVIN on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge - N.Y. Times
• An Undersea Quest for New Life - by Jane Ellen Stevens - N.Y. Times
• The REVEL Project - a dive to a Hydrothermal Vent
• The Universe Below - Discovering the Secrets of the Deep Sea by William J. Broad (including excerpts)
• The Universe Below - Discussion with William Broad - PBS News Hour
• GARDENS OF EDEN - Exploring the deep sea -- on Earth and on Europa with William Broad
• NOVA special Into the Abyss
• Ocean Adventure an educational activity about a dive to the hydrothermal vents.
• Voyage to the Deep a dive aboard Alvin.

Ocean Planet Exhibition Floorplan

gene carl feldman (gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov) (301) 286-9428
Judith Gradwohl, Smithsonian Institution (Curator/Ocean Planet)