World's Northernmost Underwater Hot Springs Found

Norwegian scientists have found underwater hot springs near the Arctic island of Jan Mayen. They were found at a depth of 600 meters and the water was as hot as 250 degrees Celsius. There was an oasis featuring "tropical-like coral and unusual plant life". In the Arctic!


Wow, incredible discovery. Life on Mars doesn`t seem so unlikely now. When life can be found in extreme places like this, why not on Mars?

Photos: University of Bergen

Related News Sources:
Dagbladet: Fant «Soria Moria» paa 600 meters dyp (In Norwegian... but there is a link to a video there)

[edit on 2006/4/30 by Hellmutt]

Wow. True. It is not very unlikely there will be life on Mars then.
If there are frozen seas, and the planet has a hot core, the steam has to go out somewhere. If the planet has volcanoes, the planet just might as well have underwater ones, like these chimneys. If it heats the water, and at the same time spew out minerals and other organic materials it would be my hilarious wild guess and shot in the neverending dark, that there would be a certain possibility of growth of algeas. Ya know. those that lives in caves, in eternal darkness and looks rather pale. And a stable environment over time would create even cooler (not as in cold, but Kool) entities that could survive in greater distance from the smokers, and so forth... (ref: Darwinism)

I like to find info about these things! But warnings! Don't swim to close to one (If you should occationally be venturing at those depths... ... that is superheated water that melts steel. Fast.)

Wow, great find Hellmutt!

I think it shows what we may find on Europa though more than Mars.

I think this was actually a while ago. I saw something about this or something similar a few months ago. A coral reef was found unexpectedly on an expedition teeming with life.

They now think there may be others even further North

Supercritical Black Smoker

There's a thread that is old, but still related to this one. A supercritical black smoker was found in the southern Atlantic. It was as hot as 407°C and is turning seawater into a a supercritical fluid! And this is only the biggest one they've found so far. Imagine those they haven't found yet! Monster Black Smokers, or Super Black Smokers...

Photo: © MARUM, University of Bremen



Wikipedia: Black smoker

New and unusual species are constantly being discovered in the neighborhood of black smokers

Originally posted by Hellmutt
Supercritical Black Smoker

There's a thread that is old, but still related to this one. A supercritical black smoker was found in the southern Atlantic. It was as hot as 407°C and is turning seawater into a a supercritical fluid!

And this is only the biggest one they've found so far. Imagine those they haven't found yet! Monster Black Smokers, or Super Black Smokers...

Just posted on that thread about the possability new vents opening up and upsetting the frozen methane deposits.

Now here's the scary part. A temperature increase of merely a few degrees would cause these gases to volatilize and "burp" into the atmosphere, which would further raise temperatures, which would release yet more methane, heating the Earth and seas further, and so on. There's 400 gigatons of methane locked in the frozen arctic tundra - enough to start this chain reaction - and the kind of warming the Arctic Council predicts is sufficient to melt the clathrates and release these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

link

Woohoo!! another way were all gonna die

My question is how coral managed to populate this spot so far from the tropics ?

Originally posted by sy.gunson
My question is how coral managed to populate this spot so far from the tropics ?

The problem I see is light (there seems to be plenty of heat from the thermal features).

These corals are probably not the same species you'd see in a shallow tropical reef (that live symbiotically with photosynthesizing algae), but there are known coral species that live in deep water apparently without a great deal of light, so I certainly don't find it impossible.

Originally posted by Ulvetann
I like to find info about these things! But warnings! Don't swim to close to one (If you should occationally be venturing at those depths... ... that is superheated water that melts steel. Fast.)

How did the scientists discover this vent? Could they have found it by strictly using tecnhology, while being far from the smoker? Or did they send a submersible that wasn't made of steel?



[edit on 3-7-2007 by Cloak and Dagger]

Originally posted by Hellmutt
Supercritical Black Smoker

There's a thread that is old, but still related to this one. A supercritical black smoker was found in the southern Atlantic. It was as hot as 407°C and is turning seawater into a a supercritical fluid!

Off topic but...

how did they investigate this? Did they send a manned submersible or a remote controlled submersible? What material is the vessel made out of then to withstand 400+ temp? I am assuming they took samples of this 'supercritical fluid'?

I didn't know there were vents that converted seawater into a supercritical fluid. That's really interesting to me. Again off topic, I am curious about this new fluid... do you know by chance if the composition of this new superheated fluid affects a submersible/submarines propulsion or maneuverability?

I've seen programs on telly where they use manned submersable and got very close, and inserted a probe on an arm into the edge of the plume.

They got a shock when the performed the routine inspections, any closer and they ran a serious risk of compromising the perspex dome of the sub - that will ruin your day!

Originally posted by Now_Then
I've seen programs on telly where they use manned submersable and got very close, and inserted a probe on an arm into the edge of the plume.

They got a shock when the performed the routine inspections, any closer and they ran a serious risk of compromising the perspex dome of the sub - that will ruin your day!

Right on thanks for the info

Perspex dome? That's the glass? So is that usually the first to start to fail when a submersible is in very hot water?

I would expect so.

They wouldn't use glass, it's like 3 inch perspex or something, and its not actually a dome, its more or a sphere so as to spread pressure as much as poss. In fact i'll find a like cos even tho no one will ever get me in one of those - they still cool.

In 1977, during an expedition led by Robert Ballard and sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Alvin discovered and documented the existence of black smokers around the Galapagos Islands. Existing at a depth of more than 2000 meters, black smokers emit a strong flow of black, smoky water, superheated to over 400 °C (750 °F). Alvin was able to sample the water from a black smoker, discovering that the pH balance is roughly 2.8, or equal to the acidity of household vinegar.

Wiki on ALVIN class don't say much on design, but its a start. Note: Check out what an Alvin did on march 17th 1966 - any one missing a hydrogen bomb?
wiki on DSV's in general



[edit on 4/7/2007 by Now_Then]

Hmmm... More black smokers found in the Arctic?



'Black smokers' found off Arctic (by Shere Khaan)