A fascinating new wonderland has been discovered hidden deep beneath the ocean waves of the Arctic Circle. Off the coast of Svalbard, Norway, a previously unseen underwater mountain range emerges more than 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) deep along the Knipovich Ridge.
Instead, as with underfloor heating, volcanic activity beneath the seafloor causes heat to leak out, creating heat havens and chemical reactions where life can gather and thrive. The field, which is at least one kilometer long and 200 meters wide, was named Jotul, inspired by the giants living under the mountains in Scandinavian mythology. In this case, the giant is the Earth’s internal processes released through cracks in the seafloor.
“Water penetrates to the bottom of the ocean, where it is heated by magma. The superheated water then rises to the seafloor through cracks and fissures,” explains marine geologist Gerhard Bormann from the University of Bremen in Germany.
“As it moves up, the liquid is enriched with minerals and materials dissolved from the rocks of the oceanic crust. These fluids often leak back to the seafloor through pipe-shaped chimneys called black smokers, where metal-rich minerals accumulate.”
Hydrothermal spring areas are one of the most interesting underwater environments. They are usually found very deep below the ocean surface; They are so deep that light from the Sun cannot pass through the large volume of water above them. At these depths there is constant darkness, frost and crushing pressure.
This environment is not exactly conducive to life, but the hydrothermal springs provide a strange oasis. Minerals that filter and dissolve in the water form the basis of a food web that relies not on photosynthesis, as most living organisms near the surface do, but on chemosynthesis, the use of chemical reactions to produce energy instead of sunlight.
This environment creates a seafloor that is much more dynamic and evolving than we expected, and gives us a clue about how life might arise on worlds very different from our own. Finding hydrothermal vents is important for trying to preserve Earth’s biodiversity and learning more about how it functions, as well as understanding how the planet itself works and how it changes over time.
The Yotul field is located at the boundary between Earth’s two tectonic plates, in a region called a slowly spreading ridge. The plates are moving away from each other very slowly, causing the crust to stretch and valleys and ridges to develop.
Scientists have found hydrothermal activity on nearly every ridge in northern Iceland, but the Knipovitch Ridge remains a striking exception. Until 2022, that was. Scientists noticed signs of hydrothermal chemistry in the area, so they took a remotely operated underwater vehicle to the ridge to see if they could find the source.
They took the underwater vehicle MARUM-QUEST He was more than 3 kilometers from the seabed, where he took photographs and took water samples. And there they found the Jotul field, a large region of the seabed containing extinct and active hydrothermal vents, as well as the bright glow of volcanic heat seeping into the water. This is a remarkable finding that fills an important and previously mysterious gap in the hydrothermal plan of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea.
“The Jøtul hydrothermal field is the first to be discovered along the 500 km ultra-slow spreading Knipovitch Range and is significant as it represents a new connection between the active Loki Castle hydrothermal systems at the bend of the Mons and Knipovitch Ridges and the Aurora Hydrothermal Field Hakkel’s ridge ” write the researchers in their article.
“Since these systems are separated by more than 1000 kilometers, the discovery of the Yotul hydrothermal field is important for understanding the distribution of chemosynthetic fauna.”
Additionally, the new discovery could help understand ocean chemistry and how the waters that cover our world help circulate and distribute materials such as carbon. The study was published on: Scientific Reports.
Source: Port Altele
