Latest news with #Aleutian
Metro
30 minutes ago
- Science
- Metro
Meet the strange creatures thriving in the darkest depths of the Pacific
Next time you're taking a dip in the ocean, just know some very, very strange things are underneath you. And no, we're not talking about sharks. It's the depths of the ocean, an impenetrably dark and crushing place where, somehow, life thrives. A team of scientists boarded a submersible to the bottom of two trenches in a patch of the northwest Pacific Ocean, between Japan and Alaska. The sub reached a depth of 31,000 feet, three times deeper than where the shipwreck of the Titanic is. They weren't looking for shipwrecks of long-lost treasure; rather, the groovy critters that live so far down that sunbeams can't penetrate. When we think of life at these depths, we end up picturing fearsome, glowing monsters with fishing rod-like appendages that eat almost everything. But what the submersible vessel, Fendouzhe, photographed was a little different. They found fields of frenulate siboglinids, tube worms stretching 30cm tall and just 1mm thick. These crimson worms were seen reaching out with their 'red haemoglobin-filled' tentacles, with white snails perched on top of them, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Wednesday. Crawling over them were white, spiky creatures called macellicephaloides grandicirra, about as big as a light bulb. Clusters of yapping, nine-inch clams and wispy anemones were also photographed in the Kuril-Kamchatka and Aleutian habal trenches. What might look like slivers of half-melted snow were actually microbial mats, dusting dozens of feet of the ocean floor. The hadal trenches can be thought of like an upside-down mountain, where the 'peak' is the edge of one tectonic plate sliding into another. Anything at these depths is constantly being crushed by up to 98 megapascals (MPa), a unit of pressure, or about 140 times the pressure of an elephant standing on you. Rather than lap up the Sun like plants or us with SAD lamps, these floppy worms rely on chemical reactions, called chemosynthesis, to survive. Covering these bottom dwellers are microbes that view the deep sea as an all-you-can-eat buffet, where tasty methane and hydrogen sulphide are burped out of cracks in the Earth's crust. It converts these fumes into organic compounds, including sugars, for the tube worms, clams and the other 'thriving communities' that call the deep sea home to eat, the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering team said. Given how many scientists believe that all terrestrial life sprang out of the depths of the Earth's oceans, the researchers were excited by what they saw, to say the least. They said: 'This groundbreaking discovery not only challenges conventional wisdom about the ability of life to survive at extreme depths but also provides a new perspective on the complex mechanisms of the deep-sea carbon cycle.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: I've studied tsunamis for 25 years – here are the deadly warning signs one is on its way MORE: Tsunami warnings still in place after 8.8 magnitude Russian earthquake MORE: Whales eerily become beached hours before earthquake – do they predict them?
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Deep-Sea Discovery: Submersible Finds Creatures Thriving At The Bottom Of The Ocean
An underwater voyage has revealed a network of creatures thriving at the bottom of deep-sea ocean trenches. In these extreme environments, the crushing pressure, scant food and lack of sunlight can make it hard to survive. Scientists know that tiny microbes prosper there, but less is known about evidence of larger marine life. Researchers traveling along the Kuril–Kamchatka and Aleutian trenches in the northwest Pacific Ocean used a submersible to find tubeworms and mollusks flourishing at over 31,000 feet deep. The deepest part of the ocean goes down to about 36,000 feet. (MORE: Watch Sea Lions Evacuate During Earthquake) Scientists had surveyed this area before and had hints that larger creatures might live at such depths. The new discovery confirms those suspicions and shows just how extensive the communities are, said Julie Huber, a deep sea microbiologist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 'Look how many there are, look how deep they are," said Huber, who was not involved with the research. 'They don't all look the same and they're in a place that we haven't had good access to before.' The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. (MORE: Changing Tides Reveal Hawaiian Petroglyphs) In the absence of light to make their own food, many trench-dwellers big and small survive on key elements like carbon that trickle down from higher in the ocean. Scientists think microbes in this new network may instead be capitalizing on carbon that's accumulated in the trench over time, processing it to create chemicals that seep through cracks in the ocean floor. The tubeworms and mollusks may survive by eating those tiny creatures or living with them and snacking on the products of their labor, scientists said. With this discovery, future studies will focus on how these deep-sea creatures adapted to survive in such extreme conditions and how exactly they harness chemical reactions for food, study authors Mengran Du with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Vladimir Mordukhovich with the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement. Their existence challenges 'long-standing assumptions about life's potential at extreme depths,' the authors said. Solve the daily Crossword
Arab Times
8 hours ago
- Science
- Arab Times
A submersible finds sea creatures thriving in the deepest parts of the ocean
