Activity
The five active chimneys of Loki's Castle are venting water as hot as 300 °C (570 °F) and sit on a vast mound of sulfide minerals which is about 825 ft (250 m) in diameter at its base, and some 300 feet (90 m) across its top. A member of the 2008 Expedition, oceanographer Marvin Lilley of the University of Washington, has speculated that this may be the largest such deposit ever seen on the sea floor. The active chimneys are mostly black in colour, but are covered with mats of white bacteria which are living on minerals and materials emitted by the vents. The older chimneys are a mottled red colour, due to the presence of deposits of oxidised iron.
Preliminary observations have shown the warm area around the Loki's Castle vents to be alive with diverse and apparently unique microorganisms and vent fauna, unlike vent communities observed elsewhere.
The vent field was given the name Loki's Castle as its shape reminded its discoverers of a fantasy castle. The reference to the ancient Norse god Loki was explained by a University of Bergen press release that said it "was an appropriate name for a field that was so difficult to locate".
Read more about this topic: Loki's Castle (hydrothermal Field)
Famous quotes containing the word activity:
“I see advertisements for active young men, as if activity were the whole of a young man’s capital. Yet I have been surprised when one has with confidence proposed to me, a grown man, to embark in some enterprise of his, as if I had absolutely nothing to do, my life having been a complete failure hitherto. What a doubtful compliment this to pay me!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What have we achieved in mowing down mountain ranges, harnessing the energy of mighty rivers, or moving whole populations about like chess pieces, if we ourselves remain the same restless, miserable, frustrated creatures we were before? To call such activity progress is utter delusion. We may succeed in altering the face of the earth until it is unrecognizable even to the Creator, but if we are unaffected wherein lies the meaning?”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“Every writer is necessarily a critic—that is, each sentence is a skeleton accompanied by enormous activity of rejection; and each selection is governed by general principles concerning truth, force, beauty, and so on.... The critic that is in every fabulist is like the iceberg—nine-tenths of him is under water.”
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)