The discovery of the active hydrothermal vents is the first on this section of the world's longest underwater mountain range, the mid-Atlantic Ridge, in more than 40 years. One of the discovered ...

The three new hydrothermal vent fields were found as scientists were mapping an area approximately 65 square miles along the volatile Mid-Atlantic Ridge, according to the Schmidt Ocean Institute.

The vents along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge have attracted interest not only for their scientific significance, but also for commercially valuable minerals that could be extracted via deep-sea mining.

In the depths of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, underwater volcanoes spew material into the ocean water. Vents that connect underground rifts to the surface release billowing clouds of black deposits of ...