{"id":1894,"date":"2025-05-09T11:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/?p=1894"},"modified":"2025-11-20T12:37:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T09:37:53","slug":"research-mission-discovers-five-new-hydrothermal-vents-in-highly-volcanic-region-of-eastern-pacific-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/2025\/05\/09\/research-mission-discovers-five-new-hydrothermal-vents-in-highly-volcanic-region-of-eastern-pacific-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"Research mission discovers five new hydrothermal vents in highly volcanic region of eastern Pacific Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers have learned that the site responsible for more than 75 percent of the world’s volcanic activity is more active than previously thought as they recently discovered five new hydrothermal vents, each spewing fluids hotter than 570\u00b0F.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The vents spew liquids that are hotter than 570\u00b0F and are the result of the ongoing splitting of the tectonic plates of the East Pacific Rise.<\/span><\/p>\n

The use of a robotic underwater vehicle and a manned submersible sped up the discovery. A team led by Jill McDermott of Lehigh University dove to a depth of 1.6 miles in the eastern Pacific Ocean using both the Sentry autonomous underwater vehicle and the Alvin human-operated submersible (both operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution\u2019s National Deep Sea Diving Center). The vehicles were used to track one of the most active thermal spots known on the East Pacific Rise, near 10\u00b0 north latitude, according to Popular Mechanics.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nEast Pacific Rise. kp.ru<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s dotted with thousands of these deep-sea hot springs, which collectively extract 10 percent of the Earth\u2019s total internal heat,\u201d Thibault Barreve, one of the expedition\u2019s leaders, said in a statement. \u201cWe want to expand our understanding of how hydrothermal vents release heat and chemicals as they travel along the seafloor and impact the world\u2019s oceans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The discovery of these hotter springs was the result of a collaboration between humans and the robot Alvin. Each night, the team sent out the Sentry robot to scan high-resolution maps using its sensors. When the robot was returned in the morning, the researchers planned how to use the human-occupied Alvin to better explore areas that might prove valuable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSentry\u2019s high-resolution maps allow us to detect potential new hydrothermal fields soon after Sentry returns to the deck,\u201d McDermott said in a statement. \u201cThis gives us excellent targets for Alvin and the ability to make multiple discoveries in a single dive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The East Pacific Rise \u2014 part of the globe\u2019s mid-ocean ridge volcanic mountain chain \u2014 has two tectonic plates that are moving apart at a rate of more than 4 inches a year, making it a prime location for research. But getting Alvin\u2019s data there was a key part of the equation. Alvin has proven its importance in detecting hydrothermal vents since it first began exploring the ocean spreading ridge north of the Galapagos Islands in 1977.<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers say that because chemical-rich vents provide energy for animal life and create a diverse ecosystem in the waters around the vents, a better understanding of these underwater vents could give researchers key tools to search for potential life-supporting environments throughout the universe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel Fornari, one of the expedition\u2019s lead scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said Sentry\u2019s mapping provides important details about the lava flows that erupt in the deep ocean, allowing them to target ideal locations to collect rock samples. \u201cThese new perspectives and rock sample analysis will allow us to determine how fast the lava erupted, how far it traveled, and what impact deep-sea lava eruptions have on hydrothermal vents,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

A follow-up expedition aims to detect clearer geophysical, chemical and biological processes. It could reveal even more hydrothermal emissions from one of the most intense volcanic sites on Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers have learned that the site responsible for more than 75 percent of the world’s volcanic activity is more active than previously thought as they recently discovered five new hydrothermal vents, each spewing fluids hotter than 570\u00b0F.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,539],"tags":[313,332],"class_list":{"0":"post-1894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-hydrosphere","9":"tag-pacific-ocean","10":"tag-volcano"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1896,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894\/revisions\/1896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}