Undersea 'black smokers' found off Arctic: Swiss scientists

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

GENEVA (AFP) — Jets of searingly hot water spewing up from the ocean floor have been discovered in a far-northern zone of the Arctic Ocean, Swiss-based scientists announced Monday.

The so-called "black smokers" were found 73 degrees north, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Greenland and Norway, in the coldest waters yet for a phenomenon first observed around the Galagapos islands in 1977.

The earth's plumbing system of hydrothermal vents contain their own, unique ecosystems given the absence of sunlight at depths, in this case, of 2,400 metres (7,874 feet), with vinegar-like water attaining temperatures of up to 400 degrees Celsius (752 degrees Fahrenheit).

A team from Norway's University of Bergen and the Lausanne-based Swiss Federal Institute of Technology...