The Lost City Hydrothermal Field, often referred to simply as Lost City, is an area of marine
alkaline
In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a base (chemistry), basic, ionic compound, ionic salt (chemistry), salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as ...
hydrothermal vent
A hydrothermal vent is a fissure on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspot ...
s located on the
Atlantis Massif
The Atlantis Massif is a prominent undersea massif in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is a dome-shaped region approximately across and rising about from the sea floor. It is located at approximately 30°8′N latitude 42°8′W longitude; just eas ...
at the intersection between the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North Ame ...
and the Atlantis
Transform Fault
A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subductio ...
, in the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. It is a long-lived site of active and inactive
ultramafic
Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are composed ...
-hosted
serpentinization,
abiotically producing many simple molecules such as
methane
Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...
and
hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...
which are fundamental to microbial life. As such it has generated scientific interest as a prime location for investigating the
origin of life on
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
and other planets similar to it.
Expedition history
The Lost City was first identified on December 4, 2000, using ''
DSV Alvin
''Alvin'' (DSV-2) is a crewed deep-ocean research submersible owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The vehicle was built by General Mills' Electronics Grou ...
'' and ''ROV ArgoII'' on cruise AT03-60 of the
RV Atlantis
PNA ''Dr. Bernardo A. Houssay'' (MOV-1) is a ketch rigged sail training and research vessel for the Argentine Naval Prefecture. Originally named the RV ''Atlantis'', she served as the first and main research vessel for the Woods Hole Oceanographi ...
. The cruise lasted 34 days, during which photographs and vent chimney samples were taken.
The discovery of the Lost City prompted the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
to fund a second, 32-day voyage (AT07-34) to the site in 2003 in order to use ''Alvin'' and the autonomous vehicle ''ABE'' with a greater emphasis on scientific sampling and creating a high-resolution
bathymetric map
A bathymetric chart is a type of isarithmic map that depicts the submerged topography and physiographic features of ocean and sea bottoms. Their primary purpose is to provide detailed depth contours of ocean topography as well as provide the size, ...
of the vent field.
''ABE'' would participate in a combined 17 dive expeditions including follow-up visits, creating a bathymetry profile for of the massif.
The first visit by the
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program took place with Expedition 304 in late 2004, when a series of holes were drilled into the Atlantis Massif to collect large
cores of rock from the site. Expedition 305 followed suit in early 2005, and 340T in 2012.
In July 2005, Lost City was explored for nine days by ''Hercules'' and ''Argus'' on the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
vessel ''
Ronald H. Brown
Ronald Harmon Brown (August 1, 1941 – April 3, 1996) was an American politician. He served as the United States Secretary of Commerce during the first term of President of the United States, President Bill Clinton. Prior to this he was chairm ...
'', with video streamed live to the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
.
Lost City was also explored on cruise 50 of the
Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, which had a greater emphasis on exploring downslope south of the vent field. The ''
RV Knorr
RV ''Knorr'' was a research vessel formerly owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the U.S. research community in coordination with and as a part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory Syst ...
'' sailed to the Atlantis Massif in May that year for hydroacoustic measurements of potential seismic activity.
Furthermore, the French ''EXOMAR'' cruise on the vessel ''L'Atalante'' was conducted in July and August 2005 to study
extremophile
An extremophile (from Latin ' meaning "extreme" and Greek ' () meaning "love") is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e. environments that make survival challenging such as due to extreme temper ...
biodiversity in deep-ocean environments.
2015 saw a visit from the
International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 357, which emphasized drilling on the Atlantis Massif to explore off-axis circulation. A series of
boreholes were left behind after cores from nine different sites were taken, which were sampled by
Niskin bottles. Borehole plugs were installed on two sites to allow future endeavors to sample borehole fluids.
In July and August 2018, the French ''TRANSECT'' cruise was conducted on ''L'Atalante'' utilizing the ROV ''VICTOR'' to collect a variety of measurements and samples. The following month, American cruise AT42-01, nicknamed ''Return to the Lost City'', was undertaken to revisit the vent field after many years, featuring many members of the original discovery team in 2000. Photographs, ambient gases, cells for cultures, rock, vent fluid, and ambient seawater samples were collected using the ''
ROV Jason II'' and a CTD Niskin
rosette. The mission's key objectives were to collect biological and geochemical samples for researching sources of energy for microbial life. They also followed up on the 2015 borehole expedition by attempting to sample from the drilled holes for access to residual fluids.
Geography
Lost City is located in the North Atlantic Ocean on the seafloor mountain
Atlantis Massif
The Atlantis Massif is a prominent undersea massif in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is a dome-shaped region approximately across and rising about from the sea floor. It is located at approximately 30°8′N latitude 42°8′W longitude; just eas ...
