Well inside the Arctic Circle, scientists have found vents in the submerged Mid-Atlantic Ridge spewing out water as hot as 570 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the farthest north anyone has seen black smoker vents — so called because it appears as if dark smoke is billowing from them. In fact, the “smoke” is actually iron- and sulfur-rich minerals falling from the plumes of scalding waters shooting from underwater openings, or vents, in the earth’s crust.

The solidified sulfide minerals that accumulate around the vents have created one of the most massive hydrothermal sulfide deposits ever found on the seafloor, according to Marvin Lilley, an oceanographer with the University of Washington and a member of the expedition from the University of Bergen’s Centre for Geobiology in Norway.

 Scientists had not expected to find such active vents in the northern seabeds. Yet, they believe the vent field may have been active for many thousands of years. They spent nearly a decade looking for the vents, mapping the ocean bottom, sampling ocean water for warmth, and lowering optical sensors to detect the chemistry of the water. For a firsthand account of the wonder of finding the vents between Greenland and Norway, go to the expedition web diary for Day 17 at  http://www.geobio.uib.no/View.aspx?mid=1062&itemid=90&pageid=1093&moduledefid=71