© MSU's Big Sky InstitutePhil Doepke, left, and Leif Christofferson prepare to launch a Remotely Operated Vehicle into Yellowstone Lake for an MSU study. Doepke is a National Park Service employee. Christofferson is the biodiversity manager for the Diversa Corporation
A colony of moss, worms and various forms of shrimp flourishes in an area where the water is inky black, about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and a cauldron of nutrients, gases and poisons, the researchers reported in the September issue of Geobiology.
The vent is close to 100 feet below the surface of Yellowstone Lake and a third of a mile offshore in the West Thumb region. The worms and shrimp live among approximately two feet of moss that encircles the vent.
"This particular vent seemed unique relative to all other active vents thus far observed in the lake in that it is robustly colonized by plants," the researchers wrote.
