Deep-sea sub mission’s latest discovery just perfect
Print Edition
CHINA’S deep-sea manned submersible Jiaolong has collected a perfect “chimney vent” from the seabed of the southwestern Indian Ocean.
“Chimney vent,” also known as hydrothermal sulfide, is one kind of seabed deposit containing copper, zinc and precious metals such as gold and silver. These kinds of metal formed sulfide after chemical reactions and came to rest on the seabed in a “chimney vent.”
The vent that Jiaolong collected on Saturday was about 40 centimeters high and 15 centimeters wide, said Li Xiangyang, the missions’s assistant chief commander of the mission.
Xiao Xiang, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said: “This is a perfect chimney vent for biologists and I believe there are lots of microorganisms integrated with it. I am so excited about it.”
The study of microorganisms is the basis of researching ecosystem in hydrothermal areas, as microorganisms are nutrition resources of advanced organisms, Xiao said.
This “chimney vent” is very important for studying organisms in hydrothermal areas, which live in a completely dark world with rank poison, high-temperature and high-pressure, Xiao said. The genes of these organisms have great economic and scientific value, Xiao said.
The temperature of hydrothermal fluid flowing out of the collected “chimney vent” is 145 degrees Celsius, said Tang Jialing, who piloted Jiaolong in the dive.
Jiaolong also gathered 4.7 kilograms of sulfide, 39 kilograms of basalt, 32 spiral shells and 37 mussels.
It will conduct 20 dives in a mission lasting four months.
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