Global General

World's deepest known undersea volcanic vent found

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-04-12 22:41

World's deepest known undersea volcanic vent found
This undated photo released by the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England, Monday April 12, 2010, shows a cloud of smoky water billowing from the top of a tower of metal ore at a volcanic vent five kilometers (more than three miles) beneath the surface of the Caribbean. [Agencies]

LONDON - A British scientific expedition says it has discovered the world's deepest known underwater volcanic vent off the Cayman Islands.

Experts aboard the RRS James Cook say they found the vent five kilometers (more than three miles) beneath the surface of the Caribbean in an area known as the Cayman Trough, a gap in the ocean's bottom that served as the setting for James Cameron's underwater thriller "The Abyss."

The vent's depth and isolation has raised hopes that new and exotic forms of life may be found basking in the warmth of the superheated mineral-rich water.

Marine geophysicist Maya Tolstoy said Monday that the new discovery is nearly one kilometer (3,000 feet) deeper than the next deepest vent.