Smoking Chimney and Pompeii Worms- 2015 (Remastered!)
Another one of our favorite memories from our 15 years of ocean exploration is this video of Pompeii worms living amid active hydrothermal chimneys along the Galapagos Rift in Ecuador. Despite this extreme habitat's depth, heat, and acidity, a diverse community of chemosynthetic organisms live here, including the Alvinella pompejana (also known as "bristle worms"). These deep-sea polychaete worms are endemic to hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean and scientists believe them to be the second most heat-tolerant complex animal known to science (after tardigrades), surviving in temperatures up to 105 °C (221 °F).
Galapagos Rift Exploration
The E/V Nautilus will spend several weeks exploring the Galapagos Rift region. The Galápagos Islands have been instrumental in the establishment of the biological theory of evolution, gaining insights to our knowledge of the chemistry of the Earth’s interior, and understanding the plate tectonic evolution of the eastern Pacific seafloor. In 1835 Charles Darwin visited the islands aboard the HMS Beagle and made fundamental biological and geological observations in the area.