, which is approximately the size of
Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...
.
The site is described as a long-lived vent field, estimated to be older than 120,000 years by radiocarbon dating the oldest chimney deposits of the field.
However, this is significantly younger than the age of the Atlantis Massif itself, which may be as old as two million years.
Lost City is located on a shelf approximately below the massif summit at a depth of around , with an approximate area of . The massif itself may have originated in a similar manner to many other
ocean core complexes.
Lost City is a location dominated by steep cliffs to the south, chimneys, and mounds of
carbonate
A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid (H2CO3), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word ''carbonate'' may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate g ...
material deposited from chimneys that collapse as they age.
Breccia
Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix.
The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...
,
gabbro
Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is che ...
s, and
peridotite
Peridotite ( ) is a dense, coarse-grained igneous rock consisting mostly of the silicate minerals olivine and pyroxene. Peridotite is ultramafic, as the rock contains less than 45% silica. It is high in magnesium (Mg2+), reflecting the high prop ...
s are dominating rock types as one maneuvers away from the field, which are prone to
mass wasting as the bathymetry steepens.
Mass-wasting events of the past are evident by bountiful scarps on the slope of the massif. Rubble tends to accumulate at areas no steeper than 60 degrees bounding the field, and can undergo
lithification
Lithification (from the Ancient Greek word ''lithos'' meaning 'rock' and the Latin-derived suffix ''-ific'') is the process in which sediments compact under pressure, expel connate fluids, and gradually become solid rock. Essentially, lithificati ...
depending on how far it is located from Lost City.
Of the 30 active and inactive vent chimneys, ''Posidon'' is the largest and most-studied within the vent field.
''Posidon'' stands about tall and wide and has numerous orifices venting hot fluids. The vent nicknamed ''Beehive'', for its distinct shape upon discovery, is about one meter tall and located on the south side of ''Posidon''. Furthermore, the ''IMAX'' tower stands approximately tall on the north side of ''Posidon'', though the chimney has stalagmite-like growths that are as tall as . ''IMAX'' has a large flange which catches hot, escaping fluid and has a very apparent
biofilm
A biofilm comprises any syntrophic consortium of microorganisms in which cells stick to each other and often also to a surface. These adherent cells become embedded within a slimy extracellular matrix that is composed of extracellular ...
acting within it.
Other chimneys, such as ''Ryan'' and ''Nature'' to the east of ''Posidon'', also have flange and beehive-like structures, though they are significantly smaller and vent significantly less than ''Posidon''. Several inactive vents are located about south of ''Posidon'', though they only stand a few meters tall.
Since the location of the massif is upon a slow to ultra-slow
spreading center, there is a large number of
faults that run through the vent field.
Many faults, especially at the south side, are high-angle normal faults that can be concealed by debris. Most of the vents found tend to run from east to west, likely due to the orientation of fault lines under the field.
Two extinct fields are located about west and southwest of the central vent field at depths of or more. They have inactive vents similar in profile to ''Posidon'' with a
talus (scree) deposit separating them from the central vent field, though they have not been as actively explored. It is hypothesized from the ages of samples collected that hot fluid flow migrated from the south to the north where ''Posidon'' currently resides.
Strontium
Strontium is the chemical element with the symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is ex ...
,
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent
In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...
, and
oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...
isotope
Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers (mass numbers) ...
data and radiocarbon ages document at least 30,000 years of hydrothermal activity driven by
serpentinization reactions at Lost City, making Lost City older than all known
black smoker vents by at least two orders of magnitude.
Geology and chemistry
Alkaline hydrothermal vents like those of Lost City are only superficially related to volcanic black smoker vents; the two types of vent are perhaps better described by their differences than their similarities. Though both types are often found near oceanic spreading centers, alkaline hydrothermal vents are not created by volcanic processes. They release
methane
Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...
and diatomic
hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...
into the surrounding water; they do not produce significant amounts of
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
,
hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The unde ...
, or metals, which are the major outputs of volcanic black smoker vents. The temperature and pH of water surrounding the two types of vent is also significantly different.
Mineralogy
The Atlantis Massif is described as an ultramafic oceanic core complex of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, with upper
mantle
A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that.
Mantle may refer to:
*Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear
**Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...
rock being exposed to seawater through faulting from tectonic extension associated with oceanic spreading centers. The spreading half-rate is approximated to about 12 mm/yr, classifying it as a slow-spreading ridge. Seismic events of
Richter magnitude
The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 ...
4 and 4.5 have been detected at the massif.
The dominant minerals found at Lost City are ultramafic, composed primarily of
olivine
The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle, it is a common mineral in Earth's subsurface, but weathers quickl ...
and
pyroxene
The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated to ''Px'') are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe II) ...
with very little
silica
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one ...
content. Peridotite (primarily
spinel harzburgite) minerals undergo serpentinization and form
magnetite
Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With the ...
and
serpentine minerals.
