[Rockhounds] There's a 'Lost City' Deep in The Ocean, And It's Unlike Anything We've Ever Seen

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Close to the summit of an underwater mountain west of the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge, a jagged landscape of towers rises from the gloom.

Their creamy carbonate walls and columns appear ghostly blue in the light
of a remotely operated vehicle sent to explore.

They range in height from tiny stacks the size of toadstools to a grand
monolith
<https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/lost-city-pumps-life-essential-chemicals-at-rates-unseen-at-typical-black-smokers/>
standing
60 meters (nearly 200 feet) tall. This is the Lost City.

Discovered by scientists in 2000, more than 700 meters (2,300 feet) beneath
the surface, the Lost City Hydrothermal Field is the longest-lived venting
environment known in the ocean. Nothing else like it has ever been found.

For at least 120,000 years and maybe longer, the upthrusting mantle in this
part of the world has reacted with seawater to puff hydrogen, methane, and
other dissolved gases out into the ocean.

https://www.sciencealert.com/theres-a-lost-city-deep-in-the-ocean-and-its-unlike-anything-weve-ever-seen