Some seafloor microbes can take the heat: And here’s what they eat
It’s cold in the depths of the world’s oceans; most of the seafloor is at a chilly 4°C. Not so the seafloor of Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California. Here, tectonic plates drift apart and heat from Earth’s interior can rise up — so far up that it bakes large areas of the seafloor […]
Muddied waters: Sinking organics alter seafloor records
The remains of microscopic plankton blooms in near-shore ocean environments slowly sink to the seafloor, setting off processes that forever alter an important record of Earth’s history, according to research from geoscientists, including David Fike at Washington University in St. Louis. Fike is co-author of a new study published July 20 in Nature Communications. “Our […]