Life Near Hydrothermal VentsHave you ever taken a walk outside and noticed the living creatures around you? All the plants and animals—such as grass, birds, and bugs—you see outside depend on sunlight: plants use photosynthesis to grow, herbivores eat plants to survive, and carnivores hunt herbivores to live. Up until the 1970s, many scientists believed that all life, across ourand the universe, depended on sunlight.In the late 1970s, deep-ocean submarines investigated hydrothermal vents, known as “black smokers” because they produce a plume that looks like underwater black smoke. Black smokers are underwater vents that appear near volcanically active areas on the seafloor. These black smokers are extremely hot and produce heat that600 degrees! Some of these black smokers lay miles beneath the ocean surface—in total darkness where the sun’s light and heat cannot reach. You would think these sizzling vents would be too hot and extreme for any life to exist, but these vents create aecosystem where certain, specialized life forms thrive! This life doesn’t just grow randomly near the vents. Bacteria, tube worms, shrimp, crabs, and other creatures live off nutrients that the vents. These creatures are known as extremophiles. Extremophiles are plants or animals that live in extreme places, such as near a volcanic vent. Discovering life around these strange vents without sunlight has caused scientists tolife in a whole new way.
