Image of the Day

July 22, 2011

Revisiting the Roses

Discovered in 1979 not far from the Galápagos Islands, the Rose Garden was an ocean scientist’s paradise, a hydrothermal vent site where six-foot tubeworms swayed in the shimmering breeze of warm vent fluids like slender flowers atop tall stems. When scientists returned to the Galápagos Ridge in 2002, however, they found that Rose Garden had been paved over, probably by fresh lava by a recent submarine volcanic eruption. But they discovered a new site, with juvenile tubeworms, which they called "Rosebud," shown here. Tim Shank is currently leading another expedition to the region to to explore newly discovered signs of black smoker hydrothermal vents, to re-visit the oldest known vent fields, and to examine nearby geologic features. (Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)