A huge high-temperature off-axis hydrothermal vent field has been discovered in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. According to researchers at Lehigh University, the YBW-Sentry vent field is located at a depth of 2,550 metres and is nearly as big as a football field and two times the size of the nearest active hydrothermal vents in the region. It could help scientists understand the impact of these vents on the life and chemistry of the Earth’s oceans. 

While these deep-sea hydrothermal vents are found around the world, they have been often spotted in volcanically active locations along the crest of the global mid-ocean ridge system. In such vents, the heat in Earth’s mantle splits the tectonic plates that make up the crust or the outer shell of Earth. When the plates split, new seafloor rock is formed due to magmatic activity and volcanic eruptions. The activity results in cracks which allow the seawater to percolate in the crustal rocks. Similar to the hot springs, which are seen on land, deep-sea vents release mineral-rich liquid after it gets heated beneath the sea floor.

The new vent field, YBW-Sentry, was spotted in the area in the Pacific Ocean known as the East Pacific Rise. The vent field site is nearly as big as a football field and two times the size of the nearest active hydrothermal vents in the region.

In their study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists analysed fluid from the black smoker chimneys to examine their geothermal characteristics. This, according to scientists, can help in knowing the temperatures at which the fluids are formed. The team of scientists also placed self-recording fluid temperature loggers that provided frequent measurements in every 10 minutes for two years.

“We identified an off-axis field of tall pinnacles, and we assumed that they were either older volcanic spires or inactive hydrothermal chimneys deposited long ago,” said Ross Parnell-Turner, a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, and a co-author of the study.

Meanwhile, co-author McDermott said that the vent field was not only active but was also larger and hotter in origin temperature than any other hydrothermal vent field in the region studied in the past 30 years.

“There is much still left to be discovered about deep-sea vents along the global mid-ocean ridge, both in terms of where they are located as well as their geological, geochemical and biological characteristics,” said McDermott. The researcher further hoped that their study would facilitate future research to target mapping off-axis areas in the region.