Lost 'City' Deep In Atlantic
Providence, Rhode Island (United States):
Deep in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is a mysterious system of towering hot springs that scientists think may hold clues about how life evolved in Earth's earliest days.
Scientists call it Lost City because the forest of spires resembles some abandoned civilization. But they're uncertain how the hydrothermal vents work, or how they may fit into theories of ancient Earth.
Those answers may be closer after the Lost City was explored again this summer.
The trip, which ended Aug. 1, was broadcast live four times a day nationwide at museums, science centers and aquariums, in schools and at Boys and Girls Clubs. Meanwhile, the scientists calling the shots weren't even on the ship.
They were in rooms at universities in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Washington state, watching it all on 42-inch plasma television screens.
"Those views are just stunning that we could hardly keep our eyes off the TV screens," said Jeffrey Karson, a geology professor at Duke University and the expedition's co-leader.
The Lost City is a series of hydrothermal vents at a north-south underwater mountain chain called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which splits nearly the entire Atlantic Ocean. It is due east of the North Carolina Coast and Bermuda. Its limestone chimneys were created by crystallized fluids and can reach 200 feet in height. Hydrothermal vents were first discovered in 1977 near the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific by Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic and directs an archaeological oceanography program at the University of Rhode Island.
Those vents, called black smokers because the color of the fluids released, are around underwater volcanoes. But Lost City was discovered five years ago and nowhere near any undersea volcanoes, proving the vents could be found elsewhere. They are still the only vents of their kind found so far.
Life is sustained there by the heat and gases emitted by the vents - a process that scientists say they believe could explain how life evolved on Earth.Karson said that the probes took samples of the microscopic organisms that live around the vents, as well as the fluids and gases emitted, the towers, and the rocks on which the towers stand.
Scientists are still learning how Lost City works, Karson said."It could be important in the history of life on this planet and perhaps on other planets," Karson said.
Sept 25, 2005
Winston-Salem Journal, NC
(The Associated Press)
Providence, Rhode Island (United States):
Deep in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is a mysterious system of towering hot springs that scientists think may hold clues about how life evolved in Earth's earliest days.
Scientists call it Lost City because the forest of spires resembles some abandoned civilization. But they're uncertain how the hydrothermal vents work, or how they may fit into theories of ancient Earth.
Those answers may be closer after the Lost City was explored again this summer.
The trip, which ended Aug. 1, was broadcast live four times a day nationwide at museums, science centers and aquariums, in schools and at Boys and Girls Clubs. Meanwhile, the scientists calling the shots weren't even on the ship.
They were in rooms at universities in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Washington state, watching it all on 42-inch plasma television screens.
"Those views are just stunning that we could hardly keep our eyes off the TV screens," said Jeffrey Karson, a geology professor at Duke University and the expedition's co-leader.
The Lost City is a series of hydrothermal vents at a north-south underwater mountain chain called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which splits nearly the entire Atlantic Ocean. It is due east of the North Carolina Coast and Bermuda. Its limestone chimneys were created by crystallized fluids and can reach 200 feet in height. Hydrothermal vents were first discovered in 1977 near the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific by Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic and directs an archaeological oceanography program at the University of Rhode Island.
Those vents, called black smokers because the color of the fluids released, are around underwater volcanoes. But Lost City was discovered five years ago and nowhere near any undersea volcanoes, proving the vents could be found elsewhere. They are still the only vents of their kind found so far.
Life is sustained there by the heat and gases emitted by the vents - a process that scientists say they believe could explain how life evolved on Earth.Karson said that the probes took samples of the microscopic organisms that live around the vents, as well as the fluids and gases emitted, the towers, and the rocks on which the towers stand.
Scientists are still learning how Lost City works, Karson said."It could be important in the history of life on this planet and perhaps on other planets," Karson said.
Sept 25, 2005
Winston-Salem Journal, NC
(The Associated Press)
