There's a 'Lost City' Deep in The Ocean, And It's Unlike Anything We've Ever Seen - ScienceAlert

( D. Kelley/UW/URI-IAO/NOAA).Discovered by scientists in 2000, more than 700 meters (2,300 feet) beneath the surface, the Lost City Hydrothermal Field is the longest-lived venting environment known in the ocean.

For at least 120,000 years and maybe longer, the upthrusting mantle in this part of the world has reacted with seawater to puff hydrogen, methane, and other dissolved gases out into the ocean.

The hydrocarbons produced by the Lost City's vents were not formed from atmospheric carbon dioxide or sunlight, but by chemical reactions on the deep seafloor.

"This is an example of a type of ecosystem that could be active on Enceladus or Europa right this second," microbiologist William Brazelton told The Smithsonian in 2018, referring to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter.

Unlike underwater volcanic vents called black smokers, which have also been named as a possible first habitat, the Lost City's ecosystem doesn't depend on the heat of magma.

Researchers at the University of Washington describe the vents here as 'weeping' with fluid to produce "clusters of delicate, multi-pronged carbonate growths that extend outward like the fingers of upturned hands".