Scientists identified two hybrid hydrothermal vent fields in the Atlantic’s Doldrums Fracture Zone, including a 99,000-square-meter site with 23 vents and 13 active black smoker chimneys.
Superheated fluids reached 280C at the larger field, where anemones, crabs and thousands of blind Rimicaris shrimp were found living off chemosynthetic bacteria.
A 2013 water anomaly from the Brazilian Geological Survey helped narrow the search, and Schmidt Ocean Institute’s new AUV The Childlike Empress mapped 147 square kilometers at 1-meter resolution before ROV SuBastian confirmed the vents.
The second field appeared 170 km away on the expedition’s last dive, while fluid circulation seen across faults and fractures suggests hydrothermal venting in transform systems may be more widespread than previously thought.
The mission also filmed two bigfin squid and the first footage of Winteria telescopa, adding biological clues from one of the Atlantic’s least explored regions and potentially for life beyond Earth.