The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east.
Siboglinidae is a family of polychaete annelid worms whose members made up the former phyla Pogonophora and Vestimentifera. The family is composed of around 100 species of vermiform creatures which live in thin tubes buried in sediment (Pogonophora) or in tubes attached to hard substratum (Vestimentifera) at ocean depths ranging from 100 to 10,000 m. They can also be found in association with hydrothermal vents, methane seeps, sunken plant material, and whale carcasses.
The Ring of Fire is a tectonic belt of volcanoes and earthquakes.
El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a global climate phenomenon that emerges from variations in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific Ocean. Those variations have an irregular pattern but do have some semblance of cycles. The occurrence of ENSO is not predictable. It affects the climate of much of the tropics and subtropics, and has links (teleconnections) to higher-latitude regions of the world. The warming phase of the sea surface temperature is known as "El Niño" and the cooling phase as "La Niña". The Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric oscillation, which is coupled with the sea temperature change.
A cold seep is an area of the ocean floor where seepage of fluids rich in hydrogen sulfide, methane, and other hydrocarbons occurs, often in the form of a brine pool. Cold does not mean that the temperature of the seepage is lower than that of the surrounding sea water; on the contrary, its temperature is often slightly higher. The "cold" is relative to the very warm conditions of a hydrothermal vent. Cold seeps constitute a biome supporting several endemic species.
Riftia pachyptila, commonly known as the giant tube worm and less commonly known as the giant beardworm, is a marine invertebrate in the phylum Annelida related to tube worms commonly found in the intertidal and pelagic zones. R. pachyptila lives on the floor of the Pacific Ocean near hydrothermal vents. The vents provide a natural ambient temperature in their environment ranging from 2 to 30 °C, and this organism can tolerate extremely high hydrogen sulfide levels. These worms can reach a length of 3 m, and their tubular bodies have a diameter of 4 cm (1.6 in).
A mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of about 2,600 meters (8,500 ft) and rises about 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) above the deepest portion of an ocean basin. This feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a divergent plate boundary. The rate of seafloor spreading determines the morphology of the crest of the mid-ocean ridge and its width in an ocean basin.
The Great Pacific garbage patch is a garbage patch, a gyre of marine debris particles, in the central North Pacific Ocean. It is located roughly from 135°W to 155°W and 35°N to 42°N. The collection of plastic and floating trash originates from the Pacific Rim, including countries in Asia, North America, and South America.
An oceanic or submarine plateau is a large, relatively flat elevation that is higher than the surrounding relief with one or more relatively steep sides.
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is called a hurricane, typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, or simply cyclone. A hurricane is a strong tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean or northeastern Pacific Ocean. A typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. In the Indian Ocean and South Pacific, comparable storms are referred to as "tropical cyclones". In modern times, on average around 80 to 90 named tropical cyclones form each year around the world, over half of which develop hurricane-force winds of 65 kn or more.
Kagoshima Bay also known as Kinkō Bay, Kinko Bay is a deep inlet of the East China Sea on the coast of Japan.
In zoology, deep-sea gigantism or abyssal gigantism is the tendency for species of deep-sea dwelling animals to be larger than their shallower-water relatives across a large taxonomic range. Proposed explanations for this type of gigantism include necessary adaptation to colder temperature, food scarcity, reduced predation pressure and increased dissolved oxygen concentrations in the deep sea. The harsh conditions and inhospitality of the underwater environment in general, as well as the inaccessibility of the abyssal zone for most human-made underwater vehicles, have hindered the study of this topic.
West Mata is an active submarine volcano located in the northeastern Lau Basin, roughly 200 km (124 mi) southwest of the Samoan Islands. It is part of the Tonga-Kermadec volcanic arc, which stretches from the North Island of New Zealand to Samoa. The volcano was first discovered in 2008 by scientists aboard the R/V Thompson research vessel, using sonar mapping and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to explore the seafloor. At the same time West Mata was discovered, multiple neighboring volcanoes—most of them hydrothermally active—were discovered as well, including Volcano O, Tafu-Maka, Northern Matas and East Mata.
Lamellibrachia luymesi is a species of tube worms in the family Siboglinidae. It lives at deep-sea cold seeps where hydrocarbons are leaking out of the seafloor. It is entirely reliant on internal, sulfide-oxidizing bacterial symbionts for its nutrition. These are located in a centrally located "trophosome".
Cerithium columna is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cerithiidae.
Chamaesipho is a genus of four-plated notochthamaline barnacles in the Pacific Ocean limited to Australian/New Zealand temperate waters. They are intertidal in preference, and tend to form crowded columnar colonies. They can be identified in the field by having a four-plated wall, an unfused rostrum, and narrow opercular plates. Elminius, which also inhabits the same area, has four plates in its shell wall. However, in Elminius, the rostrum and rostrolatera are fused completely, and the compound rostrum receives the alae of the adjacent carinolaterals. In Chamaesipho, the unfused rostrum bears alae, and closely resembles the carina in appearance.
Goniopora columna is a species of colonial stony coral in the family Poritidae.
Lamellibrachia satsuma is a vestimentiferan tube worm that was discovered near a hydrothermal vent in Kagoshima Bay, Kagoshima at the depth of only 82 m (269 ft) the shallowest depth record for a vestimentiferan. Its symbiotic sulfur oxidizer bacteria have been characterised as ε-Proteobacteria and γ-Proteobacteria. Subspecies have been later found associated with cold seeps at Hatsushima in Sagami Bay and at the Daini Tenryu Knoll in the Nankai Trough with specimens obtained at up to 1,170 m (3,840 ft) depth.
Daikoku Seamount is a submarine volcano located in the Northern Mariana Islands, in the western Pacific Ocean. It is part of a chain of volcanoes and seamounts that includes the more known Ahyi Seamount and NW Rota-1 seamounts and is situated about 690 km (429 mi) north of the island of Saipan. Daikoku Seamount rises over 2,500 m (8,202 ft) meters from the seafloor, with its summit about 323 m (1,060 ft) below sea level. Since its discovery, the seamount has been studied by several expeditions, including expeditions made by NOAA, using various scientific tools, such as sonar mapping and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Daikoku Seamount is known for its active hydrothermal vent system, which hosts diverse communities of deep-sea organisms, including tube worms, crabs, and snails. The seamount is also one of the only volcanoes along with Nikkō Seamount to have had a partially molten sulfur lake, which is usually a feature seen on Io than on Earth.
