#Volcanic tubeworms | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

eve-made-the-right-choice · 5 years ago

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I love the giant tubeworm. I appreciate that it processes the toxic volcanic substances in the water so that I don't have to. It's like that kid in class who will trade you for all the jelly beans you don't like. Good worm.

READ MY LIPS

TIME FOR WEIRD BIOLOGY.

and this week’s creature feature looks like something that could be found in the cosmetics section… of an interdimensional hellmarket catering specifically to Elder Gods.

it’s a trendy shade of sultry scarlet and it lives on the edge of boiling geysers at the bottom of the ocean- give it up for the-

it looks like evil spaghetti.

the Giant Tube Worm was discovered in the icy hell-depths of the Pacific Ocean waaay back in 1977. I would pay actual money to hear what the very first researchers to gaze upon a writhing field of these things were thinking. (“hur hur it looks like evil spaghetti”, perhaps. I can only guess.)

but I mean, if I went to the bottom of the ocean and found an immense field of previously unknown 8-foot-long worms waving their mouthparts gently from inside bone-white protective tubes? my response would probably just be screaming.

can you blame me? really?

but what actually are these bizarre creatures? well, for once the name is absolutely correct. the Giant Tube Worm is a worm, and a distant cousin to the pink shoelace creatures that flop onto the sidewalk and die after a rainstorm. (but you wouldn’t be able to tell from looking.)

these extremely secret creatures live at depths of over 5,000 feet, where no light reaches and the pressure is enough to reduce an African Elephant into a sad grey pancake. this doesn’t bother the Giant Tube Worm! (the pressure, not the concept of flattening an innocent elephant. though worms have no morals and their advice CANNOT be trusted.)

INVEST YOUR LIFE SAVINGS INTO CRYPTOCURRENCY.

but aside from the pressure, the Giant Tube Worm tolerates conditions that we usually only think of existing on other PLANETS. like, the bottom of the ocean is ice cold, right? (if you didn’t know that before, you do now.) the bottom of the Pacific Ocean hovers maybe a few degrees above freezing. (cold enough to freeze an African Elephant! we’re picking on elephants today, I guess.)

at least, MOST of the ocean floor. see, the Pacific Ocean is littered with thousands of volcanic vents, ranging from actual goddam volcanoes (like All Of Hawaii) to 30-foot tall underwater geysers that spew superheated water and deadly toxins from the Earth’s mantle.

guess where the Giant Tube Worms live!

no no, YOU HAVE TO GUESS.

that’s right! out of all the hellish places on earth, this animal looked at one that was already nightmarish and said “hm. not awful enough.” and moved next door to a boiling poison factory. just for the hell of it.

these aptly named “black smokers” can reach temperatures of well over 800 F (HOT ENOUGH TO BOIL AN AFRICAN ELEPHANT) and release the extremely lethal compound Hydrogen Sulfide (TOXIC ENOUGH TO POISON AN- yeah okay, I’ll stop) into the water. it sounds deadly to us, but for a Giant Tube Worm, this is prime real estate! and it’s because they’re basically aliens.

take us to your leadderrrr.

not only can Giant Tube Worms withstand extreme temperatures from boiling to freezing, they actually EAT those toxic chemicals! sort of. it’s complicated.

I’ll start simple: the Giant Tube Worm doesn’t have a full digestive system! where most creatures have a stomach and a lot of gross tubes, the Tube Worm has… symbiotic bacteria. and a LOT of them. these bacteria can make up half the Tube Worm’s goddam body weight! gross.

but these aren’t just any bacteria! these are the tube worm’s tiny life partners- they’re are able to use chemosynthesis, which is like photosynthesis but more complicated. basically, they use oxygen in the seawater to break down toxic compounds like hydrogen sulfide into food and energy! it’s a neat little system with no loose ends. loose ends are for filthy surface dwellers.

eels are okay, though.

but how is the tube worm even getting these compounds? well, it’s all in the lips. (stand by, things are about to get EVEN WEIRDER.)

those “lips” are actually an appendage called a plume. it’s bright red because it’s full of hemoglobin. if you paid attention in health class and didn’t faint like SOME people (shut up, I’m just a little squeamish!) you know that this is the same thing that makes human blood red. (and also elephant blood.)

the plume absorbs chemicals and oxygen from the water, and is so efficient that Giant Tube Worms are one of the fastest growing marine invertebrates! they’re extremely difficult to study for obvious reasons, but scientists think they may reach adulthood in just two years.

clearly, this eating-chemicals thing pays off.

