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Jumbo Heritage List © Epic Adventure of Jumbo Huang
Do not deceive the dead, do not fail the living, and do not be ashamed of the comers
1985: Giant tube worm in the hot springs of the seabed, alvin in deep-sea mining
The moon is just a testing ground, and the long-term goal of humanity is Mars.
Deep-sea mining will be the ultimate dream of mankind, it is much more realistic than going to Mars to mine...
In the previous article "Huang Jie Blog Graphic Collection" "1802nd: Reusing Cargo Ships, Manned Dragon Spacecraft Demonstration", we mentioned many times that human beings are currently making great progress in space technology, and human beings have now begun to go to Mars to plunder mineral resources...
So how much do we know about our own planet? In fact, human beings know the depths of the sea very superficially, even less than they know about the moon... (Eat inside and outside, this mountain looks at the mountain high, the wife is someone else's good... We worry about the good of others every day, but we forget to cherish the resources of the earth that we once had)
In the process of human exploration of the Pacific Ocean, a submersible called Alvin has been instrumental.
The ALVIN was a U.S. Navy-owned, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution operating a deep submersible vessel that was launched from the USS Atlantis Marine Survey vessel on June 5, 1964. It has carried out more than five thousand missions to date and played an important role in the search for the Titanic. It was built to replace equipment such as difficult to operate deep-sea submarines, weighs about 17 tons and can carry two observers and a pilot. It has two robotic arms, but additional equipment can also be installed depending on the situation. In an emergency, the front and back parts can be separated from each other.
As The Alvin descended, scientists accidentally discovered something that completely subverted humanity's understanding of biology: the giant tubeworm.
Giant tubeworms are a species of organism in the Family Zeburgas. It lives near undersea hot springs a mile below the Pacific Ocean and can tolerate water rich in hydrogen sulfide and temperatures between 2 and 30 degrees Celsius. It can reach lengths of up to 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) and diameters of about 4 cm (1.6 in). Unlike the extremely slow-growing species Lamellibrachia luymesi (which can grow only 2 m over 170 to 250 years), giant tubeworms grow extremely fast, growing 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) in two years.
The giant tubeworm was discovered in 1977 by geologist Jack Collis on a voyage to the Coron Islands hot spot aboard the Alvin submersible. The discovery of the giant tubeworm was a complete accident, and the research team at that time was only to study the local hot springs on the seabed, so there were no biologists stationed. The expedition also uncovered many other new species near the hot springs on the ocean floor.
Because the Alvin submersible is equipped with a robotic arm, samples of many organisms were also collected, including bivalves, polychaetes, large crabs, and giant tubeworm individuals about 2 meters long.
Since then, many marine life has also been found in the seafloor hot springs near the mid-ocean ridge, although the temperature near the hot springs can reach 350 °C to 380 °C.
When the giant tubeworm first hatched, it was a carrier-wheel larvae that could swim on its own in the ocean-going zone and did not rely on symbiosis, and after developing into a posterior wheel larvae, it became a solid life and began to rely on symbiotic bacteria to provide nutrition. The symbiotic bacteria in the giant tubeworm do not appear in the gametes of the tubeworm, but are obtained after the tubeworm hatches and is absorbed by the skin from the surrounding environment through a similar form of infection.
Newborn megatuberhacillus has a complete digestive system, including the mouth, anterior, middle, posterior, and anus. After the symbiotic bacteria have established a colony in the middle intestine, the middle intestine will swell and form nutrients, while the digestive system in other parts will degenerate. In the body of an adult giant tubeworm, there are almost no remnants of the original digestive system organs. If the giant tubeworm is removed from the outer long tube composed of chitin, its body structure is different from the traditional Siberian worm precursor, middle body and posterior body part trichotomy.
The first part of the giant tubeworm's body is called the branchial plume, which is mainly responsible for providing nutrients to the symbiotic bacteria that inhabit the nutrient body. Its red color comes from the heme that consists of up to 144 chains of hemoglobin. The biggest feature of these hemes is their ability to carry and transport hydrogen sulfide and oxygen, which most species do not have. If giant tubeworms are stimulated from the outside, they retract the gill feathers into the tube and use the shell lid to enclose themselves inside the tube.
The second part of the body of the giant tubeworm is called vestimentum, which consists of banded muscles with two wings and two reproductive holes at the ends. The enlarged dorsal vessel structure (functioning like a heart) is located within the duvet cover.
