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Mid-ocean ridge cross-section (cut-away view) A mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of about 2,600 meters (8,500 ft) and rises about 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) above the deepest portion of an ocean basin. This feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a divergent plate ...
Prokaryotes play important roles in ecosystems as decomposers recycling nutrients. Some prokaryotes are pathogenic, causing disease and even death in plants and animals. [5] Marine prokaryotes are responsible for significant levels of the photosynthesis that occurs in the ocean, as well as significant cycling of carbon and other nutrients. [6]
Environments in which subsurface life has been found [1]. The deep biosphere is the part of the biosphere that resides below the first few meters of the ocean's surface. It extends down below 10 kilometers below the continental surface and 21 kilometers below the sea surface, at temperatures that may reach beyond 120 °C (248 °F) [2] which is comparable to the maximum temperature where a ...
Chrysomallon squamiferum, commonly known as the scaly-foot gastropod, scaly-foot snail, sea pangolin, or volcano snail[3][4] is a species of deep-sea hydrothermal-vent snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Peltospiridae. [2] This vent-endemic gastropod is known only from deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Indian Ocean, where it has ...
Marine biogeochemical cycles are biogeochemical cycles that occur within marine environments, that is, in the saltwater of seas or oceans or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. These biogeochemical cycles are the pathways chemical substances and elements move through within the marine environment. In addition, substances and elements can ...
Still others process organic matter including carbohydrate, proteins, and lipids. Ocean crust fungi, like those found around hydrothermal vents, decompose organic matter, and play various roles in manganese and arsenic cycling. [6] Sediment-bound marine fungi played a major role in breaking down oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizons disaster ...
The lines represent tectonic plate boundaries. Oceanic crust is the uppermost layer of the oceanic portion of the tectonic plates. It is composed of the upper oceanic crust, with pillow lavas and a dike complex, and the lower oceanic crust, composed of troctolite, gabbro and ultramafic cumulates. [1][2] The crust overlies the rigid uppermost ...
The strontium isotopic composition (87 Sr/ 86 Sr) of seawater represents a mix of strontium derived from continental weathering which is rich in 87 Sr and from mantle sources e.g. mid-ocean ridges, which are relatively depleted in 87 Sr. 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios above 0.7075 indicate continental weathering is the main source of 87 Sr, whilst ratios ...