Deep at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, an amazing bacterial discovery reshaped our view of life on earth.

Anatomy of a tube worm:   / anatomyofagianttubeworm  
Archaea 101:   / microbes101archaea  

In 1977, three people squeezed into a sturdy little submersible named “Alvin” and dived 7,500 feet to the bottom of the Pacific. The team was looking for something that had been predicted for years but had never actually been seen: deepsea hydrothermal vents. These jets of volcanically superheated water would be caused by two continental plates pulling away from each other on the ocean floor. The Alvin crew found the vents, but they also saw something else that took them completely by surprise. They had expected a barren sunless world on the ocean floor, but instead found one that teemed with life—a menagerie that included the giant tubeworm, Riftia pachyptila, that can grow taller than a person.

In this episode, Ed talks to Colleen Cavanaugh and finds out how the tubeworm can live in complete darkness and, more curiously, without even having a mouth or anus. In a process called chemosynthesis, symbiotic bacteria inside the tubeworm use hydrogen sulfide spewed from the vents as an energy source for themselves and for the worms. An entire unexpected ecosystem powered by chemosynthesis thrives in the dark depths of the ocean.

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