How do fossils form around hydrothermal vents?
Crispin Little describes how his team found out by making their own. (From PlanetEarth Online) — Research on the deep-sea floor is a serious undertaking. It requires specialised equipment like the famous manned submersible Alvin and very expensive oceanographic vessels capable of operating far from land for a long time. Potential problems are not only technical – ship’s engines malfunctioning or submersible cables tangling, for example. They can also be due to factors beyond anyone’s control; bad weather has scuppered many a well-planned research cruise. Working on the mid-ocean ridges is even harder, because these are among the most geologically active areas on the planet. Here new ocean crust is being formed as lava erupts onto the sea floor, accompanied by strong earthquakes. (See Planet Earth Autumn 2009, p28.) Not only that, but the ridges are also sites of intense hydrothermal activity, with 370°C, highly acidic vent fluids gushing out of towering mineral chimneys on the sea flo
