Forty years ago, a team of researchers including our founder Dr. Robert Ballard discovered hydrothermal vents smoking deep below the Galapagos Islands. This 1977 discovery changed our understanding of Earth processes and the possibilities for life to thrive on this planet. Hydrothermal vents are fissures in the Earth's surface that spew superheated, mineral-rich water--like geysers fueled by volcanoes! Communities of organisms from tube worms to squat lobsters live off these rich outflows from t

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