NEW YORK, July 31, (AP): An underwater voyage has revealed a network of creatures thriving at the bottom of deep-sea ocean trenches. In these extreme environments, the crushing pressure, scant food, and lack of sunlight can make it hard to survive. Scientists know that tiny microbes prosper there, but less is known about evidence of larger marine life. Researchers traveling along the Kuril-Kamchatka and Aleutian trenches in the northwest Pacific Ocean used a submersible to find tubeworms and mollusks flourishing at over 31,000 feet (9.5 kilometers) deep. The deepest part of the ocean goes down to about 36,000 feet (11 kilometers). Scientists had surveyed this area before and had hints that larger creatures might live at such depths. The discovery confirms those suspicions and shows just how extensive the communities are, said Julie Huber, a deep-sea microbiologist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "Look how many there are, look how deep they are," said Huber, who was not involved with the research. "They don't all look the same, and they're in a place that we haven't had good access to before.' The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. In the absence of light to make their food, many trench-dwellers, big and small, survive on key elements like carbon that trickle down from higher in the ocean. Scientists think microbes in this new network may instead be capitalizing on carbon that's accumulated in the trench over time, processing it to create chemicals that seep through cracks in the ocean floor. The tubeworms and mollusks may survive by eating those tiny creatures or living with them and snacking on the products of their labor, scientists said. With this discovery, future studies will focus on how these deep-sea creatures adapted to survive in such extreme conditions and how exactly they harness chemical reactions for food, study authors Mengran Du with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Vladimir Mordukhovich with the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement. Their existence challenges "long-standing assumptions about life's potential at extreme depths,' the authors said.
.jpg%3Fitok%3D84jtIwGV%26v%3D1753944982&w=3840&q=100)
South China Morning Post
12 hours ago
- Science
- South China Morning Post
Life finds a way in the deepest ocean trenches
A team of scientists have embarked on a voyage spanning 2,500km (1,550 miles) along the Kuril-Kamchatka and Aleutian Trenches in the northwestern Pacific. Diving to depths ranging from 5,800 to 9,533 metres, they discovered flourishing chemosynthetic life deep in hadal trenches. The communities are dominated by marine tubeworms called siboglinid polychaetes and molluscs called bivalves, which synthesise their energy using hydrogen sulphide and methane seeping out of faults in tectonic plates.
India Today
14 hours ago
- Science
- India Today
Submersible discovers hidden world in ocean deep enough to swallow Everest
Scientists have uncovered thriving underwater communities of extraordinary marine life at record-breaking depths in the northwest Pacific's Kuril-Kamchatka and Aleutian trenches, illuminating how life can flourish in the planet's most extreme the human-crewed submersible Fendouzhe, researchers from the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering (IDSSE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences dove to depths surpassing 9,500 meters, descending well below where Mount Everest would stand if placed these dark, frigid regions beyond sunlight's reach, the team discovered vibrant populations of tube worms, clams, and other creatures that survive through chemosynthesis—a process in which organisms derive energy by processing chemicals like hydrogen sulfide and methane released from the seafloor, rather than consuming organic material. 'What makes our discovery groundbreaking is not just its greater depth—it's the astonishing abundance and diversity of chemosynthetic life we observed,' said IDSSE marine geochemist Mengran Du, co-author of the study published this week in the journal Nature. The crushing pressure, scant food and lack of sunlight can make it hard to survive at these depths. (Photo: AP) The findings extend the previously known limits for chemosynthesis-based animal communities by nearly a quarter, with the deepest recorded settlement at 9,533 meters beneath the ocean surface—about 25% deeper than ever documented. While marine animals have been observed at even greater depths in the Mariana Trench, these were not described the expansive community as 'a vibrant oasis in the vast desert of the deep sea.' The ecosystems, stretching across trenches thousands of kilometers long, were dominated by tube worms colored red, gray, or white—measuring 20–30 centimeters long—and white clams up to 23 centimeters, some of which may be unknown species.'Our journey into the hadal zone, where Earth's crustal plates collide in subduction, revealed the deepest and most extensive chemosynthetic communities known to exist,' said IDSSE marine geologist and expedition leader Xiaotong chemical-eating species, other animals, including sea anemones, spoon worms, and sea cucumbers—dependent on organic matter drifting down from above—also inhabit these success of these life forms demonstrates remarkable resilience. 'Even though living in the harshest environment, these life forms found their way in surviving and thriving,' Du research not only broadens our understanding of Earth's deep-sea life but also carries implications beyond our planet. According to Peng, similar chemosynthetic ecosystems might exist in extraterrestrial oceans, such as those believed to exist on the moons of Jupiter, because chemical nutrients like methane and hydrogen are widely found elsewhere in the solar system.'Future works should focus on how these creatures adapt to such an extreme depth,' Peng said, emphasizing the significance of these discoveries for both Earthly and cosmic life.- EndsTune InMust Watch
