Galápagos Rift 2011: New Hydrothermal Vent Discovered

On the ninth remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dive of the Galapágos Rift 2011 expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, the science team finally discovered the type of hydrothermal vent community they had been searching for. Clusters of tube worms, limpets, mussels, and anemones were seen to inhabit cracks in the lava bed where mineral-rich, geothermally heated water ’vents’ out. Two species of tube worms were found in abundance: the giant Riftia pachyptila and also the much smaller, never observed in the