Blog Post Image: Study Tests Theory that Life Originated at Deep Sea Vents

Clear hot spring fluids spew from a talc structure at the Von Damm vent field, a mile and a half beneath the Caribbean Sea. The researchers show that fluids emanating from Von Damm and other hot spring areas around the global mid-ocean ridge system contain a sulfur compound, methanethiol, that is indicative of pyrolysed subsurface life. The red laser dots are 10cm apart, for scale. Photograph courtesy of the Little Hercules ROV, NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Mid-Cayman Rise Expedition 2011. Image credit: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution