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Hydrothermal environment discovered deep beneath the ocean (sciencealert.com)
69 points by Brajeshwar 9 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 19 comments



These kind of discoveries make me extremely hopeful that there is life on Europa or Enceladus


That would be a dream come true for me. Enceladus is fascinating. I'm even writing a scifi short story about it at the moment.



Warning: Entering ecological dead zone.


I always wondered how that warning made any sense when it was given about 5 seconds before a leviathan attempts to swallow your sub whole. Obviously the huge sea monster didn't get the memo.


Would you have preferred an invisible wall?


Not at all.

But don't tell me I'm entering an ecological dead zone right before some ecology attempts to eat me.


Ecology is a system of multiple living things. One living thing does not an ecology make.


Could it be that the leviathan is the cause of the dead zone?


If it ate the entire ecology, how does it itself survive?

Maybe by feeding on players...


“This area meets 5 of the 7 traits for terror in humans, are you sure what you are doing is worth it”



"Discovery of the first hydrothermal field along the 500-km-long Knipovich Ridge offshore Svalbard (the Jøtul field)" (2024) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-60802-3 :

> "The newly discovered hydrothermal field, named Jøtul hydrothermal field, is associated with the eastern bounding fault of the rift valley rather than with an axial volcanic ridge. Guided by physico-chemical anomalies in the water column, ROV investigations on the seafloor showed a wide variety of fluid escape sites, inactive and active mounds with abundant hydrothermal precipitates, and chemosynthetic organisms. Fluids with temperatures between 8 and 316 °C as well as precipitates were sampled at four vent sites. High methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonium concentrations, as well as high [87/86] Sr isotope ratios of the vent fluids indicate strong interaction between magma and sediments from the Svalbard continental margin. Such interactions are important for carbon mobilization at the seafloor and the carbon cycle in the ocean

Does that help confirm or reject thi?s:

"Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle" (2014) https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1253358 :

> They conclude that the mantle transition zone — 410 to 660 km below Earth's surface — acts as a large reservoir of water.


I don't think it has anything to do with that. The water in these zones is seawater convecting down, then up, through the hot rock.


So, unknown what's between 410km and these hydrothermal vents at 3km (3020m)?


I didn't say that, it's just that it isn't relevant.


In your opinion, a subsurface ocean is not relevant to hydrothermal vents.


Not one so deep, no.


*Scientific Reports article




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