'Ice worms' -- Does anyone know more about what they are?
Andrew McArthur's Deepsea list has just posted a reference to the
Pennsylvania State University Dept of Biology web page of Charles
Fisher (URL below). Below is all the relevant text from that site, & also
URLs for the images you will find there. Also there is an article in the
latest New Scientist (9 August 1997. Vol. 155 No. 2094).
http://www.bio.psu.edu/fisher/new.htmlhttp://www.bio.psu.edu/fisher/images/webiceworm1.jpeg
"Methane hydrates like this one, which is 700 meters deep in the Gulf of
Mexico, are crystal structures of methane and water which can form under
conditions of low temperature and high pressure. This hydrate mound, which
is over 6 feet in diameter, has risen off of the seafloor because the
"methane ice" is lighter than the sediment or sea water."
http://www.bio.psu.edu/fisher/images/webiceworm4.jpeg
"On close inspection, myriads of one to two inch long polychaete worms can
be seen living on and in the surface of the hydrates. These worms were only
discovered on July 15th 1997, and we are just beginning to study them. We
speculate that they may colonize the hydrates even when they are buried,
and that the worm's nutrition is tightly tied to the hydrate itself.
However, these and many other speculations about this new species of worm
remain to be tested and verified."
That's it!
--
Geoff Read <gread at actrix.gen.nz>
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