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Study Tests Theory that Life Originated at Deep Sea Vents

By Guest PostApril 21, 2014Environment, Scienceamy earley, breast implant safety, cecidomyiidae, cobweb spiders, deep sea vents, east pacific rise, esther avendano, ethan balk, europa, gall midges, gowri raman, guaymas basin, huge biodiversity, hydrothermal fluids, hypothesis, jeff seewald, jeffrey seewald, jupiter, life, matt bertone, mid atlantic ridge, mid-cayman rise, moon, origin, taxonomic training, theory, whoi

One of the greatest mysteries facing humans is how life originated on Earth. Scientists have determined approximately when life began (roughly 3.8 billion years ago), but there is still intense debate about exactly how life began. One possibility has grown in popularity in the last two decades – that simple metabolic reactions emerged near ancient seafloor hot springs, enabling the leap from a non-living to a living world.

Recent research by geochemists Eoghan Reeves, Jeff Seewald, and Jill McDermott at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is the first to test a fundamental assumption of this ‘metabolism first’ hypothesis, and finds that it may not have been as easy as previously assumed. Instead, their findings could provide a focus for the search for life on other planets. The work is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. (more…)

Newly discovered ocean plume could be major source of iron

By Guest PostAugust 20, 2013Environmentabigail noble, atmospheric carbon dioxide, brazil, carbon cycle, carl lamborg, chad hammerschmidt, climate, cloud of nutrients, coffee mug, earth crust, fissure, growth of phytoplankton, gyre, helium, hydrothermal vents, iron flux, mak saito, mantle, mid atlantic ridge, mid atlantic vents, namibia, ocean plume, pacific ocean, rv knorr, seawater samples, source of iron, south atlantic ocean, tyler goepfert, uk, university of liverpool, whoi researchers

Study reveals micronutrient riches rising from the Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Scientists have discovered a vast plume of iron and other micronutrients more than 1,000 km long billowing from hydrothermal vents in the South Atlantic Ocean. The finding, soon to be published in the journal Nature Geoscience, calls past estimates of iron abundances into question, and may challenge researchers’ assumptions about iron sources in the world’s seas.

“This study and other studies like it are going to force the scientific community to reevaluate how much iron is really being contributed by hydrothermal vents and to increase those estimates, and that has implications for not only iron geochemistry but a number of other disciplines as well,” says Mak Saito, a WHOI associate scientist and lead author of the study. (more…)

Eddies Found to be Deep, Powerful Modes of Ocean Transport

By ShamsMay 1, 2011Environment, Scienceadams, computer models, deep sea phenomenon, deep-sea moorings, dennis j mcgillicuddy, diane k adams, east pacific rise, east scotia ridge, el niño, eruption, hydrothermal vents, indian ridge, jets, lauren s mullineaux, mid atlantic ridge, ocean, ocean bottom, ocean eddies, sea creatures, surface ocean dynamics, underwater mountain range, whoi, woods hole oceanographic institution

*Study Finds Connection between Atmospheric Events and the Deep Ocean*

Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and their colleagues have discovered that massive, swirling ocean eddies–known to be up to 500 kilometers across at the surface–can reach all the way to the ocean bottom at mid-ocean ridges, some 2,500 meters deep, transporting tiny sea creatures, chemicals, and heat from hydrothermal vents over large distances.

The previously unknown deep-sea phenomenon, reported in the April 28 issue of the journal Science, helps explain how some larvae travel huge distances from one vent area to another, said Diane K. Adams, lead author at WHOI and now at the National Institutes of Health. (more…)

Tag Archives: mid atlantic ridge

Study Tests Theory that Life Originated at Deep Sea Vents

Newly discovered ocean plume could be major source of iron

Eddies Found to be Deep, Powerful Modes of Ocean Transport