Thread by @WIRED

The seafloor of the central Arctic is a pretty inhospitable place. And it should be: Unlike more productive oceans, few nutrients swirl here thanks to the ice above blocking the light.

But scientists have discovered that indeed, life found a way. wired.trib.al/JPmRxZU 1/10

Thousands of years ago, the peaks of the Arctic's Langseth Ridge hummed with volcanic activity that produced sulfur, which fed tube worms. Or to be precise, the sulfur fed the symbiotic bacteria inside the worms which processed it into energy, sustaining the animals. 2/10

That volcanic activity died out long ago, but there is still life under this sea.

📷: Antje Boetius/Alfred-Wegener-Institut/PS101 Awi Ofos System 3/10

A mysterious (previously unknown) ecosystem is thriving under the ice along the towering ridge around 2,000 feet deep. But what exactly has been living on these giant mounds? The plot thickens. 📷: Morganti, ET AL., Nature Communications 4/10

“When I say giant mounds, just imagine we would have on Earth an undiscovered mountain that is 3.8 kilometers—really huge—and no one has walked there.” - Antje Boetius, director of the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research. 5/10

Boetius and her colleagues discovered that the ridge is no longer dominated by worms, but instead plays home to enormous sponges, each up to 3 feet wide.
📷: Antje Boetius/Alfred-Wegener-Institut/PS101 Awi Ofos System 6/10

At around 300 years old, these sponges are no spring chickens. To survive, they evolved a similar microbe-based strategy—only they eat the tubes left behind by the worms, which have been dead for 2,000 years.
📷: Morganti, ET AL., Nature Communications 7/10

Thus an extinct, fossilized hydrothermal ecosystem fuels an even more bizarre assemblage of life.

“We are probably looking at a recycling system where one community lives using biomass of an ancient community that is no longer alive” says Boetius. 8/10

Read more about this epic tale of sponge survival. Spoiler alert: climate change makes an unwanted appearance. wired.trib.al/JPmRxZU 9/10

Subscribe to WIRED and get your first year of print and digital access for just $10. wired.trib.al/y56Mi3d 10/10