A team from Heriot-Watt University has identified more than 100 different species ranging from strange single-celled organisms to coral species and even an octopus on the slopes of a huge and ancient undersea volcano. Amazingly though these life-forms aren’t thriving in warm sunlit tropical waters, rather they have been observed in dark, frigid waters 1000m below the sea surface on the Hebrides Terrace Seamount, off the coast of Scotland. Using an ROV controlled from a ship-based laboratory for this first survey of the location, the team led by Professor J Murray Roberts, gathered pictures from the seamount, the summit of which is around 1km beneath the surface (actually, the HTS is the UKs highest underwater mountain and is higher even than Ben Nevis). Prof Roberts explained, “These are vast structures in the ocean, and they’re exciting because they grow up through the ocean and have steep sloping sides. When the currents hit the sides of the seamount and they stir up nutrients, they become More: ROV Images Strange Life On Submerged Volcano… More:
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