Hydrothermal vents and chemosynthetic ecosystems
Fuentes hidrotermales y ecosistemas quimiosintéticos
- Date
- 1977 · confidence high
- Place
- Galápagos Rift, eastern Pacific
- Credited to
- Jack Corliss, Robert Ballard and the submersible Alvin (Woods Hole)
- People
- 👤 Jack Corliss1936–👤 Robert Ballard1942–
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The Alvin found hot-water vents at 2500 m depth surrounded by tube worms and giant clams living off chemosynthetic bacteria, without sunlight. It changed understanding of the limits of life and of ocean-crust chemical exchange.
Coordinates of the Galápagos Rift, site of the discovery. The 'black smokers' were discovered in 1979 on the East Pacific Rise.
What it led to
- Hydrothermal-vent hypothesis for the origin of life
- Search for life on Europa and Enceladus
- Marine sulphide mining and its regulation
Built on
- Seafloor spreading1960-1963
- Thermal anomalies detected in 1976
Made possible
- Scientific submersibles
- Astrobiology