A group of scientists exploring the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean said they have found the deepest known undersea volcanic vent. The waters near the vent are so hot they could yield clues to how life started on Earth and could contain never-seen-before marine life, scientists say.
“A tremendous roar went up in the main lab as a beautiful cluster of black smokers came into camera view,” the crew of the RRS James Cook wrote in their online diary of the exploration found 3.1 miles undersea. “It was an amazing feeling to know that in a world with more than six billion people, we were seeing part of our planet that no-one had ever seen before.”
The “Black Smokers,” known as superheated volcanic vents often lead to “lush colonies of deep-sea creatures” because of the scalding water and drastically different climate, according to the National Oceanographic Centre. Volcanic vents are cracks in the earth's crust that allow magma, gas, smoke and other material to escape the surface. Temperatures in these areas can reach 750 degrees Fahrenheit and heat the sea water to extreme temperatures before spewing it back into the ocean where it creates what appear to be smoke eruptions.
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