Photograph published by the Schmidt Ocean Institute showing a lycote swimming near tube worms at the Tica event site on the East Pacific Ridge.
Giant worms found writhing beneath the Pacific seabed have revealed a thriving ecosystem in an extremely hostile environment, according to a study published by Natural communications.
The team discovered the thriving community 2,515 meters (8,250 feet) below the surface, just off the coast of Central America.
An underwater oasis has been created beneath a mountain range that stretches north-south into the Pacific. In this part of the chain, two tectonic plates move away from each other, opening hydrothermal vents which let out water heated by the magma and loaded with chemical compounds.
The seabed area was first discovered in the 1970s. But latest research has revealed that tube worms and molluscs thrive despite water pressure 250 times that at the surface and in the total darkness.
The inhabitants of animal Atlantis live on nutrients produced by seabed bacteria.
Scientists are now trying to understand how the larvae of the tubeworm move so quickly to colonize new areas around the vents created after each underwater eruption.
Underwater zoo
One theory is that the larvae penetrate beneath the crust with cold water from deep where they mix with warmer water created by earthquakes and eruptions and “then they spread to the surface and settle ” said Monika Bright, marine biologist. professor at the University of Vienna and co-author of Natural communications study.
Undated photograph provided by the Schmidt Ocean Institute showing experiments on the seafloor at a depth of 2,500 meters, at the site of the Tica event, on the East Pacific Ridge.
Scientists used a remote-controlled submarine, with its own shovel for lifting rocks, to collect samples and images of the seafloor.
“While trying to collect the rocks, we discovered there were cavities underneath,” Bright told AFP.
The cavities hid an underwater zoo of adult worms, shell limpets, polychaetes or bristle worms and marine snails.
Bright said the team’s work showed that “unexpected discoveries” can be made even in places that have been studied for more than 30 years, “probably simply because no one had thought to look for animals in the crust before “.
The cavities are approximately 10 centimeters (four inches) deep and worms up to 41 cm long have been found.
Bright said the conditions were similar to those on the surface where tube worms live. “The temperatures we measured were up to 25 degrees Celsius, oxygen was present as well as toxic hydrogen sulfide in moderate concentrations.”
The study indicates that “larvae can disperse into cavities to potentially colonize lava fissures and the sea floor, or even settle and become adults and thus proliferate” in shallow vents.
Bright said researchers think the animals might not descend very far because the temperature rises, there is less oxygen and higher concentrations of hydrogen sulfide the deeper they go.
“It’s important to know who lives there and be able to protect them from deep sea mining,” Bright said. “This wildlife is unique and must be protected.”
More information:
Monika Bright et al, Animal life in the shallow subterranean crust of deep-sea hydrothermal vents, Natural communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52631-9
© 2024 AFP
Quote: Worms and snails withstand pressure 2,500 m below the surface of the Pacific (October 19, 2024) retrieved October 20, 2024 from
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