Hydrothermal Vent | Deep Sea News

Bull Patrol: NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED zOMG!

By Dr. M, on August 3rd, 2010%

Inspired by the Are Headlines Hogwash? series at Dr. Carin Bondar’s wonderful blog, the editors at DSN (i.e. Kevin and I) have initiated a news series called Bull Patrol! Our goal is to call out the media for the getting carried away with headlines and reports, not doing their homework, making a mockery of colleagues’ work, . . . → Read More: Bull Patrol: NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED zOMG!

The Tide Pool: Divergent Flatfish, Eavesdropping Fiddler Crabs, Hurricanes Kill Urchins

By Kevin Zelnio, on July 27th, 2010%

An occasional series where we briefly report 3 new studies and tell you why they are cool!
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Symphurus sp. collected from Macauley Volcano; scale is 5 cm long. Courtesy M. Clark (NIWA).
The western Pacific is broken land, plates are crashing every which way creating earthquakes and volcanoes from Russian Kamchatka to New Zealand. At these volcanic . . . → Read More: The Tide Pool: Divergent Flatfish, Eavesdropping Fiddler Crabs, Hurricanes Kill Urchins

The Tide Pool: Super Sperm Whales, Extinction Debts, and Vent Conservation

By Dr. M, on July 5th, 2010%

An occasional series where we briefly report 3 new studies and tell you why they are cool!
A new report from Lambert et al. reports on a new fossil sperm whale skull, teeth, and mandible from Peru. Dating back to the 12-13 Mya from the Middle Miocene, Leviathan melvillei possessed a 3 meter (~10 feet) long head . . . → Read More: The Tide Pool: Super Sperm Whales, Extinction Debts, and Vent Conservation

On Our Radar: Deep-Sea Mining

By Dr. M, on July 5th, 2010%

Deep-sea mining as been our radar for awhile. Now it’s on NYT’s Green Blog. Put it on yours.
The Chinese government announces plans for deep-sea mining; it will seek copper, nickel and cobalt 5,000 feet down in international waters.
Prior DSN posts about mining the seafloor

NIOT will starts the next phase of fields trials at 1000m for deep-sea mining . . . → Read More: On Our Radar: Deep-Sea Mining

The Last Refuge

By Kevin Zelnio, on June 4th, 2010%

The Last Refuge – Original Art by Glendon Mellow http://glendonmellow.com
UPDATE: Glendon is now offering this beautiful piece of deep-sea art as prints on his website! Products range from cards to full size poster prints and are quite affordably priced!
Earlier this year I approached Glendon Mellow who writes the Flying Trilobite blog, a fabulous artist and all . . . → Read More: The Last Refuge

Behold the Rimicanoe!

By Kevin Zelnio, on May 27th, 2010%

Southern Fried Scientist has finally posted our latest creation. Those follow @sfriedscientist and @kzelnio on twitter may have heard us mention Project S. It is a biomimetic concept canoe of the highly charismatic deep-sea shrimp Rimicaris exoculata. I’ve previously blogged about the fascinating eye of Rimicaris for those interested in learning more.
Andrew and I designed . . . → Read More: Behold the Rimicanoe!

What’s New With the Dr. M and the Oceans?

By Dr. M, on April 13th, 2010%

A potential new species of nudibranch (white box) on a bubblegum coral
You might have noticed that my posting frequency is down recently. Why?
1. Kevin Z convinced me to start Tweeting. There seems to be an inverse relationship to my writing for DSN and posting Tweets. Previous attempts to integrate our Twitter content into DSN were rocky . . . → Read More: What’s New With the Dr. M and the Oceans?

The ‘Eye’ of the Vent Shrimp

By Kevin Zelnio, on April 1st, 2010%

Rimicaris exoculata, from this Japanese website (click image)
*Not to be confused with the hit song by Survivor.
The vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata (literally the Rift-shrimp deprived of eyes) swarms hydrothermal chimneys, with temperatures reaching over 350 C, en masse in the darkness of the deep sea. It has a certain peculiarity in that its eyes are completely . . . → Read More: The ‘Eye’ of the Vent Shrimp

New Bathyacmaea

By Kevin Zelnio, on March 16th, 2010%

This is a new species of Bathyacmaea (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Patellogastropoda, Acmaeidae) currently under description by a japanese colleague. I have found hundreds of these individuals in my quantitative collections of chemoautotrophic communities at the Lau Basin hydrothermal vent fields. They reminded me of the Patella limpet I learned about in my undergrad inverts class.
Photos . . . → Read More: New Bathyacmaea

Mad Taxonomic Skillz Contest II – What Vent Worm Am I?

By Kevin Zelnio, on January 31st, 2010%

The World's Authoritative Guide to Vent Fauna
Clearly, last week’s Cephalopod Beak ID Contest was too easy! So This week’s contest is going to be a little harder. I’m testing you guys out, seeing where your limits are. This week I am highlighting the Handbook of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Fauna by veteran deep sea colleagues Daniel Desbruyères, . . . → Read More: Mad Taxonomic Skillz Contest II – What Vent Worm Am I?