Our planet’s oceans are still very much a frontier. And now Scientists with the Schmidt Ocean Institute have taken a submersible more than a mile down into some of our planet’s deepest waters and have made a discovery never before seen by human eyes.
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00:00 Space is famously referred to as the final frontier, but here on Earth we still have
00:07 at least one more of those, the bottom of the ocean.
00:10 And now scientists with the Schmidt Ocean Institute have taken a submersible more than
00:14 a mile down into some of our planet's deepest waters and have made a discovery never before
00:19 seen by human eyes.
00:21 They used a robotic arm to flip over large pieces of volcanic material and underneath
00:25 they found what can only be described as veins filled with fluid and they were absolutely
00:29 teeming with life.
00:31 According to the Institute's executive director, "On land we have long known of animals living
00:35 in cavities underground and in the ocean of animals living in sand and mud."
00:39 But for the first time scientists have looked for animals beneath hydrothermal vents.
00:43 They call it a new ecosystem, hidden beneath another ecosystem.
00:47 And while experts first discovered hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor back in the 70s,
00:51 this is the first time they've taken a look underneath, finding a whole new world of worms,
00:55 sea snails and chemosynthetic bacteria that don't require sunlight to survive but live
01:00 off minerals instead.
01:01 They add that this is a huge discovery, especially as they found a particular worm that actually
01:06 travels through the vents and colonizes new areas, using them as a roadway.
01:11 [Music]