kids, DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME.

because of their life choices, Giant Tube Worms enjoy an existance largely cut off from the rest of life on earth. (a darker, writhe-ier existence.) because of this, these incredible animals are little effected by human domination. (except when we go down there and shine bright lights in their faces, anyway.) however, Giant Tube Worms are part of the web of life like the rest of us. (NOBODY GETS A PASS. NO. BODY.)

see, the oxygen they use for chemosynthesis isn’t from the black smokers, or even really from the ocean. that oxygen came from photosynthesis, making the Giant Tube Worm as dependent on plants and the sun as the rest of us. it just goes to show, we’re all connected even if we think we aren’t! thanks, Giant Tube Worm!

PLAY SOCCER IN A BUSY INTERSECTION AND EAT A HOTDOG YOU FOUND ON THE GROUND.

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thanks for reading! you can find the rest of the Weird Biology series here.

if you enjoy my work, maybe buy me a coffee or check out my Patreon to see extra content and support Weird Biology.

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IMAGE SOURCES

img1- ResearchGate img2- BBC img3- Wikipedia img4- University of Melbourne img5- NOAA img6- NSF img7- Peter Batson img8- Deep Sea News

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levynite · 8 years ago

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diveplanit · 4 years ago

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Shore diving Bundaberg: from nudibranchs to dugongs

Mention Bundaberg to most Aussie divers and they will think of Lady Elliot Island or rum, or possibly both! However, for divers in the know they will automatically think about the wonderful and easy shore diving to be found off this sugar town.

Bundaberg, located four hours drive north of Brisbane, is a busy country town known as the sugar capital of Australia. Surrounded by sugar cane fields that go into producing the town’s most famous export – rum, the town is also the gateway to the Southern Great Barrier Reef, with day trips to Lady Musgrave Island and Lady Elliot Island only a short flight away. However, Bundaberg also has some of its own local dive sites that are well worth a look. Located off the coast are brilliant boat dives on coral reefs, the recently scuttled HMAS Tobruk, the incredible MV Karma shipwreck and the always fascinating Cochrane Artificial Reef. But the town also has Queensland’s best shore diving sites.

Known as the Coral Coast, the coastline off Bundaberg is mostly rocky, formed over a million years ago by volcanic eruptions. These rocks continue underwater and have allowed corals to establish and flourish in shallow water. While you can jump in the water just about anywhere on this coast, the three most popular dive sites are Barolin Rocks, Hoffman’s Rocks and Burkitt’s Reef.

Getting in and out of the water at Barolin Rocks is always a bit of a challenge as you have to scramble over slippery rocks, but there is a large rock pool that makes this a little easier. Once in the water you will find yourself in an incredible coral garden, with the rocks covered in hard and soft corals in depths from 1m to 5m. This beautiful coral garden is so unexpected that it always takes new divers by surprise. Beyond the coral gardens are small bommies and patches of coral in depths to 9m. Always have a close look at these corals, especially the gorgonians, as many are home to lovely spindle cowries.

While there are certainly larger creatures at Barolin Rocks, it is the macro critters that are its main feature, especially nudibranchs. Over a dozen species of these colourful sea slugs can be seen, including Spanish dancers. Other critters seen at this site include crabs, flatworms, sea hares, head shield slugs, crayfish and tubeworms. Numerous small reef fish dart amongst the corals, including butterflyfish, boxfish, wrasse, angelfish, gobies and blennies. But larger residents include blue spotted stingrays, rock cods, ornate wobbegongs and the occasional eastern shovelnose ray. Also keep an eye out for green and hawksbill turtles sleeping on the coral or olive sea snakes searching the bottom for prey.

Barolin Rocks most famous resident is a dugong. This wonderful sea cow is only seen at the site a handful of times a year, so an encounter is never guaranteed. I have been fortunate to have three encounters with this dugong, and each time it has swum around me several times as if closely studying the strange bubble-blowing alien visitor to its home. Having a semi-resident dugong makes this one of the most unique dive sites in Australia.

Hoffman’s Rocks requires another scramble over the rocks to get in and out, but it is well worth the effort. This site is a maze of bommies and coral ridges, covered in soft and hard corals, gorgonians and sponges in depths to 10m. This site also has a good collection of nudibranchs and reef fishes, but more exposed to the elements, and sometimes washed by a gentle current, Hoffman’s Rocks is where you will see larger species and pelagic visitors. Often seen here are turtles, sea snakes, Queensland gropers, Spanish mackerel, golden trevally, batfish, snapper, sweetlips and even spotted eagle rays.

