Some seafloor microbes can take the heat: And here's what they eat

WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- It's cold in the depths of the world's oceans; most of the seafloor is at a chilly 4°C. Not so the seafloor of Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California. Here, tectonic plates drift apart and heat from Earth's interior can rise up -- so far up that it bakes large areas of the seafloor sediments, turning buried organic matter into methane and other energy-rich compounds.

What kinds of organisms thrive in this oceanic hotspot? In two new studies, MBL Assistant Scientist END