The first ever sighting of live tubeworms in Atlantic waters occurred recently in a deep ocean trench close to the Cayman Islands:
An expedition to explore the bottom of the sea has glimpsed tube worms living near hydrothermal vents, the first time the bizarre creatures have been seen in the Atlantic Ocean.
“I will take that home as my personal key discovery moment for the cruise,” said expedition science lead Chris German, chief scientist for the National Deep Submergence Facility at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, in a statement.
The expedition team used remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, last month to spy on life near the Mid-Cayman Rise, a region at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea south of Grand Cayman Island where tectonic forces are pulling the seafloor apart.
Adding to the excitement, the worms were seen living alongside a species of deep-sea shrimp. Until now, the two species had never been seen living together at a hydrothermal vent— an opening on the seafloor that spews forth hot water and minerals from deep inside the Earth.
Find out more in articles at LiveScience and Wired Science.
Previously on Green Antilles: World’s deepest undersea vents discovered in the Caribbean.
[Photo: NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, MCR Expedition 2011, NOAA-OER via livescience.com]
