Methane Ecosystem in the Atlantic seabed

Methane is highly flammable, but the gas that is formed from the decay of organisms and the waste of life it can be a source of some of the species that live in the deep sea. On May 8th, 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research vessel, Ron Brown found the unique life forms in seabed off the coast of Virginia, United States.

NOAA researchers find a bunch of white bacteria around the seepage of odorless gas when making observations using a small unmanned submarine called Jason. Microbial was able to pick up the energy to break down the methane that seeps from the earth. "Seepage encountered at a depth 1.6 kilometer, the deepest point which capable be dived by Jason," said the NOAA researchers, such as quoted by LiveScience, Friday, May 10th, 2013.

The NOAA's unmanned submarine, Jason. (Picture from: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/)

The Jason submarine also find a collection of giant clams in the location of the release of methane bubbles. The mussel can be survive through symbiotic relationship with the eating methane bacteria who staying in around gills shellfish.

A lithodid crab seen on the mussel bed at 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) beneath the surface. (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/)

Spider crab and fish are also found around the seepage of methane. Discovery of crab and fish quite surprising because methane seepage usually was not ideal habitat for both types of animal. To understand this phenomenon, Jason took soil samples and mussels alive, and then analyzed them in the laboratory.

The Ron Brown, and its ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) Jason, moved closer and found a gas seep with unique life. Here Jason collects a sea urchin and a few mussels from the expansive mussel bed with its manipulator arm. (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/)

The researchers are members of the "Deepwater Canyons Project", the advanced mapping expedition of the canyon below the sea that stretched from the plate North American continent until the basin Atlantic Ocean. Mapping seabed previously carried out by the NOAA's Okeanos Explorer research vessel that using the multibeam sonar. Picture details of seafloor mapped by calculating the amount of time and distance required by a sound wave to travel from the ship to the ocean floor, and back to the ship.

This is an unidentified deep-sea fish, perhaps a relative of the genus Brotulas, resting among the mussels. (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/)

The Okeanos Explorer ship has been charted 15,460 kilometer square-territory seabed. According to NOAA, breadth is more large than the State Section Connecticut. Deepwater Canyons Expedition Project will continue until 2014. So far the researchers have found 40 points seepage of methane gas along the sea floor on the east coast of America. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | NOAA | LIVESCIENCE | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 4227]

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