New deep-ocean lifeIn 1977, deep-ocean researchers found an extraordinary oasis of extremophile life. John B. Corliss and John M. Elmond used the research submersible Alvin, to descend to the Pacific Ocean floor off the Galapagos Islands. New types of worms, clams and crabs were seen thriving around geothermal hot water vents. The food-chain of the ecosystem depends upon bacteria oxidizing hydrogen sulphide contained in the volcanic gases that spew out of the hot springs. Thus, the energy source that sustains this deep-ocean ecosystem is not sunlight, but rather the energy from chemical reaction (chemosynthesis). |