But not all experts were so surprised by the discovery. “I think it makes perfect sense,” said Julie Huber, a marine geochemist and microbiologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts who wasn’t involved with the work. “The shallow subseafloor, where temperatures are likely cool enough for animals to survive, is what I think of as a ‘subseafloor conveyor belt’ for microbes, nutrients and, now, animals.”Much about these unusual habitats is a mystery. Deep below, the magmatic heat roasts percolating seawater, which jets back out into the water column as superheated, mineral-rich soups. Despite their extreme natures, these vents are metropolises of strange critters.

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Persons: ”, Julie Huber, wasn’t Organizations: Oceanographic Locations: Massachusetts