Finding a new, high-temperature, off-axis hydrothermal vent field on the floor of the Pacific Ocean at 2,550 meters (8,366 feet) down could change scientists’ understanding of the impact such seafloor vent systems have on ocean life and chemistry. U.S. National Science Foundation-supported researchers including Jill McDermott, a chemical oceanographer at Lehigh University, have discovered just such an off-axis hydrothermal field. It’s named YBW-Sentry and is near the global mid-ocean ridge known as the East Pacific Rise.
First known off-axis, high-temperature deep sea hydrothermal vents along portion of the northern East Pacific Rise