Because little to no carbon dioxide or metals are released in the venting fluids, Lost City bears the appearance of a ''non-smoker'', with few particulates to give a smoky appearance.
Once pore waters have permeated the surface and return to the surface,
aragonite,
brucite
Brucite is the mineral form of magnesium hydroxide, with the chemical formula Mg( OH)2. It is a common alteration product of periclase in marble; a low-temperature hydrothermal vein mineral in metamorphosed limestones and chlorite schists; and ...
, and
calcite
Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...
chimneys are formed as
calcium carbonates precipitate out of solution. Younger chimneys are primarily brucite and aragonite, being white and flaky in appearance. As vents mature, porosity decreases as precipitates clog fluid pathways. Mineral compositions change with aragonite succeeded by calcite and brucite being removed through dissolution, and the chimneys darken to a grey or brown color.
On the side of the Atlantis Transform Fault, the Atlantis Massif wall terminates approximately below sea level, where rock types deform to various mylonitic rocks with deformation fabric minerals of talc, tremolite, and ribbon serpentine.
Serpentinization
Lost City is an exemplary location for the study of abiotic
methanogenesis
Methanogenesis or biomethanation is the formation of methane coupled to energy conservation by microbes known as methanogens. Organisms capable of producing methane for energy conservation have been identified only from the domain Archaea, a group ...
and hydrogenesis, as serpentinization reactions produce methane and hydrogen. Supplementing
Fischer-Tropsch reactions;
The reactions are
exothermic
In thermodynamics, an exothermic process () is a thermodynamic process or reaction that releases energy from the system to its surroundings, usually in the form of heat, but also in a form of light (e.g. a spark, flame, or flash), electricity (e ...
and warm the surrounding waters via reaction heating, though fluid temperatures are still relatively low (40°–90 °C) when compared to other hydrothermal systems. Furthermore, local pH is increased to values of over 9, which enables calcium carbonate precipitation. Since serpentinization is particularly extensive, carbon dioxide concentrations are also very low. Low temperature, carbon dioxide concentrations, as well as the low
hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The unde ...
and metal content of the plume make the vents more difficult to identify from CTD measurements or optical backscatter methods.
Biology
Lost City and other hydrothermal vent systems support vastly different lifeforms due to Lost City's unique chemistry. A variety of microorganisms live in, on, and around the vents. ''
Methanosarcinales
In taxonomy, the Methanosarcinales are an order of the Methanomicrobia.
Large amounts of methane are produced in marine sediments but are then consumed before contacting aerobic waters or the atmosphere. Although no organism that can consume me ...
''-like
archaea
Archaea ( ; singular archaeon ) is a domain of single-celled organisms. These microorganisms lack cell nuclei and are therefore prokaryotes. Archaea were initially classified as bacteria, receiving the name archaebacteria (in the Archaebac ...
form thick
biofilm
A biofilm comprises any syntrophic consortium of microorganisms in which cells stick to each other and often also to a surface. These adherent cells become embedded within a slimy extracellular matrix that is composed of extracellular ...
s inside the vents where they subsist on hydrogen and methane; bacteria related to the
Bacillota also live inside the vents. External to the vents,
archaea
Archaea ( ; singular archaeon ) is a domain of single-celled organisms. These microorganisms lack cell nuclei and are therefore prokaryotes. Archaea were initially classified as bacteria, receiving the name archaebacteria (in the Archaebac ...
, including the newly described ANME-1, and bacteria, including
Pseudomonadota
Pseudomonadota (synonym Proteobacteria) is a major phylum of Gram-negative bacteria. The renaming of phyla in 2021 remains controversial among microbiologists, many of whom continue to use the earlier names of long standing in the literature. The ...
, oxidise methane and sulfur as their primary sources of energy.
Lost City also supports a variety of small
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s associated with the carbonate structures, including small
coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...
s,
snail
A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...
s,
bivalve
Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bival ...
s,
polychaetes,
amphipod
Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...
s, and
ostracod
Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typic ...
s. ''Desmophyllum'' corals and
nematode worms have been observed living on the carbonate chimneys.
Other animals such as tube worms and giant clams that are abundant in typical black smoker vents, however, are absent from Lost City. A variety of
crab
Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...
s,
shrimp
Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...
,
sea fans, and
jellyfish
Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...
have also been observed at the field.
Macrofauna are rare around the vent field, though larger organisms do visit the field on occasion. Visitors can include
wreckfish
The wreckfish are a family, Polyprionidae in the suborder Percoidei of the order Perciformes.
