Old Man Tree (image)
Caption
Heated vent fluid shimmers in surrounding seawater at an off-shoot vent at the Von Damm site. While still very hot, the vent fluid at adjacent vents is cooler that at the main spire, and, the team found, contained less CO2 than it should have. The researchers determined a reaction between CO2 and hydrogen was occurring at the cooler vents, but it wasn't proceeding fast enough or progressing far enough to create methane. Instead CO2 and hydrogen combined to create an "intermediate" compound called formate -- an important "pre-biotic" organic compound.
Credit
Photo by NOAA Ocean Exploration Program / Okeanos Explorer
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