Lost City (hydrothermal field)
Encyclopedia
Lost City is a field of hydrothermal vent
s in the mid-Atlantic ocean that differ significantly from the black smoker vents found in the late 1970s. The vents were discovered in December 2000 during a National Science Foundation
expedition to the mid-Atlantic. A second expedition mounted in 2003 used DSV Alvin
to explore the vents. The details of the chemistry and biology of the Lost City hydrothermal field were published in March 2005.
The vents are located on the seafloor mountain Atlantis Massif
, where reactions between seawater and upper mantle peridotite
produce methane
- and hydrogen
-rich fluids that are highly alkaline (pH
9 to 11) , with temperatures ranging from <40° to 90°C. There is a field of about 30 chimneys made of calcium carbonate
30 to 60 meters tall, with a number of smaller chimneys.
Lost City vents release methane
and hydrogen
into the surrounding water; they do not produce significant amounts of carbon dioxide
, hydrogen sulfide
or metals, which are the major outputs of volcanic black smoker vents. The temperature and pH of water surrounding the two types of vent is also significantly different. Strontium
, carbon
, and oxygen
isotope
data and radiocarbon ages document at least 30,000 years of hydrothermal activity driven by serpentinization
reactions at Lost City, making the Lost City older than known black smoker vents by at least two orders of magnitude. Correspondingly, Lost City and black smoker vents support vastly different lifeforms.
The Lost City supports a variety of small invertebrate
s associated with the carbonate structures, including snail
s, bivalves, polychaete
s, amphipods, and ostracod
s. Large animals, however, such as tube worms and giant clams that are abundant in typical black smoker vents are absent at Lost City. A variety of microorganisms live in, on, and around the vents. Methanosarcinales
-like archaea
form thick biofilm
s inside the vents where they subsist on hydrogen and methane; bacteria related to the Firmicutes
also live inside the vents. External to the vents archaea
, including the newly described ANME-1 and bacteria including proteobacteria
oxidise methane and sulfur as their primary source of energy.
Lost City provides geologists, chemists and biologists a working ecosystem
for the study of life and other processes driven by abiotic serpentinization production of methane and hydrogen.
Lost City was featured in the Disney
3-D
IMAX
film Aliens of the Deep
.
Speculation has been offered that ancient versions of similar hydrothermal vents in the seas of a young Earth are the birthplace of all life, constituting the original abiogenesis. The free hydrogen, metallic catalysts consistent with an iron-sulfur world theory
, micro-cellular physical structure of the towers and available hydrothermal energy might plausibly have provided an environment for the beginnings of non-photosynthetic energy cycles common to archaea
and organic molecule creation.
Hydrothermal vent
A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart, ocean basins, and hotspots. Hydrothermal vents exist because the earth is both...
s in the mid-Atlantic ocean that differ significantly from the black smoker vents found in the late 1970s. The vents were discovered in December 2000 during a National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
expedition to the mid-Atlantic. A second expedition mounted in 2003 used DSV Alvin
DSV Alvin
Alvin is a manned deep-ocean research submersible owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The vehicle was built by General Mills' Electronics Group in the same factory used to manufacture breakfast cereal-producing...
to explore the vents. The details of the chemistry and biology of the Lost City hydrothermal field were published in March 2005.
The vents are located on the seafloor mountain Atlantis Massif
Atlantis Massif
The Atlantis Massif is a prominent undersea massif, a dome-shaped region approximately 10 mi. across and rising about 14,000 ft. from the sea floor, in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is located at approximately 30°8'N latitude 42°8'W longitude; just east of the intersection of the Mid-Atlantic...
, where reactions between seawater and upper mantle peridotite
Peridotite
A peridotite is a dense, coarse-grained igneous rock, consisting mostly of the minerals olivine and pyroxene. Peridotite is ultramafic, as the rock contains less than 45% silica. It is high in magnesium, reflecting the high proportions of magnesium-rich olivine, with appreciable iron...
produce methane
Methane
Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...
- and hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
-rich fluids that are highly alkaline (pH
PH
In chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. Pure water is said to be neutral, with a pH close to 7.0 at . Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline...
9 to 11) , with temperatures ranging from <40° to 90°C. There is a field of about 30 chimneys made of calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks in all parts of the world, and is the main component of shells of marine organisms, snails, coal balls, pearls, and eggshells. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime,...
30 to 60 meters tall, with a number of smaller chimneys.