They are deep-water marine fish and can be found on the ocean bottom, where they inhabit caves and shipwrecks (thus their common name). Their scienti ...
,
grenadiers
A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word ''grenade'') was originally a specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in battle. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when grenadiers were recruited from ...
, and even
sharks.
Arrowtooth Eel have been observed at the Lost City field, which have a massive depth range of to .
Significance
Lost City provides geologists, chemists, and biologists a working
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
for the study of life in extreme environments and other processes driven by
abiotic production of methane and hydrogen by
serpentinisation.
Similarities to other locales
The Lost City vent field shares a number of characteristics with the
Prony Bay
Prony Bay or Baie de Prony is a bay of the southern end of New Caledonia. A number of small streams flow into the bay, including the Rivière Bleue and the Ruisseau de la Bergerie. Deposits of red clay increased between 1955 and 1968 due to exten ...
vent field near
New Caledonia
)
, anthem = ""
, image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg
, map_alt = Location of New Caledonia
, map_caption = Location of New Caledonia
, mapsize = 290px
, subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...
in the Pacific Ocean. Both are locations of moderate temperature which produce abundant hydrogen gas and methane. Prony Bay, however, is significantly shallower (less than ) than Lost City (around ). It is host to unique biology, including the extremophile ''Alkaliphilus hydrothermalis''.
A similar alkaline hydrothermal vent, the Strytan Hydrothermal Field, has been identified off the north coast of Iceland.
The
Von Damm Vent Field
The Von Damm Hydrothermal Field is a field of hydrothermal vents located just south of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean, on the Mid-Cayman Rise in the Cayman Trough. It is approximately south of the Beebe Vent Field. The vent field is named in c ...
found in the
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...
is also situated atop an ocean core complex.
Origin of life
Speculation has been offered that ancient versions of similar alkaline hydrothermal vents in the seas of a young Earth were the birthplace of all life, constituting the planet's original
abiogenesis. The free hydrogen gas produced, metallic catalysts consistent with an
iron-sulfur world theory
Iron–sulfur proteins (or iron–sulphur proteins in British spelling) are proteins characterized by the presence of iron–sulfur clusters containing sulfide-linked di-, tri-, and tetrairon centers in variable oxidation states. Iron–sulfur clu ...
, micro-cellular physical structure of the towers, and available hydrothermal energy might plausibly have provided an environment for the beginnings of non-photosynthetic energy cycles common to the most primitive microorganisms and organic molecule creation. Microscopic structures in such alkaline vents "show interconnected compartments that provide an ideal hatchery for the origin of life".
These alkaline hydrothermal vents also continuously generate
acetyl thioesters, providing both the starting point for more complex organic molecules and the energy needed to produce them. However, this notion was rejected by Japanese researchers from Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI)
Tokyo Institute of Technology They showed that because of the high free energy change of thioester hydrolysis and their corresponding low equilibrium constants, it is unlikely that these species could have accumulated abiotically to any significant extent in the Lost City fields.
The conditions at Lost City are of particular concern because of the different types of
extremophile
An extremophile (from Latin ' meaning "extreme" and Greek ' () meaning "love") is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e. environments that make survival challenging such as due to extreme temper ...
s present. Lost City microbes are polyextremophiles, fitting the description of alkaliphiles, moderate piezophiles, and thermophiles in an environment without sunlight. The combination of different extremophile elements suggests that Lost City organisms are ''more extreme'' than at other locations, making them particularly interesting subjects of study on the requirements for life.
Given the only requirements for serpentinization are olivine and seawater, locations like Lost City could theoretically exist on extraterrestrial
bodies with liquid water such as
Europa
Europa may refer to:
Places
* Europe
* Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace
* Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro
* Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development
* Europa Cliff ...
and
Enceladus.
In popular culture
Lost City is featured in the
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
3-D IMAX
IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating.
Graeme F ...
film ''
Aliens of the Deep''. The IMAX flange was unnamed prior to the documentary's release, but is extremely recognizable in the film and subsequently picked up the nickname of the
video format played in theaters.
Lost City is also featured in episode 2 of the BBC's documentary ''
Blue Planet II
''Blue Planet II'' is a 2017 British nature documentary series on marine life produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. Like its predecessor, ''The Blue Planet'' (2001), it is narrated and presented by naturalist Sir David Attenborough.
After ...
''.
Gallery
Protection
The carbonate spires of the Lost City Hydrothermal Field are on
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
’s protection wish list.
References
External links
The site for the original UW expeditionUniversity of Washington, Lost City ExpeditionThe official page for the 2018 missionThe PMEL vents programThe InterRidge Vents Database
{{Authority control
Hydrothermal vents
Volcanism of the Atlantic Ocean
Mid-Atlantic Ridge