The third part of the giant tubeworm's body, called the trunk, contains the body wall, reproductive glands, and body cavities; the trunk is also the location of the tubeworm nutrients, which are spongy tissues that store sulfur oxidation bacteria and sulfur particles that provide nutrients for the tubeworm. Because the mouth, digestive system, and anus of adult megatube worms have degenerated, the nutrients they need must be provided by these mutually beneficial and symbiotic bacteria. The synthesis of chemical energy by bacteria in vegetative bodies was first discovered by Corey Kavanagh.
The heme in the gills of giant tubeworms has the ability to carry and transport H2S and O2, while the symbiotic bacteria in the body can obtain these chemicals through the microvessels for chemical energy synthesis. In the process of energy synthesis, the mitochondrial enzyme thiocyanase will catalyze the disproportionation of thiosulfate S2O32- to form S and sulfite SO32-.
Nitrates are toxic to nitrites, but nitrogen is an important element in biosynthesis. Chemical synthesis bacteria located in the nutrients of giant tubeworms can convert nitrates into ammonium ions, which are synthesized by bacteria and released to giant tubeworms. In order to be able to transport nitrate to bacteria, the giant tubeworm has an extremely high concentration of nitrate in its blood vessels, even 100 times the concentration of nitrate in the surrounding seawater. Why giant tubeworms were able to concentrate and withstand such high concentrations of nitrate is still unknown.
The fourth part of the giant tubeworm's body, called the opistosome, holds the individual in the tube and stores the waste products produced by the synthesis of bacteriological energy.
The environment in which giant tubeworms live is called the subsea hydrothermal system.
Hydrothermal vents are hydrothermal vents that spew water from the seabed and are heated by geothermal heat and their crack vents. It is usually found in areas with frequent volcanic activity and continental plate movement, as well as near sea basins and hot spots. Common land types are hot springs, volcanic vents, and geysers. Columns of seabed smoke often form on the seafloor, and the vicinity of seabed hot springs is usually more prosperous than in other seabed areas of the same depth, relying on the decomposition of minerals flowing out of the hot springs for food. Chemical synthesis bacteria and archaea form the lowest layer of the food chain here, supporting the survival of diverse organisms, including giant tubeworms, some clams and arthropods. Active seabed hot springs are also thought to exist on Jupiter's moon Europa, and there may be ancient deep-sea hot springs on Mars.
Benthic hot springs are most typical in mid-ocean ridges (e.g., eastern Pacific ridges and mid-Atlantic ridges), where continental plates separate and new land masses are constantly being generated.
Compared to ambient water at a depth of about 2°C, the temperature of water ejected from submarine hot springs can be as high as 60 to 464°C. At the same time, due to the extremely high hydrostatic pressure of the liquid at this depth, the hot springs on the seabed may become supercritical fluids. Its critical point in pure water at 218 atmospheres is 375 °C. At a depth of 3,000 meters underwater, the pressure exceeds 300 standard atmospheric pressure (the density of seawater exceeds that of fresh water), so it becomes a supercritical fluid at 407 °C, with properties between gases and liquids.
Sister peaks (-2996 m above sea level), Shrimp Farm and Mephisto (-3047 m above sea level) are three deep-sea thermal springs with undersea smoke columns located on the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Ridge near Ascension Island and may have been active since the 2002 earthquake. Its water body has a phase transition. In 2008, one of them was measured to have a water temperature of more than 464 °C. This thermodynamic condition has exceeded the tipping point that seawater should have, the first magma-hot water interaction to be found in the mid-ocean ridge.
The original submarine chimneys were formed by deposits of minerals anthracite. Sulfide minerals of copper, iron and zinc fill in the gaps and reduce the holes. There have been records showing that submarine chimneys can grow as fast as 30 centimeters a day and collapse at about 60 meters. A survey conducted in April 2007 revealed that the hot springs on the seabed near Fiji were rich in dissolved iron.
Some deep-sea hot springs form cylindrical chimneys, the main ingredient of which are minerals in the hot springs. When ultra-high hot springs come into contact with icy water, mineral deposits precipitate into chimneys, some of which are up to 60 meters high.