For those that don’t like slippery rocks, Burkitt’s Reef is accessible from the beach. Located right in front of Bargara township, this large reef can be dived from the southern end of Bargara Beach or the northern end of Kelly’s Beach. This site also has pretty coral gardens and small bommies to explore in depths to 9m. Like the other sites it is a great spot for nudibranchs. Also seen at Burkitt’s Reef are crayfish, moray eels, sea snakes, tasselled wobbegongs and schools of pelagic fish.

Bundaberg’s Coral Coast can be dived year-round, with the visibility averaging around 6m to 10m on a good day, but varying from zero to 15m. It is best dived when the winds are light and there is little or no swell, as heavy seas stir up the visibility and make entries and exits more difficult. Also avoid the area if there has been recent heavy rain, as with two rivers and a creek draining into this area the water can turn brown. Winter is often the best time to dive this area, as there is little rain at this time of year.

The post Shore diving Bundaberg: from nudibranchs to dugongs appeared first on Diveplanit.

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mbari-blog · 3 months ago

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#tfw you don't know which way is up #HumpDay⁠

⁠Volcanic activity on the seafloor creates scattered oases known as hydrothermal vents. These underwater geysers spew superheated water rich in dissolved minerals. When that scalding-hot water comes in contact with frigid deep-ocean water, the minerals crystallize, raining tiny flecks of “ash” to the seafloor. Those mineral deposits build up over time, creating breathtaking spires and “chimneys” that can grow to hundreds of feet tall.⁠ ⁠ Less than 25 percent of the seafloor has been mapped at the same level of detail as the Moon or Mars. MBARI’s mission is to advance marine science and technology to understand our changing ocean—from the surface to the seafloor. For nearly four decades, MBARI has explored the deep ocean, recording thousands of hours of video with our remotely operated vehicles and mapping thousands of kilometers of seafloor using advanced robots. Together, these tools are helping to create a clearer picture of the amazing environments hidden in the ocean’s inky depths. ⁠ ⁠ The astonishing communities that live on and around hydrothermal vents have evolved to flourish under extreme temperatures and chemical conditions. The remarkable tubeworms, crabs, clams, and more that thrive here are found nowhere else on Earth. Now, with more companies looking to extract mineral resources from the ocean, it is more important than ever to study the deep sea and the wonders it holds. The maps we create and data we collect can help resource managers make informed decisions about the ocean, its inhabitants, and its resources. Together, we can safeguard these unique biological and geological treasures.

#mbari #deepsea #ocean #sealife #science #humpday

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ntrending · 6 years ago

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NASA is preparing for future space missions by exploring underwater volcanoes off Hawaii

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/nasa-is-preparing-for-future-space-missions-by-exploring-underwater-volcanoes-off-hawaii/

NASA is preparing for future space missions by exploring underwater volcanoes off Hawaii

Humans have been exploring the cosmos for nearly 60 years, but in all that time we haven’t found evidence of life in our solar system, outside of our own planet. Scientists still think other lifeforms might be out there, but some of the best possible habitats are hidden below thick crusts of ice on moons like Europa and Enceladus. Planned planetary missions like Europa Clipper and possible future missions to Enceladus could look for evidence of habitability, or maybe even microbial life in the oceans beneath those crusts, but before we arrive at these alien worlds to determine their habitability, NASA needs to better understand what these environments might be like. As it turns out, one of the best places to do this is right here on Earth.

Nearly two and a half miles under the surface of the water, the volcanic seafloor of Hawaii will soon host a new NASA mission called SUBSEA (Systematic Underwater Biogeochemical Sea Science and Exploration Analog). Its goal is to explore the habitability of the Lō`ihi seamount off the coast of the Big Island as an analog for icy moons like Enceladus.

Space on Earth

In order to thoroughly explore the region, SUBSEA will operate off of a ship called Nautilus where it will deploy two submarine-type remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) called Hercules and Argus. “We’re going to be examining this from the standpoint of understanding ocean sciences in general, but also because it offered a really good analog to other potential hydrothermal systems at places like Enceladus and Europa,” says Dr. Darlene Lim, Principal Investigator of SUBSEA.

The Nautilus was set to embark on its scientific missions late last week, but was delayed by the encroaching Hurricane Lane. It’s now in transit to the underwater volcano, and you can follow along with Dr. Lim and the Nautilus by watching livestreams from the ship here or below once the scientific mission gets underway.

