With the help of international crews and scientist as well as post war era naval technologies, we’re able to finally find out what lies beneath the great oceans. In 1977, under the direction of Bob Ballard, a navigation group from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Scripps Institute of Oceanography and researchers from Oregon State joined together aboard the Knorr. Over the Galápagos Rift with Alvin the world’s first deep-sea manned submersible they had plans to find such venting systems. At latitude 21 degrees North the Alvin reached 9,200 feet (2.8km) at the bottom where a computer read out a curious 7.6 degrees Celsius (Cone, 83).
It is now commonly known, in the scientific community, that the movement of the Earths crust has been active for billions of years. However, the driving mechanism of tectonics forces still remains a mystery. The asthenosphere on which the lithosphere floats is molten due to radio-active decay warming us from the inside out. Volcanism is one result of moving plate margins. Specifically where plates spread apart, volcanoes and subsequently some of the largest mountain ranges on earth can be found. Hydrothermal vents are also founds at these location. What wasn’t understood until this dive was a hydrothermic cycle that created emense chimneys out of dissolved minerals and metals. There is absolutely no light for photosythesis, intense pressure from the miles of seawater above and the resultant freezing temperatures would seemingly inhibit life. However, it is only around these vent fields in which an amazing amount of diverse biomass can be seen.
At the base of a lava lake hovering above fresh pahoehoe with edges of pillow basalt, the Alvin had only just entered into the deep-sea hydrothermal fie...
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Our understanding of the Earth’s interior has been a focus for scientific study for multiple decades, recognised in the early 1900’s. Throughout the years, scientists have debated and quarreled over their findings, observations and theories for the most correct model of the composition and internal structure of the Earth.
Linking with the idea of hydrothermal vents being a 'reactor' for RNA hydrothermal vents rely on chemical energy from geothermal vents to sustain a organisms. Swarms of bacteria thrive in this environment which acts as an interface between the high temperature vents and cold oxygenated seawater. The bacteria thrive on gases produced by the vents such as methane and use these chemicals to produce simple organic molecules to support the local ecosystem in a similar way to plants using photosynthesis. Wachtershauser has proposed that a biochemical cycle grew and assembled the first living cell.
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first of all, in an article called, “Why Exploring the Ocean is Mankind’s Next Giant Leap” by Philippe Cousteau it explains two going down to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench, but this is largely forgotten today. In this article it also explains how unbelievable it is that people are focusing on space travel but we don’t know
Volcanism is a major part of the Galapagos and their formation. The island chain is positioned on the Nazca Plate, which is subducting beneath the South American Plate at a geologically rapid pace of 2.5 inches per year. In addition, this Nazca Plate is located directly on top of the Galapagos Hotspot. It is here that mantle plumes melt Earth’s crust, creating volcanoes as a product. The oldest island was first shaped by this ...
Archaeology is a continuously evolving field where there is a constant stream of new branches and excavation methods. Due to the influx of new technologies and innovations in recent decades, archaeologists have been able to excavate previously inaccessible areas. For example, new diving equipment and tools such as proton magnetometers, side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, and miniature submarines have allowed archaeologists to dive into the deep depths of the ocean. As a result, the branch of underwater archaeology was created to search for shipwrecks and other artifacts on the ocean floor. Underwater archaeology’s role has increased in recent years as it allows archaeologists to more accurately interpret the past by supplementing information gained through traditional land excavations.
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The deep sea is one of the most hostile environments in the world, which a living organism is subjected to. As you progress from the surface (the epipelagic zone) through to the abyssopelagic zone near the basin of the ocean; the environmental characteristics begin to alter dramatically. Light, pressure, oxygen, temperature and food are abiotic factors that have all led to the fascinating adaptations of deep sea life. Pressure alone increases by 1 atmosphere for each 10m in depth which is an astonishing rate. The deep sea temperature remains between 2-4°c, which is just another factor inhabitants must overcome in order to survive, along with a reduced quantity and accessibility of essential factor’s like ;oxygen, food and light[3].
Review: The opportunity and endeavor of exploring the Earth’s oceans can reap great rewards for mankind and unravel many of the mysteries that the Earth has left to discover.
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...of mantle plumes, forming the first persisting oceanic lithosphere as observed in Nebel et al. (2013). This early lithosphere may have been buoyant enough to form cratonic nuclei (Nebel et al., 2014). Subduction is thought to be an essential process in the formation of modern continental crust, yet this early formation model does not involve subduction or the preexistence of continental crust. I conclude that the evolution of crust was a gradual process that may have only required consistent mantle plumes melting and forming original crustal material, which agree with the interpretations of Nebel et al. (2013) though opposing new observations (i.e. Valley et al., 2014) suggest a much cooler Hadean crust. Therefore future models of early crustal formation will be developed from either the presence of cooler (wetter) or hotter (dryer) conditions on Earth’s surface.
Vannela, Raveender. "Are We “Digging Our Own Grave” Under the Oceans?" Environmental Science & Technology 46.15 (2012): 7932-933. Print.
inferred for the reservoir (4). The magma ascent to the surface occurred through a conduit of possibly 70 to 100 m in diameter (5). A thermal model predicts that such a reservoir should contain a core of partially molten magma (6) that can be detected by high-resolution seismic tomography.