MASSACHUSETTS, CMC - A team of oceanographers and astrobiologists in the United States is continuing their “systematic” exploration of one of the deepest points in the Caribbean Sea, searching for life in extreme seafloor environments.
According to Dr. Chris German, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, the scientists are using the hybrid underwater robotic vehicle Nereus in extending their investigations throughout the depths of the Mid-Cayman Rise, which reaches to more than 6,500 meters deep.
German said the month-long study area, also known as the Mid-Cayman Spreading Center, is “one of earth’s deepest and slowest-spreading mid-ocean ridges” regions where two of earth’s tectonic plates are ripped apart and new material wells up from the earth’s interior.