When the Cassini spacecraft flew through the plumes of Enceladus, it smelled, tasted and analyzed the chemical composition of the water, even pinpointing the probable temperature of the source of the plumes. “We’ve used the deep ocean as an analog for other ocean systems in our solar system,” says Lim, “but many times the analogs that have been used have been mid oceanic ridge systems like black smokers and a lot of people have that come to mind when they think of deep ocean vents.”

But the catch with these black smokers—underwater chimneys that release iron sulfide—is that their temperatures linger around 700 degrees Fahrenheit and according to Cassini data the likely temperature for Enceladus plumes are around 300 degrees Fahrenheit. This is not an ideal match. Luckily, at Lō`ihi there are white smokers (these release barium, calcium and silicon which make these particular vents white) whose temperatures stay around 392 degrees. As a bonus, the underwater pressure where they’re located in Hawaii is expected to be similar to pressure that a mission might experience at Enceladus.

That’s not all that Earth and Enceladus have in common. White smokers on Earth create a chemical known as molecular hydrogen, and just this year NASA announced that before the Cassini spacecraft ended its mission, it detected molecular hydrogen in the plumes of Enceladus. Lim says, “Data like this helps build the case that similar processes are likely happening in both locations.”

Searching for life

Deep sea exploration might conjure images of anglerfish, tubeworms and bioluminescent creatures out of your nightmares, but hydrothermal vents like those found in this region of the seafloor are more likely to harbor different kinds of microbial life than these surreal beings. Since life on the icy moons in our solar system could resemble those microbes, researchers are interested in knowing more about these deep water communities.

During its three week mission, the ship’s two ROVs will drift down 2.4 miles below the water’s surface to study the interactions between the water and the rocks at the volcano. These specific conditions yield life here on Earth, and could be doing the same in the solar system. “We want to study the water/rock interactions so we can begin to understand, ok, we have this kind of basalt interacting with this kind of water. This is what happens and that may be what is happening on Enceladus as well, ” says Lim. “ It’s not clear to what extent what type of microbial populations there are around the area. We’re still expecting an interesting diversity from the hydrothermal venting points.”

Both robotic vehicles will collect rock and water samples and allow the team to study the geology of the area through the eyes of planetary scientists for the first time. By collecting this kind of data at Lō`ihi, the SUBSEA team can create models and hypothesise about what we might see at Enceladus and other icy moons believed to have hydrothermal systems on their ocean floors.

Preparing for Space

Searching for life at Lō`ihi isn’t all the SUBSEA team is setting out to do. They will be livestreaming their three week long mission as a way to study the inherent time latency built into deep space missions. There is only a couple second communication delay between Earth and the moon, but light has to travel 14 minutes one way to get to Mars and up to 90 minutes to get to Enceladus. These lags in data have to be accounted for when remotely operating a rover or maybe even a submarine. “Building up some foundational knowledge for how to explore in deep space is extremely exciting to me,” says Lim. “This is a high fidelity analog that we’re going to be using as a baseline for how decisions can get made using this low latency telepresence architectures. It will help us build teleoperations not only on Mars but for the moon, for asteroids and so forth.”

While the mission is taking place on a ship in Hawaii, the SUBSEA mission control is actually located in Rhode Island, a distance of over 5,000 miles. By live streaming the underwater cameras and data collection to the team across the globe, it will inherently build in a time delay. By testing out this system on Earth in this way, it will help inform other missions about how challenging data relay might be when it’s attempted off planet. If we can’t send high resolution video to another location on Earth for example, then how can we expect to do it at Mars? Since it is likely that a first human mission to Mars could include remotely operating a rover or scientific instrument of some kind from orbit, tests like these can help build out that much needed infrastructure, long before it’s needed on a mission to Enceladus.

Next year when the Nautilus heads back out to sea, Lim and her team will introduce a time delay to mimic the natural light-time delay between Earth and Mars though rounding it down to around 10 minutes instead of 14, just to gauge how many challenges arise.

“This mission is so exciting because one of the areas in our solar system that we may want to look at in terms of present day life are some of these ocean world systems,” says Dr. Lim. “So being able to use a terrestrial system as a mechanism to make some hypothesis come together about what might be possible at an ocean system is great and very exciting.”

Written By Shannon Stirone

#Space

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yasbxxgie · 7 years ago

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The Strange Worms That Live On Erupting Mud Volcanoes: A chain of volcanoes oozing out hot mud may not sound like a nice place to live, but for one group of worms it is paradise

At the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, in cold dark waters miles away from anywhere, lie five active volcanoes.

