Thursday, February 26, 2009

Weird new life beneath a Great Lake

Far beneath Lake Huron, one of North America's largest freshwater lakes, mineral-laden water gushing from ancient rock layers is supporting floating purple mats of cyanobacteria. This is the kind of ecosystem seen around hydrothermal vents and other geological anomalies on the seafloor. Finding it here was a stunner, and the implications will take a long time to fully investigate and understand.

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