Life On The Deep Ocean Floor

By dr david whitehouse bbc news online science editor a new and controversial theory on the origin of life on earth is causing a stir among scientists.

Life on the deep ocean floor.

Scientists have brought back to life microbes found in 100 million year old sediment from deep beneath the ocean floor. Back in 1977 a very interesting discovery was made on the deep ocean floor where no light penetrates. Marine life and exploration on the ocean floor. Deep sea exploration has revealed varied landscapes which include volcanoes seamounts hydrothermal vents and cold seeps.

Plate tectonics theory which was finally accepted by the scientific community in the 1950s and 60s had predicted the existence of hydrothermal vents deep sea hot springs that form when cold seawater seeps into magma emitting cracks on the ocean floor heats up and rises. The experiment sheds new light on where on earth life can be found and. Many of these newly discovered species live deep on the ocean floor in unique habitats that depend on plate movement underwater volcanoes and cold water seeps. Little or no light penetrates this part of the ocean and most of the organisms that live there rely for subsistence on falling organic matter produced in the photic zone for this reason scientists once assumed that life would be sparse.

Life began on the ocean floor it may all have begun next to hydrothermal vents in the deep sea. New species are discovered in the ocean each year by marine biologists and other ocean scientists. Several field projects focused on deep ocean habitats seamounts hydrothermal vents the ocean floor and the waters around the mid atlantic ridge. The deep sea or deep layer is the lowest layer in the ocean existing below the thermocline and above the seabed at a depth of 1000 fathoms 1800 m or more.

The census explored ocean life from top to bottom pole to pole microbes to whales. In fact there have been more missions into space than journeys down to the greatest depths of the oceans. The deep sea is a relatively mysterious and unknown part of the earth as only about 1 of the ocean floor has been explored by humans. And one of the implications is that life could be more likely on planets where it was previously.