But these are not your typical volcanoes, belching out hot molten lava. They are mud volcanoes, and as the name suggests they are spewing out warm mud – as well as methane gas.

It sounds pretty inhospitable, and to humans it would be, but these strange volcanoes are home to billions of small worms. These creatures survive without light. But how they do it is only just starting to be revealed.

The story begins in 2009. Scientists from the ArcticNet projectwere on a research ship, using sonar to map part of the Beaufort Sea, which lies north of Canada and close to Alaska. They discovered large circular structures between 250 and 750m below the surface.

Changes in the sound waves reaching the ship suggested that large volumes of gas were bubbling up from the sea floor: a sign of volcanic activity. The most likely culprits were mud volcanoes.

These are formed when a vent in the Earth's surface releases gases. Mud flows from the seafloor and forms a cone-shaped mound around the vent. Compared to normal volcanoes, mud volcanoes are much cooler.

In 2013 a team of scientists from around the world decided to take a closer look. They set sail aboard the Canadian icebreaker CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier (SWL).

The expedition was one of the first of its kind to take place in the Arctic Ocean. Working in October, the team had only a short window before the sea ice became too thick – making the area above the mud volcanoes inaccessible and potentially trapping them there.

The first thing the team needed was a detailed map of the area. To get this, they programmed an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) shaped like a torpedo to fly down to 50m above the seabed. Once there, the AUV moved back and forth over the area, much like a person mowing a lawn.

The resulting map revealed five giant mud volcanoes. They were 600 to 1,100m across, and up to 30m tall.

Next the scientists wanted to see them close-up. For this, they used a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) that beamed back a live high-definition video of the sea floor.

It showed that most of the mud volcanoes had remarkably flat tops surrounded by a circular ridge.

"The volcanoes are so large that you can only see a small part of them at any one time," says Charlie Paull of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, California, US. "They erupt frequently and release gas and mud, which bubbles out onto the seafloor. The mud has a viscous texture like the top of a very thick stew."

The eruptions contain many different chemicals. First on the list is methane, otherwise known as natural gas.

"The gas coming out of the volcanoes is biogenic methane, which means that it is produced by the decomposition of organic matter and bacteria, and not from oil deposits trapped underground," says Paull.

A lot of Earth's methane is trapped below the seabed as "gas hydrate", an ice-like crystal of methane and water. Hydrates form when the intense pressures at depths of over 500m freeze the methane and water. When mud volcanoes erupt near gas hydrates, the methane in the hydrates can escape, along with methane from deep underground.

The world's mud volcanoes are estimated to release 27 million tonnes of methane every year, about 5% of annual global emissions.

The Beaufort Sea volcanoes also spew out water rich in dissolved compounds, such as sodium bicarbonate. The water seems to be a mixture of seawater, water from snow and rain, and water from deeply-buried clay.

"When clay minerals get buried they are exposed to increasing pressure and temperature," says Paull. "The pressure causes the clay structure to change, which results in a release of water from the clay."

And then, of course, there's the mud, which spills out onto the cold floor of the Arctic Ocean.

It is nowhere near as hot as a molten lava eruption, and quickly gets cooled by seawater. Still, the frequent eruptions warm the seas, and water temperatures as high as 9.1 °C were recorded around the flat tops of the volcanoes.

It seems the volcanic activity acts as a beacon, attracting life to the area. Along the slopes of the mud volcanoes and their flat tops, there are vast communities of tubeworms.

The ROV's cameras revealed vast thickets of worms. A small mechanical arm attached to the ROV grabbed some of these worms and carried them back to the surface.

The Beaufort Sea tubeworms are only 7-8cm long. However, they are distantly related to giant tube-dwelling annelid worms that are found near deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Such worms can be 2m long.

Both groups of worms survive without light, under intense pressures and in water that is often laced with acid and toxic gases. They can cope with a wide range of temperatures. Often one end of a tubeworm can experience near-freezing temperatures, while the other end is exposed to hot fluids flowing out of the seafloor.

They have no eyes, no stomach and no anus. Instead, they somehow feed on the gases pumped out of the volcanoes.

The scientists aren't sure whether it's the methane gas itself that the worms feed on, or hydrogen sulfide, which is made when the nearby microbes oxidise methane.

"The tubeworms are using either methane or hydrogen sulfide as an energy source," says Paull.

The process is called chemosynthesis. The worms perform a chemical reaction, either on methane or hydrogen sulphide, and this releases electrons – which supply energy.

