Study of deep-sea vent biology is important for another reason as well. In recent years, scientists have discovered that microbial life has penetrated miles below the Earth's surface, living happily in the water that circulates through the cracks and chinks in the rock. The deep-sea vents serve as windows into this deep ecology. Better knowledge of the deep-sea vent systems also is needed to complete our understanding of the global cycle of many chemicals because the vents affect the chemistry of both the ocean and the atmosphere, Kleinrock said. In addition, the ridge system contains the largest number of volcanoes on the planet.
New crust is made primarily from the lava that they disgorge.
The process also produces a large number of earthquakes. So studying the system is expected to provide new information about the nature of earthquakes and volcanoes, he said. For these and a number of other reasons, Kleinrock and his colleagues intend to argue for a major increase in funding. The marine scientists hope that they can boost this significantly for the next 10 years.