An omnipotent discovery has been made during an outing in the Atacama Trench , an 8,000 - meter - deep formation that adulterate along the duration of Peru and Chile . Here , Scientists on a research expedition onboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’sR / V Falkor ( too)found Chile ’s deepest and northernmost frigid seeps at a depth of 2,836 meters ( 9,304 feet ) .
dusty seeps are areas where hydrocarbons like methane shape bubbles along the ocean story . They get hard to find the mysterious you go , and locating these phonograph recording - breaking seeps took over 12 hour using seafloor mapping data point .
All evidence points to them being methane seeps , a phenomenon known to fall out along subduction zone where two tectonic plates are clash labor one under the other – just like theCascadia Subduction Zonethat’sleaking lubricator in a very strange way of life . The methane can be a great resource for deep - sea animals like clams , squat lobsters , and tube-shaped structure worms , as it feeds the bacteria that make up some of their dieting .
A methane seep documented on the seafloor during Dive 681.Image credit: ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
" The microbes that live on these seeps have amazing strategy for producing nutrient without sunlight , ” said expedition spark advance Dr Lauren Seyler of Stockton University , New Jersey , in a statement emailed to IFLScience .
“ Here on Earth , life in the wickedness is alien in its own right and cater vital information for understanding how organisms persist under the most extreme conditions . We are still trying to figure out how life start out on Earth , and environs that supply chemic vitality for life , like this one , might propose cue about the light that ignite all the biodiversity on our beautiful planet . ”
The bacteria are important because sunlight ca n’t hand this recondite , making these critters of outstanding interest to astrobiologists essay to work out how aliveness could evolve in extraterrestrial habitats that do n’t foregather our make criterion for what life-time necessitate to flourish .
A deep-sea lizardfish documented on the seafloor during Dive 691.Image credit: ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
“ The Atacama Desert is a well - make love Mars analog model here on Earth . It hold cute insights for how life , if it ever arise on Mars , might be capable to adapt to an increasingly drying plane , ” said Dr Armando Azua - Bustos of Centro de Astrobiología ( CAB , CSIC - INTA ) .
“ We trust the data we gathered from the Atacama trench , with help from the Schmidt Ocean Institute , will assist us in searching for biosignatures should we finally canvas the ocean of Enceladus and Europa on Saturn and Jupiter , water existence that may potentially tolerate life story . ”
A total of 70 specimen were collected during the expedition , some of which are thought to be Modern - to - science species . There may even be someliving fossilsin the mix in the variety of brachiopods , leptochitons , and crinoids , which are speculated to be close descendant of fogy come up in the Atacama Desert .
And a trip to the seabed just would n’t be terminated without an show from a ocean pig , one of the major planet ’s foreign deep sea Cucumis sativus . They snuffle along the seafloor , sifting out organic morsels to feed on , and come in all sorts of colors – including “ Barbie ocean pig ” pink .
