The sun, we have been told, is the primary source of nutrition for every living thing on earth. But that is not entirely true.
A recent study has shown that in the depths of the oceans, over 8,000 feet below, there are creatures living under the seabed, at the hydrothermal vents. These animals — they are not just microbes, but way bigger — get their nutrients from the mixture of magma and seawater.
This discovery illustrates a point, hidden in plain sight: while we train our sights deep into the universe, with gizmos like the James Webb telescope, little do we know about what lies beneath, in the depths of our oceans.
Fortunately, the scientific community has woken up to this miss. In 2018, the Nippon Foundation began a collaboration with an organisation called the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO), to do a complete mapping of the ocean bed by 2030.
In June, the Seabed 2030 project reported that 26.1 per cent of the sea floor has been mapped. The exercise has revealed interesting underwater features, including tens of thousands of coral mounds with immense biodiversity.
Studying the seabed between Costa Rica and Chile onboard a vessel called Falkor, owned by a company called Schmidt Ocean Institute, the crew made a groundbreaking discovery of four underwater mountains, the tallest of which is 1.5 miles high. More than a hundred new marine species were discovered.
“Magnificent new surprises,” is how the find has been described by the Executive Director of Schmidt Ocean Institute, Jyotika Virmani.