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2024-11-05 
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Seeking to understand how tubeworms settle in hydrothermal vents, marine biologist Sabine Gollner and her research team at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research sailed to the East Pacific Rise, a volcanically active ridge on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, in July of 2023. There, they sent a remotely operated robot on a series of dives to a hydrothermal vent site located 8,251 feet below the surface.
Their goal was to collect rock samples to search for tubeworm larvae, but the rock was difficult to break into smaller, transportable pieces. The robot, equipped with arms and a camera, instead lifted sections of seafloor revealing tubeworm larvae underneath—and much more.
Flipping over rocky sections of the seafloor, it uncovered cavities about four inches deep filled with warm fluid —water mixed with magma—and with species previously only found on top of the seafloor: tubeworms, polychaete worms, and sea snails.
Finding tubeworm larvae and adult tubeworms living in the tiny caves could be a breakthrough in understanding this species’ life cycle. The researchers think tubeworm larvae might disperse throughout the cavities, with some settling and growing in cracks on the seafloor, and others staying in the cavities and growing to adulthood there—which would mean the seafloor and small caves underneath are an interconnected ecosystem, where cold and warm water flows mix and facilitate tubeworm growth.
“The [hydrothermal] vent ecosystem in this area is not restricted to what we see above, but it also includes life in the subsurface,” says Gollner.
To preserve these unique extremophiles, scientists say more of the seafloor needs to be legally protected. But that may be challenging because many of these ecosystems also contain rare minerals that can power new technology.
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