"The tubeworms probably aren't performing the reaction themselves," says Paull. "I think it's likely that bacteria living inside the tubeworms are doing all the work. The tubeworms bring in methane and oxygen, the two things that bacteria need, and the bacteria get to work synthesizing new organic matter."

If that is true, the worms are "farming" the bacteria within their guts. They provide a stable, chemical-rich environment for the chemosynthetic bacteria, which in turn serve as food for the worms.

Hydrogen sulfide has the advantage that the worms can turn it into sulfur, which they can store much like our bodies store fat. They cannot store methane, and have to use it there and then.

Interestingly, the tube worms seem to prefer some areas of the volcanoes over others.

The worms were primarily found on the flat tops of the mud volcanoes, not on the slopes. The size of these colonies ranged from 10cm across, with only a few dozen worms, to extensive thickets of worms filling most of the ROV camera's field of view.

The thickets, which Paull describes as "as dense as grass in a hayfield", contained millions of worms. They were clustered around old mud flows. This makes sense, because the tubeworms need a steady supply of either methane or sulfide to survive, and the mud flows would provide that

However, there were no worms around the newer mud flows, even though they are richest in methane. One of the volcanoes, which was both the youngest and the most active, was almost devoid of worms.

"This volcano is different because it is the youngest," says Paull. It may be that this mud volcano is so active, and the mud flows on it so young, that the worms haven't yet been able to colonise it.

The tubeworms may simply be growing very slowly.

Some tubeworms are remarkably long-lived. In 2000, researchers found tubeworms that took 170-250 years to grow 2m long. They lived in cold seeps, another type of chemosynthetic environment, around the Gulf of Mexico.

We do not yet know how quickly the Beaufort mud volcano worms grow. But having such a slow growth rate would make them slow to colonise the mud flows, explaining why the new mud flows are uninhabited.

The speed at which the mud volcanoes erupt and change may also explain why they are, apart from the worms, more or less uninhabited.

"We didn't see the common hallmarks associated with other methane and hydrogen sulfide environments, such as various types of clams, mussels and bigger tubeworm species," says Paull. "I personally think that that's because the top of the volcanoes are churning over too fast for worms and other animals to accumulate there."

You may think it would be a disadvantage for a slow-growing tubeworm to live in a dynamic environment such as a mud volcano, as it might not have time to breed before being buried by boiling mud. However, it is not clear that the eruptions directly harm the worms once they are in place.

The whole setup is eerily similar to another mud volcano, on the other side of the world.

A genetic analysis of the Beaufort tubeworms shows that they are closely related to siboglinid tubeworms living on the Håkon Mosby mud volcano, in the Norwegian Arctic.

The Håkon Mosby volcano was discovered in 1989 by researchers at the University of Bergen. It lies 1250m beneath the sea, much deeper than the volcanoes in the Beaufort Sea. It is also much flatter, only rising 10m above the ocean floor. It covers an area of about 2 sq km and belches out mud, water and methane from its centre.

Every year, Håkon Mosby emits several hundred tons of methane. It is thought to have been active for at least 40 years. The methane is a greenhouse gas, but most of it never makes it to the atmosphere, as microbes and tubeworms break it down.

In fact, mud volcanoes like this may be remarkably common.

A study published in 2000 estimated that there are between 1000 and 100,000 mud volcanoes in the deep sea – plus all the ones on land.

Yet despite this, mud volcanoes like Håkon Mosby and the Beaufort Sea volcanoes remain mysterious. We do not even understand why they are so active.

Normal volcanic eruptions can be triggered by earthquakes and shifting tectonic plates. But earthquakes are rare in the Arctic. Scientists took seismic measurements of Håkon Mosby from 2008 to 2010, and found no clear evidence that tremors triggered eruptions.

Researchers believe that a series of chambers beneath the volcano, possibly reaching as deep as 1000m beneath the seafloor, are feeding methane gas and mud to the mud volcano. Similar chambers could exist below the Beaufort Sea volcanoes.

We are only just scratching the surface of these underwater volcanoes. But now is the time to find out.

The Arctic is warming due to man-made climate change, and many countries and companies are interested in sending shipping through, or exploiting its vast reserves of oil and gas. If we are to protect its unique marine life, including the tubeworms of the Beaufort Sea, we will first need to understand them.

#arcticnet project #bbc #animals #science #bbc earth #mud volcanoes #volcanoes #arctic ocean #autonomous underwater vehicle #auv #biogenic methane #methane #beaufort sea #tubeworms

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