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Seafloor image from the Guaymas Basin showing biological communities.

Seafloor image from the Guaymas Basin showing biological communities.
Seafloor image from the Guaymas Basin showing biological communities.
Seafloor image from the Guaymas Basin showing biological communities.
Seafloor image from the Guaymas Basin showing biological communities.
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207481
Lizarralde, Soule, and Seewald
Seafloor image from the Guaymas Basin showing biological communities.
Still Image
10/30/2009
graphics/Oceanus_v49n3/2009_10_30_05_07_29 copy.jpg
Image Of the Day caption:
WHOI scientists Adam Soule, Dan Lizarralde, and Jeff Seewald used a device developed by WHOI engineer Marshall Swartz to gather high-resolution images of seafloor organisms in the Gulf of California in 2009. The presence of life formsin this image, crusty bacterial mats, clams, and spindly tube wormsconfirmed the existence of magma intrusions into sediments dozens of kilometers away from a spreading center, which is where magma intrusions usually occur. The ultra-hot magma cooked hydrocarbons out of the sediments, making the chemicals available as a source of nourishment for bacteria that form the base of the seafloor community. The finding hints at a previously unknown mechanism of crust formation.
Caption from Oceanus magazine, Vol. 39, no. 3, pg. 50:
Over its 48-hour deployment, the SDSL data-link sent about 15,000 images up the cable. At most of the sites they examined with it, the researchers saw thriving biological communities proof that nutrients were f lowing up from the seafloor at those spots. The oases of living things confirmed Lizarralde's hunch that magma was pushing up toward the seafloor far from the spreading center.
Photo courtesy of Dan Lizarralde, Adam Soule, and Jeff Seewald
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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