In some places, life manages to get a toehold in an otherwise barren landscape. (Photo: AWI, OFOBS team)
This is a great science story, untainted by activist agendas or grandstanding. An article at ScienceNorway describes Here’s what it looks like 4000 meters below the Arctic ice. Excerpts in italics with my bolds.
Far below the Arctic ice lies a special area with volcanic activity. What lives down there? Scientists have gone on a journey to find out.
Hydrothermal vents were first discovered in 1979. They look like pipes sticking out of the seabed and emit warm “smoke”, which is actually hot fluid loaded with minerals.
In the Atlantic and Pacific, many of these vents, also called chimneys, are surrounded by unique ecosystems with clams, blind shrimp, beard worms and extremophile bacteria.
Life there does not get its energy from the sun, but from the interior of the earth.
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