Hydrothermal Vents a Significant Source of Iron in the
Oceans
(July 9, 2015) Since
their first discovery a generation ago, it has been recognized that
hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the deep dark oceans represented unique
habitats for exotic forms of life previously unknown to science. But what has gone quite overlooked, until
now, is the role that these “rare, exotic” systems might play in regulating the
global-scale chemistry of the oceans and, hence, the health and productivity of
our planet as a whole.
A new study by researchers from University of Washington
(UW), Old Dominion University (ODU), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
(WHOI), the University of Southern California and Liverpool University in the
UK, demonstrates that chemical-laden plumes erupted from vents at one section
of Mid Ocean Ridge in the SE Pacific can be traced all the way across the
Pacific for more than 4000 kilometers.
Further, the study shows how the iron transported by this process can be
brought to the surface oceans of Antarctica where it has the potential to serve
as a key life-sustaining micro-nutrient, supporting extensive fixation and
removal of organic carbon from the sunlit upper waters of that ocean.