Hottest water found on ocean floor

Press, 1 April 1985, Page 30

Hottest water found on ocean floor

NZPA-ReuterCorvallis, Oregon

Scientists at Oregon State University say they have discovered the hottest water recorded on Earth, on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, 480 km west of Seattle.

According to Professor Jack Diamond, a specialist in oceanography, the temperature of water from a hot spring on the Juan de Fuca ridge has been measured at 399 degrees Celsius. Professor Diamond, among a team that used a research submarine to Srobe the volcanic ocean oor of the Pacific coast near the United StatesCanadian border, said the previous highest temperature was 349 deg. recorded off Mexico’s Pacific coast.

The intense pressure of the 2.4 km of ocean above the hot springs kept the super-hot water liquid rather than allowing it to escape as vapour, he said. Professor Diamond believes water as hot or even hotter is “fairly common at

rift areas of the ocean floor ’ round the globe,” where the sea floor spreads apart ' under pressure from the hot interior of the Earth. "

Hot springs welling up in these rifts emit mineral ; particles and gases, and they also sustain life organs. ; The mineral deposits, « such as copper and zinc, have received a good deal '

of interest, according to Professor Diamond, a marine geochemist. But, he says, the scientific “ value of the discovery may ’ be much more important ’ than any mineral potential.

“It is not just the hot • water but the diverse bio- ; logical communities that thrive,” he said. One widely ’ accepted theory has been that life cannot exist in

temperatures above boiling. Professor Diamond says * the existence r of ■ the hot - springs oases, with giant ’ clams and tube worms and - bacteria, indicates that “we ;

may have to revise totally • our definition of where life ” can exist in the universe.”