Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-01-04
China's deep sea manned submersible, the Jiaolong, collected a perfect "chimney vent" on the seabed of the southwest Indian Ocean on Saturday.
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| The Jiaolong collecting the chimney vent, Jan. 2. (Photo/Xinhua) |
China's deep sea manned submersible, the Jiaolong, collected a perfect "chimney vent" on the seabed of the southwest Indian Ocean on Saturday.
"Chimney
vent," also known as hydrothermal sulfide, is one kind of seabed deposit
containing copper, zinc and precious metal such as gold and silver. Those kinds
of metal form sulfide after a chemical reaction and came to rest on the seabed
as a chimney vent.
With
several mussels and spiral shells living on it, the chimney vent that Jiaolong
collected was about 40 cm high and 15 cm wide, said Li Xiangyang, assistant
chief commander of the mission.
"This
is a perfect chimney vent for biologists and I believe there are lots of
microorganisms integrated with it," said Xiao Xiang, professor with
Shanghai Jiaotong University. "I am so excited about it."
The study
of microorganisms is the basis of researching ecosystems in hydrothermal areas,
as microorganisms are sources of nutrition for advanced organisms, Xiao said.
This
chimney vent is very important for studying organisms in hydrothermal areas,
which live in a completely dark world with substances toxic to most forms of
life, as well as high temperature and high pressure, Xiao said.
The special
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 for the dive.
Jiaolong
also gathered 4.7 kg of sulfide, 39 kg of basalt, 32 spiral shells and 37
mussels.
The
Jiaolong, named after a mythical dragon, is on a 120-day expedition in the
southwest Indian Ocean. It has planned to conduct 20 dives during the
four-month period to research polymetallic sulfide, biological diversity,
hydrothermal microbes and genetic resources in the area.
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