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Eel City
Eel City is the name given to a community of deep-sea eels living amongst hydrothermal vents in the new volcano of Nafanua in American Samoa. It is unique because most hydrothermal vents are predominantly inhabited by invertebrates, whereas there is little invertebrate life in Eel City. The community of eels was discovered in 2005, when a new volcanic cone, Nafanua, was discovered inside the submerged caldera of Vailulu'u volcanic sea mount. The eels were identified as synaphobranchid eels '' Dysommina rugosa'', which are known from trawl samples in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but have never before been studied in their natural habitat. They are deep sea fishes, bottom dwellers, up to 37 cm long. Preliminary work indicates that they use the vent only as a place to live. They seem to feed not on chemosynthetic bacteria, but on crustaceans that pass by Nafanua's summit in the currents. During the initial dive in March 2005, one of the discoverers, Hubert Staudigel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydrothermal Vent
Hydrothermal vents are fissures on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspots. The dispersal of hydrothermal fluids throughout the global ocean at active vent sites creates hydrothermal plumes. Hydrothermal deposits are rocks and mineral ore deposits formed by the action of hydrothermal vents. Hydrothermal vents exist because the Earth is both geologically active and has large amounts of water on its surface and within its crust. Under the sea, they may form features called black smokers or white smokers, which deliver a wide range of elements to the world's oceans, thus contributing to global marine biogeochemistry. Relative to the majority of the deep sea, the areas around hydrothermal vents are biologically more productive, often hosting complex communities fueled by the chemicals dissolved in the vent fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nafanua Volcano
Nafanua was a historical ''aliʻi'' (Paramount Chief/Queen) and ''toa'' (warrior) of Samoa from the Sā Tonumaipeʻa clan, who took the four ''pāpā'' (district) titles, the leading ''aliʻi'' titles of Samoa. After her death she became a goddess in Polynesian religion. There are historical and mythological traditions about Nafanua's family and life. She reportedly played a crucial role in the civil wars between the districts of eastern and western Savaiʻi. Life Family According to Samoan mythology, she was the daughter of Saveasiʻuleo, also considered a demigod, the Aliʻi of Pulotu. Pulotu was both a historical place, and a place of the afterlife for the warriors of Samoa (comparable to the Viking concept of Valhalla). In one tradition, Nafanua's mother was Tilafaiga the sister of Taema, the legendary conjoined twins, whom brought the malu tattoo to Samoa. Adulthood Nafanua was bestowed the title of Toa/Toa Tamaʻitaʻi (or Warrior Princess) for avenging her uncle and brin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Samoa
American Samoa is an Territories of the United States, unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States located in the Polynesia region of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. Centered on , it is southeast of the island country of Samoa, east of the International Date Line and the Wallis and Futuna Islands, west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some south of Tokelau. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States, situated southwest of the U.S. state of Hawaii, and one of two U.S. territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island. American Samoa consists of the eastern part of the Samoan Islands, Samoan archipelagothe inhabited volcanic islands of Tutuila, Aunuʻu, Ofu-Olosega, Ofu, Ofu-Olosega, Olosega and Taʻū and the uninhabited Rose Atollas well as Swains Island, a remote coral atoll in the List of islands of Tokelau, Tokelau volcanic island group. The total land area is , slightly larger than Washing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Mount
A seamount is a large submarine landform that rises from the ocean floor without reaching the water surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet, or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from the seafloor to in height. They are defined by oceanographers as independent features that rise to at least above the seafloor, characteristically of conical form.IHO, 2008. Standardization of Undersea Feature Names: Guidelines Proposal form Terminology, 4th ed. International Hydrographic Organization and Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Monaco. The peaks are often found hundreds to thousands of meters below the surface, and are therefore considered to be within the deep sea. During their evolution over geologic time, the largest seamounts may reach the sea surface where wave action erodes the summit to form a flat surface. After they have subsided and sunk below the sea surface, such flat-top ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cutthroat Eel
Cutthroat eels are a family, Synaphobranchidae, of eels, the only members of the suborder Synaphobranchoidei. They are found worldwide in temperate and tropical seas. Cutthroat eels range from in length. They are Benthos, bottom-dwelling fish, found in deep waters down to about . They are distinguished by the presence of telescopic eyes in the larvae. In some classifications (for example, ITIS), this family is split, with ''Simenchelys'' in its own family, the Simenchelyidae. Subfamilies and genera Cutthroat eels are classified into the following subfamilies and genera: *Subfamily Simenchelyinae Theodore Gill, Gill, 1879 (pugnose parasitic eels) ** ''Simenchelys'' Gill, 1879 *Subfamily Ilyophinae David Starr Jordan, D. S. Jordan & Bradley Moore Davis, Davis, 1891 (arrowtooth eels or mustard eels) ** ''Atractodenchelys'' Catherine Hale Robins, C.H. Robins & C. Richard Robins, C. R. Robins, 1970 ** ''Dysomma'' Alfred William Alcock, Alcock, 1889 ** ''Dysommina'' Isaac Ginsburg, G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dysommina Rugosa
''Dysommina rugosa'' is an eel in the family Synaphobranchidae (cutthroat eels). It was described by Isaac Ginsburg in 1951.Ginsburg, I., 1951 (30 Sept.) ef. 1804''The eels of the northern Gulf Coast of the United States and some related species.'' Texas Journal of Science v. 3 (no. 3): 431–485. It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the western Atlantic and eastern central Pacific Ocean. It dwells at a depth range of 260–775 metres, and is found off the continental slope. Males can reach a maximum total length of 37 centimetres. Description ''D. rugosa'' is a fairly stout elongated cylindrical fish growing to a total length of about . The snout is fleshy with a number of papillae and tapers towards the front, overhanging the lower jaw. There are two pairs of nostrils, one pair at the tip of the snout and the other pair between the eyes, which are large and circular and covered with skin. There are no premaxillary teeth and the maxillary and dentary teet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scripps Institution Of Oceanography
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is the center for oceanography and Earth science at the University of California, San Diego. Its main campus is located in La Jolla, with additional facilities in Point Loma. Founded in 1903 and incorporated into the University of California system in 1912, the institution has since broadened its research focus to encompass the physics, chemistry, geology, biology, and climate of the Earth. The institution awards the Nierenberg Prize annually to recognize researchers with exceptional contributions to science in public interest. History Founding Scripps Institution of Oceanography can trace its beginnings back to William Ritter, a biologist originally from Wisconsin. In 1891, Ritter was offered a job teaching biology at the University of California, Berkeley and married Mary Bennett. Their honeymoon and subsequent biological studies took them to San Diego, where Ritter met a local physician and naturalist, Fred Baker, who would ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organisms Living On Hydrothermal Vents
An organism is any living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have been proposed to define what an organism is. Among the most common is that an organism has autonomous reproduction, growth, and metabolism. This would exclude viruses, despite the fact that they evolve like organisms. Other problematic cases include colonial organisms; a colony of eusocial insects is organised adaptively, and has germ-soma specialisation, with some insects reproducing, others not, like cells in an animal's body. The body of a siphonophore, a jelly-like marine animal, is composed of organism-like zooids, but the whole structure looks and functions much like an animal such as a jellyfish, the parts collaborating to provide the functions of the colonial organism. The evolutionary biologists David Queller and Joan Strassmann sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
