Cold seeps
Cold seeps are areas of the sea floor where oil and methane and other gases seep out of underground reservoirs through fissures in the ground caused by tectonic activity. They are similar to hydrothermal vents; however the substances released are at a similar temperature to the surrounding sea water. The methane and other compounds diffuse through the sediment on the sea floor and so are released over a large area, typically several hundred metres wide.
Seeps were only discovered in the 1980s, but have since been found in all oceans in the world, and are most common along the continental margins where tectonic activity is high. They provide diverse ecosystems of chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea (the branch of life most closely related to the LUCA), which produce their energy from the oxidation of inorganic gases released by the seep (usually methane or hydrogen sulphide).
Seeps were only discovered in the 1980s, but have since been found in all oceans in the world, and are most common along the continental margins where tectonic activity is high. They provide diverse ecosystems of chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea (the branch of life most closely related to the LUCA), which produce their energy from the oxidation of inorganic gases released by the seep (usually methane or hydrogen sulphide).
It is thought that the very first life would have also produced its energy in this way, rather than using sunlight to photosynthesise like most current ecosystems, and so it is possible that a chemical seep was the location of the first life forms. The high concentrations of the many different chemicals released may have provided conditions similar to that of the Miller-Urey experiment, and so the spontaneous creation of the components necessary for life may have once occured in these environments.
Further information on hydrothermal vents and cold seeps;
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/deep_sea/vents_seeps/
http://www.scienceinschool.org/2010/issue16/coldseeps
Further information on hydrothermal vents and cold seeps;
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/deep_sea/vents_seeps/
http://www.scienceinschool.org/2010/issue16/coldseeps