Black seabed smoke columns are a class of extremely deep-sea thermal springs that contain cloud-like black matter, usually rich in sulfides. The black plume of undersea smoke was first discovered in the Eastern Pacific Seamount in 1977 by scientists at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, using the Alvin submersible from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Black seabed smoke columns now exist at an average depth of 2,100 meters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The northernmost five black columns of smoke are known as Rocky Castle, and in 2008 they were discovered by scientists at the University of Bergen at a site of 73°N north latitude between Greenland and Norway. These black columns of smoke are also found in areas where the section is less active.
The white seabed smoke column is lighter in color than the acidic black seabed smoke column, which is rich in barium, calcium and silicon. They are also cooler and continue to form a citric acid cycle. Here, alkaline water bodies and microscopic structures are considered to be hotbeds of the origin of life.
It is generally believed that organisms must rely on sunlight for survival, but many deep-sea organisms can survive only on Haitian sediments. Deep-sea hot springs provide shelter for these creatures, and the water bodies near the hot springs are rich in minerals and bacteria. As a result, it is usually surrounded by terminal and copepods, as well as larger organisms such as fish, crustaceans, tube worms and octopuses.
The giant tubeworm can be up to 2.4 meters long and is one of the most important creatures near deep-sea hot springs. They have no mouth or digestive tract and depend on nutrients produced by bacteria in their own tissues, which contain about 285 billion bacteria per ounce of tube worm tissue. The red pinnate tissue of tube worms contains hemoglobin. Hemoglobin binds to hydrogen sulfide and is transferred to bacteria that live in tubular worms. Bacteria return to tube worms with nutrients containing carbon compounds.
Other exotic creatures that live here include the scaly-footed snail, whose very peculiar foot is accompanied by protective scales formed by ferride and organic materials. Pompeii, which can survive temperatures of 80 °C (176 °F), are also found here.
In 1993, more than 100 species of gastropods were known to congregate near deep-sea hot springs. More than 300 new species have been found in hydrothermal vents, including many "sister species" found in geographically separated hydrothermal vent areas. It is believed that when the North American Plate covered the former mid-ocean ridge, there was a single biota of biogeographically independent benthic hot springs in the eastern Pacific. Phototrophic bacteria were found on the seabed at depths of 2,500 metres off the coast of Mexico, where there was no sunlight. These phylum chlorophyll bacteria rely on the shimmering light emitted by black seabed smoke columns for photosynthesis, which is the first time the world has discovered organisms that do not use sunlight for photosynthesis.
Biogeochemical cycling ecologically refers to the process by which chemical elements or molecules circulate between biomes and inorganic environments divided in ecosystems. This allows related elements to circulate, although in practice in some cycles chemical elements accumulate in the same place for a long time without moving (such as water from oceans or lakes).
For example, water is always recycled through the recycling of water, as shown in the figure. After evaporation, condensation and precipitation, the water falls cleanly and refreshingly back to earth. Through biochemical cycles, elements, compounds, and other forms of matter are transferred from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another.
Ecosystems have many biogeochemical cycles that operate as part of the system, such as the water cycle, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, etc. All chemical elements that occur in living things are part of the biogeochemical cycle. In addition to being part of an organism, these chemical elements circulate through abiotic factors in ecosystems, such as water (hydrosphere), terrestrial (lithosphere), and/or air (atmosphere).
All biological factors on Earth can be considered part of the biosphere. All chemicals, nutrients, or more so—elements, such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus—exist in the closed system of the organism in the ecosystem, which in turn circulates these chemicals with the open system to keep the money and expenses. The energy of ecosystems is provided by open systems; the Sun continuously provides energy to the Earth in the form of light, and is eventually used by various trophic levels in the food web or dissipated in the form of thermal energy.
The flow of energy in an ecosystem is an open system; The Sun constantly gives planetary energy in the form of light, while eventually being used and lost in the form of calories throughout the nutritional level of the food web. Carbon is used to make carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, which are the main sources of calories in food. These compounds are oxidized to release carbon dioxide, which can be captured by plants to prepare organic compounds. Chemical reactions are powered by the energy of sunlight.
It is possible for ecosystems to gain energy without sunlight. Carbon must be combined with hydrogen and oxygen to be used as an energy source, and the process depends on sunlight. Ecosystems in the deep sea that no sunlight can penetrate use sulfur. Hydrogen sulfide near undersea hot springs can be utilized by organisms such as giant tubeworms. In the sulfur cycle, sulfur can be permanently recovered as an energy source. Energy can be released through oxidation and rejuvenation of sulfur compounds (e.g., oxidation of elemental sulfur to sulfites and then oxidation to sulfates).
While The Earth is constantly gaining energy from the Sun, the geochemical composition is largely fixed, as only meteorites occasionally add extra material. Since this chemical component is not replenished like energy, all processes that rely on these chemical components must be recycled. These cycles include the biosphere and the biotic lithosphere, the atmosphere, and the hydrosphere.
Many biogeochemical cycles are currently being studied because climate change and human impacts are dramatically altering the speed, intensity, and balance of these relatively unknown cycles.
Biogeochemical cycles always involve a state of thermal equilibrium: the equilibrium of elemental cycles between compartments. However, the overall balance may involve compartments distributed globally.
Since biogeochemical cycles describe the motion of matter throughout the planet, the study of these substances is inherently multidisciplinary. The carbon cycle may be related to the study of ecology and atmospheric science. Biochemical dynamics are also related to the fields of geology and soil science (soil research).
In 1949, a deep-sea survey project detected an unusual hot water reaction in the Center of the Red Sea. It was later discovered that the hot water came from an active crack in the seabed.
In 1977, a team of marine geologists led by Jack Collis of Oregon State University discovered a chemical synthesis ecosystem near the hot springs in the Galapagos Rift Valley in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. In 1979, biologists returned here again to use the deep-sea submarine DSV Alvin at the Woods Hole Institute of Oceanography to probe the rift valley and witness the hydrothermal spring biomes on the ocean floor. That same year, Peter Lonsdale published the first scientific paper on the biomes of seafloor hot springs.
In 2005, a marine exploration company called Neptune Resources NL began exploring the seabed massive sulphide deposits in the Kelmadec Island arc of New Zealand's exclusive economic zone. In April 2007, exploration work began in the Medusa deep-sea hot spring field near Costa Rica. In 2010, Picard of the Cayman Trench was discovered by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The deep-sea hot spring belt is 110 km long and is the deepest known deep-sea hot spring in the world.
On May 28, 2020, the Institute of Oceanography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences claimed that its Scientific research vessel had observed the presence of gaseous water for the first time in the hydrothermal area of the deep sea. Because of the abundance of massive sulphide deposits on the seabed, deep-sea hot springs have become an important area for seabed development. Mount Isa in Queensland, Australia, is one of the most famous development sites. The development of these areas is considered extremely economically valuable.
Developing these marine minerals may damage ecosystems near deep-sea thermal springs, so many conservation and control measures are required before they can be developed.
At the same time, the topic of protecting deep-sea hot springs has a long history and has often become a hot topic in the past 20 years. In fact, it should be noted that the scientists who have so far caused damage to deep-sea hot springs have also been the scientists who have explored the area. Although there have been many attempts to regulate the conduct of scientists in their expeditions, there are still no international conventions designed to protect deep-sea hot springs.
Deep-sea mining, or deep-sea mining, is a recent mining procedure for extracting minerals from the seabed or ocean floor. The location is usually chosen near large areas of abundant manganese nodules or hot springs on the seabed, ranging from 1400 to 3700 meters from sea level. These springs are good conditions for the formation of large amounts of seafloor sulfides, which contain valuable precious metals such as silver, gold, copper, manganese, cobalt and zinc. The equipment used in mining is to use hydraulic pumps or barrel methods to bring the raw ore to the surface and then dispose of it.
In the mid-1960s, J. L. Merlot, in his book Mineral Resources of the Sea, proposed the possibility of deep-sea exploration. The book argues that nearly endless amounts of cobalt, nickel and other metal minerals can be found in Earth's oceans.
Merlot believes the metals are hidden in manganese nodules, a lumpy, compressed sediment located about 5,000 meters below the seafloor. A number of countries, including France, Germany and the United States, sent survey vessels to search for these nodules, and the results showed that the original feasibility estimates for deep-sea mining had been exaggerated. Overestimation coupled with lower metal prices, deep-sea exploration was almost completely abandoned around 1982. From the 1960s to 1984, the United States spent nearly $650 million on this activity, with little to no recovery.
Over the past decade, deep-sea mining has entered a new phase. Rising demand for metals in Japan, China, South Korea and India is pushing these countries to find new sources of minerals. And target hot springs on the ocean floor instead of the original nodules.
