Astrobiology Travels to the Indian Ocean Sat. The Jason remotely operated vehicle is returned to the ship after collecting shrimp samples at a hydrothermal vent. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Samples of adult and juvenile vent shrimp returned by the Jason vehicle. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Video of a black smoker on the sea floor spewing scalding water cloudy with metal-sulfide minerals.
Hydrothermal vents are home to teeming communities of tube worms, crabs and fish.
Here, where sunlight never reaches, live complex ecosystems that can appear and disappear within a matter of decades. The Research Vessel Knorr is currently in the Indian Ocean exploring a newly discovered deep-sea hydrothermal vent. Click here to view a recent Webcast about the exciting discoveries scientists are making as they explore one of Earth's most bizzare ecosystems. At these sites, cold ocean water seeps through cracks in the seafloor to hot spots underground. The water gets superheated to several hundred degrees Celsius and is spit back up in a mineral-rich broth of scalding fluid.