Ocean explorers have discovered a vast field located deep beneath the ocean, stretching from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean, energized solely by hot water and rich in strange organisms along with valuable mineral deposits.
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Previously, hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor were believed to be found only in locations like the eastern Pacific, where tectonic plates move rapidly, creating volcanic activity and subsequently generating steaming fields.
Now, scientists have found hydrothermal vents in the Arctic, along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and have discovered a massive column of hot water in the Indian Ocean.
“Until 20 years ago, these discoveries were in areas beyond our reach,” said hydrothermal vent expert Professor Peter Rona from Rutgers University.
In other words, they are in areas where the seafloor separates more slowly than in the eastern Pacific—where Rona famously discovered the black smoker vent in 1979. At that time, a hydrothermal area known as TAG was found, containing enormous deposits of iron, copper, zinc, gold, and silver located 3 km underwater along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
“It changed the landscape of submarine hydrothermal flows globally,” Rona stated.
One of the effects of these hydrothermal fields is that they contribute a significant amount of chemicals to the ocean, as well as cooling the Earth’s mantle, similar to a car radiator.
To date, hydrothermal vents have produced 17 terawatts of energy, equivalent to half the energy produced by humans. However, with only 10% of the world’s underwater ridges explored, many more hydrothermal fields remain unknown.
