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Today's update is provided by Chief Scientist, Bob Vrijenhoek. Area of Study: Guaymas Basin Site: Rebecca’s Roost
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Once we were done with the temperature
readings, we used a small vacuum cleaner (Dave
Clague's glass sampler) to collect the small animals from the tubeworm
clumps (see below). These tubeworms were The Guaymas Basin area has some of the most
picturesque hydrothermal vents I have visited anywhere in the world. The Riftia
tubeworms are very large here and sulfide chimneys forming around the
smokers take many forms. Some are typical mounds formed from the buildup
of crumbling chimneys. They usually have one or more little smokers at or
around the top. Some mounds grow lateral flanges that look like bracket
fungi growing on a tree, except the flanges are large. Very hot water,
often over 300º C, pools up under the flanges and trickles upward along
the perimeter where you find little clumps of tubeworms and palm worms. Tomorrow I hope to get another look at a
wonderful "crystal garden" area that I visited in 1990. Slender
chimneys grow several meters high and create a garden of small spires that
cover the area. It looks a lot like the crystal gardens you ordered from
the back of a comic book and grew in a jar. I had one of those colorful
crystal gardens when I was a kid. Somehow this kind of science brings the
kid back out in most of us. It's a good feeling. |