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An Irish-headed expedition reports the discovery of a deep sea vent field almost 10,000 feet down in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Moytirra Vent Field, reported by a team led by Andy Wheeler of University College, in Cork, Ireland, rests on the mid-Atlantic ridge north of the Azores islands. Hydrothermal vents typically form deep-sea chimneys covered with minerals and release boiling waters into undersea ecosystems crawling with strange shrimp, snails and other critters. The team found the vents using a remotely-piloted sub called the the Holland I.

"On the first dive, we found the edge of the vent field within two hours of arriving on the seafloor," said Wheeler, in a statement. "The (sub) descended a seemingly bottomless underwater cliff into the abyss. We never reached the bottom, but rising up from below were these chimneys of metal sulphides belching black plumes of mineral-rich superheated water."

Moytirra means the 'Plain of the Pillars', in Gaelic, the name of a battlefield in Irish myth. The field's tallest chimney stands more than 32 feet tall , and is named "Balor" after a mythological giant.

The investigation was supported by the Irish government and the National Geographic Society, for a 2012 National Geographic Channel series, "Alien Deep".
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