By Will Dunham
(Reuters) -Stating, diving to amazing depths in two ocean trenches in the Northwestern Pacific, have discovered thriving communities of marine creatures who receive their maintenance not by eating organic matter like most animals, but by converting chemicals into energy.
They discovered these animal communities based on chemosynthesis – dominated by tube worms and mussels – during a series of diving aboard a crew submerged to the bottom of Kuril -Kamchatka and Aleut. These creatures are nourished by liquids rich in hydrogen sulfide and methane, penetrating from the seabed into this dark and frigid sphere beyond the reach of sunlight.
These ecosystems are found at a depth greater than the height of the Everest Mountain, the highest peak on Earth. The deepest was 9 533 meters (31,276 feet) below the ocean surface in the trench of Kuril-Kamchatka. It was almost 25% deeper than such animals were previously documented everywhere.
“What makes our discovery revolutionary is not only its greater depth – it is the amazing abundance and variety of chemosynthetic life that we have observed,” says the marine geochimist Megran Du of the Institute of Science and Engineering in the Degrees, part of the Chinese Academy.
“Unlike isolated pockets of organisms, this community flourished as a life oasis in the vast desert of the deep sea,” Du added.
While some marine animals are documented at an even greater depth, nearly 11,000 meters (36,000 feet) below the surface in the quiet Marianne trench, said Du, these are not chemical eating.
In a new study, scientists used their submersible called Fendouzhe to travel to what is called the Hadal Zone. The Hadal Zone is where one of the continent -sized slabs that make up the sliders of the earth’s crust under an adjacent plate in a process called subduction.
“The ocean environment below is characterized by cold, total darkness and active tectonic activities,” says Idsse maritime geologist and study co -author Xiaotong Peng, leader of the research program.
This environment has been found to say, Pen, ports, “the deepest and most inspiring chemosynthetic communities that are known to exist on our planet.”
The Kuril-Kamchatka trench coat works about 2900 km (1800 miles) and is located near the southeast coast of Kamchatka Peninsula. The Allevian trench runs approximately 3400 km (2100 miles) from the southern coastline of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.
The recently observed ecosystems were dominated by two types of chemical-nutrition animals, which are red, gray or white in color and about 20-30 cm (8-12 inches) long and mussels that were white in color and up to 23 cm (nine inches). Some of them seem to be unknown species so far, Du said.
“Although they live in the most ardent environment, these forms of life have found their way to survive and flourish,” Du said.
Some non -chemical eating animals, maintained by eating organic matter and dead marine creatures, which are filtered from above, have also been found, living in these ecosystems, including sea anemones, spoons and sea cucumbers.
DU, the main scientist of the expedition, described what it is like to visit this remote watery sphere.
“The diving in the subtle was an exceptional experience, traveling over time. Every descent transported me to a new deep -water kingdom, as if revealing a hidden world and unraveling its mysteries,” Du said, as he expressed astonishment of the remarkable resilience and beauty of the creatures that scientists witnessed.
The study illustrates how life can thrive under some of the most extreme conditions of the Earth – and potentially beyond.
“These discoveries expand the limit of the depth of the hemosynthetic communities of the Earth. The future must focus on how these creatures adapt to such an exceptional depth,” Pen said.
“We assume that such chemoosynthetic communities can also exist in alien oceans, as chemical species such as methane and hydrogen are common,” Pen added.
(Report by Will Dunham in Washington, editing by Rosalba O’Brien)