There are vents on the seafloor hot enough to melt lead.
It’s generally understood that ocean water gets colder the farther one gets from the warming rays of the sun, but there’s an exception. Hydrothermal vents can pump out fluids at temperatures above 700 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to melt lead.
Hydrothermal vents are created by fissures in the seafloor in regions of significant tectonic plate activity. As seawater trickles through the crust, it’s infused with dissolved gases and minerals en route to mixing with magma from the underlying mantle. The superheated liquid then reverses course and shoots back through the seabed, where chemical reactions produce the precipitation of minerals that are generally classified into two categories. Black smokers are vents that release dark deposits of iron sulfide, while white smokers unleash the lighter-colored accumulations of barium, calcium, and silicon.
Beyond generating impressive sediment chimneys, the vents have been found to nurture a bustling ecosystem of marine life, from microorganisms that derive fuel from chemical energy to swarms of tubeworms, fish, shrimp, clams, and crabs that thrive despite the absence of sunlight. Unfortunately, the discovery of gold, silver, and copper among the mineral deposits has ignited commercial interests in mining that could cause environmental damage. Yet scientists are hopeful that the abundance of life-forms, and the potential they offer for more discoveries, will lead to stricter protections for these underwater hot zones.
We know that hundreds of distinct creatures make their homes near and even below seafloor vents, but is this also where life as we know it on the planet originated? One popular theory holds that around 3.7 billion years ago, positively charged protons from acidic seawater mixed with negatively charged hydroxide ions from hydrothermal fluids within the vents to spark the formation of cellular membranes and RNA. These primitive cells then developed a “pump” to self-power reactions, enabling them to leave the vents and spread more complex life-forms through the ocean and beyond. Those who subscribe to this belief point to experiments that have successfully created protocells from simple molecules in hot, alkaline seawater, as well as the discovery of the world’s oldest fossils in rocks that were likely part of an ancient hydrothermal vent. The answers to where and how life began are far from settled, but this is one theory that at least seems to hold plenty of water.