Currently, the best viable site for deep-sea mining, called the Solwara 1 project, is located off the coast of Papua New Guinea and is a high-purity copper-gold mine, and it is also the world's first seabed with a large sulphide resource. The Solwara 1 program is precisely located in the Bismarck Sea in the Province of New Ireland at a depth of 1600 metres. Using the latest ROV (RemoteLy Controlled Water Transportation) technology, Nautilus Minerals Inc. became the first mining company to mine on a large scale on the seabed. The first mining is expected to begin in 2013.
The most important of the regulations regulating deep-sea exploitation is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which took shape between 1973 and 1982 and was implemented in 1984. The convention establishes the International Seabed Authority, which regulates deep-sea mining activities (200 nautical miles) outside the exclusive economic zone. The Authority stipulates that countries intending to mine seabeds must have two mining sites of equal value and one of them is placed under the administration of the Authority, with mining technology that must be transferred to other countries after 10 to 20 years. This restriction seemed reasonable at the time, as seabed mining was generally considered to be highly profitable. But this strict rule led some advanced countries to refuse to sign the 1982 preliminary agreement.
The deep sea contains many different resources to refine, including silver, gold, copper, manganese, cobalt and zinc, which can be found in different types of seabeds and are often more dense than deposits on the surface.
Advances in technology have made the use of underwater remotely controlled vehicles (ROVs) a powerful tool for exploratory and mining sites, using drill bits and cutting tools to collect samples of raw ore and bring them back to the surface for analysis. If a mineable site arises, it will be carried out by mining vessels or mining stations.
For full-scale mining, there are two mainstream mining methods: a continuous-line bucket system (CLB) and a hydraulic suction system. The CLB system is suitable for mining nodules, similar to a conveyor belt system, which is transported from the seabed to the surface, extracting valuable resources and then transporting tailings back into the ocean. The hydraulic suction system uses two catheters, one to draw the raw ore upwards and the other to put the tailings back.
The most high-profile mining sites in recent years are located in the central and eastern Part of the Manus Basin, which surrounds Papua New Guinea, and in the eastern cone-shaped crater. Sulphides at these sites revealed significant gold deposits (average concentration of 26 ppm). At a depth of only 1050 meters, it is relatively shallow, and it is close to a gold refinery, which is very recoverable.
Since deep-sea mining is an entirely new field, the actual consequences of mining remain unknown. However, experts are still quite sure that removing part of the seabed will disturb the organisms in the benthic area, and the tailings will increase the toxicity of the water body and form a sediment plume. Depending on the type and location of mining, it can cause permanent damage to benthic organisms. In addition to the direct impact on the area, leaks, dumping and erosion can alter the chemical composition of the area.
Suspended solids rafting (a plume-like drifting structure) is perhaps the most destructive of all the effects of deep-sea mining. When the tailings are returned to the sea, it usually takes on a finely ground, very fine particle that forms a cloud-like, cloud-like structure that drifts in the water. There are two types: surface type, or underwater type. The type near the bottom of the water is formed when the tailings are sent back to the bottom through the pipe. These underwater clumps increase the turbidity of the water and block the filtered organs that underwater organisms use to feed. Surface drifting causes more serious problems, depending on the particle size of its particles, the water flow will spread these particles to occupy a large area. Rafting groups can also affect plankton and the light permeability of the water, which in turn affects the food chain in the region...
Jumbo Huang Notes Citation: Oceans cover 70 percent of the earth's surface, but only a fraction of the undersea world has been explored." What we are doing is similar to astronauts and planetary scientists just trying to study life on another planet," says Beth Orcutt, a senior research scientist. The journey begins in Costa Rica aboard the R/V Atlantis, a research vessel operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
From there, Phil gets the chance to take a dive with Alvin, a deep-water submersible capable of taking explorers down to 6,000 metres (20,000 feet) under the sea. Commissioned in 1964, Alvin has a celebrated history, locating an unexploded hydrogen bomb off the coast of Spain and exploring the famous RMS Titanic in the 1980s. Alvin and its first female pilot, Cindy Van Dover, were the first to discover hydrothermal vents, which are underwater springs where plumes of black smoke and water pour out from underneath the earth's crust. The vents were inhabited by previously unknown organisms that thrived in the absence of sunlight.