The scientists also measured horizontal and vertical flow of currents in the vicinity of the vents. They determined that the giant tubeworm larvae were neutrally buoyant, and they calculated their metabolic rate. They were able to document some of the giant tubeworms' life cycle, about which little had been known. In the late 1970s, scientists discovered there were vents thousands of feet deep in the ocean along the ridges formed by the earth's major tectonic plates. The vents belch geysers of hot water containing sulfur and other minerals and were surrounded by hundreds of brand-new species of animals, bacteria and some life forms that didn't fall into any of those categories.
Microbes take sulfur and use it to fix carbon dioxide in a process called chemosynthesis.
The tubeworm has no eyes, mouth or intestine and is sustained by chemosynthetic microbes living inside it. The question Manahan and his colleagues set out to solve was how giant tubeworms, and presumably other vent life forms, colonize new vent sites. The vents are ephemeral, with old vents shutting down and new ones springing up 50 or more miles away. Fla. The research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. In addition to his USC duties, Manahan is also the director of the National Science Foundation's Biology Training Program in Antarctica.