Some 3,000 meters ( 9,843 fundament ) beneath the Arctic Ocean , scientists are research a bubbling field of hydrothermal vent along the Knipovich Ridge near Svalbard , the northernmost settlement on Earth .
The hydrothermal vent champaign was recently discovered on the seafloor within the triangle between Greenland , Norway , and Svalbard on the bound of the North American and European tectonic plates .
Using a remotely controlled sub , research worker at the University of Bremen ’s Center for Marine Environmental Sciences ( MARUM ) gathered sample and data point from the hydrothermal vent airfield , which they named Jøtul after a heavyweight in Nordic mythology .
Some of the hydrothermal mounds were home to organisms, including tiny crustaceans.Image credit: MARUM/University of Bremen
Hydrothermal ventsare found at junctions of shifting architectonic plate where geothermal activeness is at its most intense . They organise when body of water penetrate the ocean floor and becomes heated by magma from the bowel of the planet . The superheated water then rises back to the ocean floor through cracks and fissures , becoming enrich with minerals and materials unfreeze from the pelagic crustal rocks .
Despite being a major junction of architectonic plate , no hydrothermal vent were previously eff to be settle on the Knipovich Ridge – until now .
The Knipovich Ridge is particularly particular because it was n’t formed by two plate crash together , but by two plates moving apart at a rate of less than 2 centimeters ( less than 1 inch ) per year , get laid as a spreading ridge .
Very little is known about hydrothermal activity on slow - spread ridges , so the squad is swell to learn about the chemical substance makeup of the escaping fluid , plus the geologic features organize by its oestrus and mineral .
Some of the fluids gushing out of the Jøtul Field are unbelievably hot , measuring up to 316 ° C ( 601 ° fluorine ) . When the superheated fluid make contact with the polar water system , the minerals solidify , form large chimney - similar construction called black-market smokers .
Another interesting feature of the Jøtul Field is that its hydrothermal fluid are plentiful in methane , a stiff nursery gasoline , as well as carbon dioxide , the primary glasshouse gas . This mean that the region might have some implications forclimate changeand the carbon copy round in the ocean .
Strange andwonderful lifeformscan often live fields of hydrothermal vents . In the auction pitch - black depths of the sea where photosynthesis is unsufferable , hydrothermal fluids supply the foundation forchemosynthetic organisms , which obtain nutrient through chemic muscularity rather than sunlight .
An in - profoundness understanding of the subject ’s biodiversity is not yet available , although it will no doubt be a point of interest for the research worker at MARUM , who plan to return to the area in former summertime 2024 .
The study is published in the journalScientific Reports .