Lost City vents release methane
Methane
Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...
and hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
into the surrounding water; they do not produce significant amounts of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
, hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless, very poisonous, flammable gas with the characteristic foul odor of expired eggs perceptible at concentrations as low as 0.00047 parts per million...
or metals, which are the major outputs of volcanic black smoker vents. The temperature and pH of water surrounding the two types of vent is also significantly different. Strontium
Strontium
Strontium is a chemical element with the symbol Sr and the atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white or yellowish metallic element that is highly reactive chemically. The metal turns yellow when exposed to air. It occurs naturally in the minerals celestine and...
, carbon
Carbon
Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
, and oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
isotope
Isotope
Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...
data and radiocarbon ages document at least 30,000 years of hydrothermal activity driven by serpentinization
Serpentinite
Serpentinite is a rock composed of one or more serpentine group minerals. Minerals in this group are formed by serpentinization, a hydration and metamorphic transformation of ultramafic rock from the Earth's mantle...
reactions at Lost City, making the Lost City older than known black smoker vents by at least two orders of magnitude. Correspondingly, Lost City and black smoker vents support vastly different lifeforms.
The Lost City supports a variety of small invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s associated with the carbonate structures, including snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
s, bivalves, polychaete
Polychaete
The Polychaeta or polychaetes are a class of annelid worms, generally marine. Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin. Indeed, polychaetes are sometimes referred to as bristle worms. More than 10,000...
s, amphipods, and ostracod
Ostracod
Ostracoda is a class of the Crustacea, sometimes known as the seed shrimp because of their appearance. Some 65,000 species have been identified, grouped into several orders....
s. Large animals, however, such as tube worms and giant clams that are abundant in typical black smoker vents are absent at Lost City. A variety of microorganisms live in, on, and around the vents. Methanosarcinales
Methanosarcinales
In taxonomy, the Methanosarcinales are an order of the Methanomicrobia.-External links:...
-like archaea
Archaea
The Archaea are a group of single-celled microorganisms. A single individual or species from this domain is called an archaeon...
form thick biofilm
Biofilm
A biofilm is an aggregate of microorganisms in which cells adhere to each other on a surface. These adherent cells are frequently embedded within a self-produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substance...
s inside the vents where they subsist on hydrogen and methane; bacteria related to the Firmicutes
Firmicutes
The Firmicutes are a phylum of bacteria, most of which have Gram-positive cell wall structure. A few, however, such as Megasphaera, Pectinatus, Selenomonas and Zymophilus, have a porous pseudo-outer-membrane that causes them to stain Gram-negative...
also live inside the vents. External to the vents archaea
Archaea
The Archaea are a group of single-celled microorganisms. A single individual or species from this domain is called an archaeon...
, including the newly described ANME-1 and bacteria including proteobacteria
Proteobacteria
The Proteobacteria are a major group of bacteria. They include a wide variety of pathogens, such as Escherichia, Salmonella, Vibrio, Helicobacter, and many other notable genera....
oxidise methane and sulfur as their primary source of energy.
Lost City provides geologists, chemists and biologists a working ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
for the study of life and other processes driven by abiotic serpentinization production of methane and hydrogen.
Lost City was featured in the Disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
3-D
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
film Aliens of the Deep
Aliens of the Deep
Aliens of the Deep is a 2005 documentary film, directed in part by James Cameron alongside fellow cameraman Steven Quale, who would later go on to direct Final Destination 5 six years later, and filmed in the IMAX 3D format. It was produced by Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures...
.
Speculation has been offered that ancient versions of similar hydrothermal vents in the seas of a young Earth are the birthplace of all life, constituting the original abiogenesis. The free hydrogen, metallic catalysts consistent with an iron-sulfur world theory
Iron-sulfur world theory
The iron-sulfur world theory is a set of proposals for the origin of life and the early evolution of life advanced by Günter Wächtershäuser, a Munich patent lawyer with a degree in chemistry who had been encouraged and supported by philosopher Karl R. Popper to publish his ideas. The theory...
, micro-cellular physical structure of the towers and available hydrothermal energy might plausibly have provided an environment for the beginnings of non-photosynthetic energy cycles common to archaea
Archaea
The Archaea are a group of single-celled microorganisms. A single individual or species from this domain is called an archaeon...
and organic molecule creation.
External links
- University of Washington, Lost City Expedition
- Hydrothermal Vent Systems Information from the Deep Ocean Exploration Institute, Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionWoods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionThe Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of all aspects of marine science and engineering and to the education of marine researchers. Established in 1930, it is the largest independent oceanographic research...