The ocean's deepest volcanic vents, kilometres below the surface, are teeming with life forms never before seen that thrive near super-hot underwater geysers, according to a new study.
Eyeless shrimps and white-tentacled anemones were photographed bunched around cracks in the ocean floor spewing mineral-rich water that may top 450 degrees Celsius (842 degree Fahrenheit), researchers reported on Tuesday.
The vents - baptised the Beebe Vent Field in honour of the first scientist to venture into the deep ocean - were discovered on the Caribbean seafloor in the Cayman Trough, south of the Cayman Islands.
Some five kilometres (three miles) below the surface, the trench is home to the world's deepest known "black smoker" vents, so-called for the cloudy fluid that gushes from them.
During an expedition in 2010, a team lead by marine geochemist Doug Connelly of Britain's National Oceanography Centre and University of Southampton biologist Jon Copley used a deep-diving robot submarine to explore the trough.
The researchers also found previously unknown vents on the upper slopes of nearby Mount Dent, which rises some three kilometres from the sea floor. It's peak remains the same distance beneath the surface waves.
The discoveries suggest that active deep-sea volcanic vents are more widespread around the globe than previously thought, he added.
Cameras on the submarine captured startling images of a new species of ghostly-pale shrimp - dubbed Rimicaris hybisae - that had gathered in clusters of up to 2,000 specimens per square metre.
