Deep Sea Vent Ecology - A Brief and Semi-Remembered Broad Overview
So there's life in the deep oceans here on Earth, and I mean the deep oceans, two and three miles down, where light has never and will never reach. And this life lives without oxygen, or light, and they do it around deep sea vents, fissures in the tectonic plate, that spew heavy metals and toxic gases at scorching (or boiling, as the case may be) temperatures. These chemicals and metals build up around the fissure and form massive chimney like structures, that will eventually become covered in wonderful and strange forms of life. The interesting thing about this life is that it sustains itself by a process found nowhere else; the base of the ecosystem, the bacteria that is so abundant, devours these heavy metals using special enzymes. Now, these bacteria are called 'thermophiles,' heat lovers. They can't survive at the hottest of the vents, the 660F monolith chimneys, but they hold the record for the hottest survivors. They have been recorded at temperatures up to 235F. The informed reader might note that 212F is boiling point, and you would be right, at sea level. But this is miles below the surface, and the pressure there is immense. Only specially designed submersibles can access such depths without doing a passable imitation of a pancake; but not the organisms down there. It …show more content…
But this one is rather special. You know how viruses can take over ants and control their actions, basically making them zombie virus incubators? This is the vent where scientists found viruses doing the same to the metal eating bacteria I described. How about that for wicked! The virus takes over the bacterium, forcing it to eat way more chemical and metal emission from the pictured vent, and thus produce more energy than normal, which the virus feeds on, until the bacteria explodes from the excess energy moving through its system and releases more zombie virus into the surrounding
So there's life in the deep oceans here on Earth, and I mean the deep oceans, two and three miles down, where light has never and will never reach. And this life lives without oxygen, or light, and they do it around deep sea vents, fissures in the tectonic plate, that spew heavy metals and toxic gases at scorching (or boiling, as the case may be) temperatures. These chemicals and metals build up around the fissure and form massive chimney like structures, that will eventually become covered in wonderful and strange forms of life. The interesting thing about this life is that it sustains itself by a process found nowhere else; the base of the ecosystem, the bacteria that is so abundant, devours these heavy metals using special enzymes. Now, these bacteria are called 'thermophiles,' heat lovers. They can't survive at the hottest of the vents, the 660F monolith chimneys, but they hold the record for the hottest survivors. They have been recorded at temperatures up to 235F. The informed reader might note that 212F is boiling point, and you would be right, at sea level. But this is miles below the surface, and the pressure there is immense. Only specially designed submersibles can access such depths without doing a passable imitation of a pancake; but not the organisms down there. It …show more content…
But this one is rather special. You know how viruses can take over ants and control their actions, basically making them zombie virus incubators? This is the vent where scientists found viruses doing the same to the metal eating bacteria I described. How about that for wicked! The virus takes over the bacterium, forcing it to eat way more chemical and metal emission from the pictured vent, and thus produce more energy than normal, which the virus feeds on, until the bacteria explodes from the excess energy moving through its system and releases more zombie virus into the surrounding