Together with our collaborators, we have material on hand to address its food supply, its early life history, and its geochemical environment. Early indications are that it is a very ordinary polychaete in every respect except its habitat, but future expeditions to the lair of the ice worm will undoubtedly produce new surprises. The iceworm is one of many organisms in the seafloor ecosystem supported by naturally seeping hydrocarbons in the Gulf of Mexico. Bacteria are the microscopic workhorses of the chemosynthetic community, converting sulfide and hydrocarbon molecules into substances edible to others. Ice worms usually hide safely in their burrows, but disturbances expose them to possible predators such as this isopod, a deep-sea crustacean distantly related to pillbugs.
Gas hydrate in the lab briefly resembles snow before it decomposes into water and free gas.
Holes in this piece are ice-worm burrows. Oceanography graduate student Susan Escorcia captures methane gas escaping from various sections of a hydrate core cample that was brought to the surface.