Strange animals that get their energy from chemical reactions instead of the sun have been discovered at the bottom of ocean trenches up to 31,000 feet deep in the northwest Pacific between Russia and Alaska, a new study reports.Scientists say the findings shed new light on the potential for life to exist in extreme environments using the chemical compound methane instead of sunlight. The animals were discovered by researchers using a human-crewed submersible vehicle.
Strange animals that get their energy from chemical reactions instead of the sun have been discovered at the bottom of ocean trenches up to 31,000 feet deep in the northwest Pacific between Russia and Alaska, a new study reports.
Scientists say the findings shed new light on the potential for life to exist in extreme environments using the chemical compound methane instead of sunlight. The animals were discovered by researchers using a human-crewed submersible vehicle.
"What makes our discovery groundbreaking is not just its greater depth – it's the astonishing abundance and diversity of chemosynthetic life we observed," said marine geochemist Mengran Du of the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one of the authors of the research published July 30 in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature.
"What makes our discovery groundbreaking is not just its greater depth – it's the astonishing abundance and diversity of chemosynthetic life we observed," said marine geochemist Mengran Du of the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one of the authors of the research published July 30 in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature.
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