India’s Deep Ocean Mission Breakthrough: Successful Discovery of Active Hydrothermal Vent
Within the Indian Ocean, researchers from India have successfully explored an active hydrothermal vent that is an estimated 4,500 meters deep. According to reports, this is a historic achievement as far as Indian ocean-bottom exploration is concerned and shall add considerably to the scientific knowledge and understanding of mineral, ecological, and biotic manifestations in underwater ecosystems.
Scientists from the National Institute of Ocean Technology, along with colleagues from the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, make this discovery. They had clicked the first pictures of an active hydrothermal vent. It marks a first in the country’s Rs 4,000-crore Deep Ocean Mission that’s exploring unknown depths for new minerals and life forms in the ocean. To which effect the aim includes figuring how well the ocean helps to solve climate change for the earth.
Hydrothermal vents are essentially underwater hot springs on the mid-ocean ridges where the tectonic plates are moving apart. As magma rises to fill the gap from the Earth’s mantle, it cools and becomes new crust. Seawater seeps into cracks in the crust, gets heated by the magma, and then shoots back out carrying dissolved minerals. The minerals then solidify upon meeting the cold seawater thus forming chimney-like structures around the vents.
Although hydrothermal vents had been studied since the first observation of them on the Galapagos Rift in 1977, this is an enormous step forward for India in terms of research about the ocean. The importance of the finding could also be seen as a form of validation of investments in the Indian blue economy. It is expected to boost the confidence of the Indian scientists as they continue their research into the depth of the ocean.
The main aim of the Deep Ocean Mission is to identify which new minerals will be deployed to make the modern technology workable. For example, clean energy solutions will come under these new minerals, and hence, nickel, cobalt, and manganese surrounding hydrothermal vents play a crucial role in producing technologies such as battery and electric vehicles. It has made sure to seal the commitment of India to be one of the strongest supporters for the exploration of oceans as a necessary resource source of the future and will thus always play a great role in blue economics.
Hydrothermal vents also host some other special life forms that survive without sunlight. This is a process called chemosynthesis. Organisms surrounding the vents convert the inorganic molecules, including hydrogen sulfide, into energy, thus creating thriving ecosystems in the dark of the deep sea. Ecosystems are of prime interest to scientists because it might shed light on how life emerged on Earth or what kind of life initially developed in extreme environments.
These advanced technologies allow scientists to carry out research activities; their activities range from the use of AUVs, self-programmed robots that can take high-resolution photographs and data gathering in that rocky area where no human can reach. They are the tools that allow humans to go to those tough environments in the deep ocean, with freezing temperatures, extreme pressure, and most people haven’t seen with their naked eyes.
India has been exploring the hydrothermal vents for the last two years and has organized several expeditions in the region for detecting the vent. The team has taken several samples including photographs, videos, and data. The complete analysis of findings is still in process. It would be very helpful to the scientists in understanding better the geological processes happening at such depths and how the vents contribute to mineralization of those valuable minerals.
This also uncovers pathways in the advancement of knowledge of life in extreme conditions. The strange organisms living around these vents can help understand what the first life forms on Earth must have looked like. Other researchers believe that life might have developed on Earth according to the chemical reactions within the ocean, and this discovery of chemosynthetic organisms in the deep sea has much ground for that theory.
However, research in deep oceans is not without its shares of problems. First problem is that weather cannot be predicted easily when it crosses the Southern Ocean. In fact, generally bad weather discourages launches of expeditions. Conditions really get fierce with high speed ocean currents and strong conditions of winds where operations do become really tough – for instance, month long surveys that have only a few days worth of good weather in order to enable researches.
In addition, it is hard to detect hydrothermal vents as they are small, and the ocean is very vast. They can only be found in about one or two meters wide and are distributed over thousands of kilometers all over the ocean, which cannot be detected. A lot of expertise and special instruments must be applied to determine if these vents exist.
Conclusion:The future of India in ocean research depends on the further investment of the Indian government in the Deep Ocean Mission and the blue economy. In the next three years, India is going to build a new ship, especially designed for deep-sea surveys. This will further boost the pace of exploration in India with better studies and more discoveries in the coming years. This is a major success for the scientific community of India that would now look into and utilize the ocean’s huge resources. Finding an active hydrothermal vent is only a start, and it is said to be opening many more discoveries in marine science and technology.
Source: PTI