Hercules captured this image of a deep-sea jelly fish, possibly Poralia rufescens, undulating several meters above the seafloor just south of the IMAX vent at Lost City.

Hercules captured this image of a deep-sea jelly fish, possibly Poralia rufescens, undulating several meters above the seafloor just south of the IMAX vent at Lost City.

Hercules captured this image of a deep-sea jelly fish, possibly Poralia rufescens, undulating several meters above the seafloor just south of the IMAX vent at Lost City.

Hercules captured this image of a deep-sea jelly fish, possibly Poralia rufescens, undulating several meters above the seafloor just south of the IMAX vent at Lost City.

A solitary urchin. This urchin looks very similar to the urchins seen in image expl1825 .

A solitary urchin. This urchin looks very similar to the urchins seen in image expl1825 .

Hercules sampling arm preparing to sample rocks on the Western Massif of the Atlantis Fracture Zone.

A large pencil urchin and gray corals which blend in with the underlying rock color.

A closeup of the large pencil urchin seen in image expl2258.

Red polyps of an octocoral having a white exoskeleton.

Red polyps of an octocoral having a white exoskeleton. Note the crushed and crumbled remains of other corals. Oftentimes this is the result of deepsea commercial fishing dredging.

Whitish-gray corals blending in with the underlying rock.

The contact point between the base of a carbonate tower and the underlying rock. Numerous white squiggles are possibly small tube worms. The white balls could be either some form of animal life or perhaps some type of mineral precipitate. See expl2263.

On closer inspection, the small white dots have holes in their ends. Possibly these are small tube worms. See expl2262.

Corals and a galatheid crab on a rock outcrop.

A galatheid crab protecting its territory from the manipulator arm of the Hercules ROV.

A lone white starfish and other biota on a black rock outcrop.

What appears to be a lone black jellyfish is silhouetted against the white antlers of the Nature Pinnacle.

What appears to be a lone black jellyfish is silhouetted against the white antlers of the Nature Pinnacle.

What appears to be a lone black jellyfish is silhouetted against the white antlers of the Nature Pinnacle.

Ghost-like bioluminescent siphonophores drift far above the Hercules ROV. The photograph was taken from the Argus vehicle. Hercules is attached by a 30-meter umbilical to Argus.

Ghost-like bioluminescent siphonophores drift far above the Hercules ROV. The photograph was taken from the Argus vehicle. Hercules is attached by a 30-meter umbilical to Argus.

Ghost-like bioluminescent siphonophores drift far above the Hercules ROV. The photograph was taken from the Argus vehicle. Hercules is attached by a 30-meter umbilical to Argus.

Ghost-like bioluminescent siphonophores drift far above the Hercules ROV. The photograph was taken from the Argus vehicle. Hercules is attached by a 30-meter umbilical to Argus.

Ghost-like bioluminescent siphonophores drift far above the Hercules ROV. The photograph was taken from the Argus vehicle. Hercules is attached by a 30-meter umbilical to Argus.

Ghost-like bioluminescent siphonophores drift far above the Hercules ROV. The photograph was taken from the Argus vehicle. Hercules is attached by a 30-meter umbilical to Argus.

Ghost-like bioluminescent siphonophores drift far above the Hercules ROV. The photograph was taken from the Argus vehicle. Hercules is attached by a 30-meter umbilical to Argus.

Ghost-like bioluminescent siphonophores drift far above the Hercules ROV. The photograph was taken from the Argus vehicle. Hercules is attached by a 30-meter umbilical to Argus.

The lights from the Hercules ROV are seen 30-meters away as the ROV is maneueved in the vicinity of a rock outcrop.

The lights from the Hercules ROV are seen 30-meters away as the ROV is maneueved in the vicinity of a rock outcrop.

The Hercules ROV is being maneuvered in the vicinity of the Lost City vent field. Ghostly spires are seen to the left and up from the ROV.

The Hercules ROV is being maneuvered in the vicinity of rock outcrops.

The Hercules ROV is being maneuvered in the vicinity of the carbonate rock spires of the Lost City vent field.

The Hercules ROV is being maneuvered in the vicinity of the carbonate rock spires of the Lost City vent field.

The Argus ROV, mother ship of the Hercules ROV.

A lone bioluminescent jellyfish seen in the inky blackness of the abyss. To the left of the jellyfish can be seen what appears to be a siphonophore at the edge of visibility.

The manipulator arm of the Hercules ROV sampling rocks in the vicinity of the Atlantis Fracture Zone.

Iron plates on the seafloor in hte vicinity of the Lost City vent field. These probably once tethered markers that helped earlier scientific parties orient their ROV's in the vent field.

Gas-tight water sampling bottle attached to manipulator arm of Hercules ROV. This instrument was used to contain fluids sampled at vent sites.

Diagram of communication system used during Lost City Expedition. This was the first NOAA expedition to use telepresence technology to transmit data to scientists at remote sites for observation, identification, and partaking in expedition decision-making process.

A tube core (8 cm diameter) collected from a Thioploca bacterial mat in the Peru-Chile OMZ. The mat, approximately 1 cm thick (0.4 in) thick, consists of many individual filaments of giant bacteria. Each filament extends into the sediment and the water, sources of sulfide and nitrate, respectively.

Extensive beds of siboglinid polychaetes provide a habitat for many animals. These siboglinids have lost both their mouth and anus and live off of energy which symbiotic bacteria provide.

This picture illustrates four common types of hard substrate at seeps: clams (white and black shells; Solemyidae: Acharax sp.), mussels (brown shells; Mytilidae: Bathymodiolus sp.); vestimentiferan tube worms (Lamellibrachia sp.); and carbonate rocks, precipitated by methanotrophic archaea.

Bathymodiolid mussels and vestimentiferan tube worms, collected from a methane seep off the coast of Costa Rica, provide habitat for many associated species including the gastropods seen in this picture. Many large limpets live on the tubes and shells, where they graze on bacteria and other microbes.

Incredible diversity lies in small animals which live in and on the sediment.

This Frenulate, now known to be within the family Siboglinidae and a type of polychaete, was collected of New Zealand at 1140m (3420 ft) and was originally assigned to its own phylum. Through genetic techniques and delicate morphologic study, scientists now know that it is in the same family as those polychaetes in figure expl2291.

Bands of glowing magma, about 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, are exposed as a pillow lava tube extrudes down slope. This image is approximately three feet across in an eruptive area approximately the length of a football field that runs along the summit.

An explosion near the summit of West Mata volcano throws ash and rock, and molten lava glows below. This image is approximately six feet across in an eruptive area approximately the length of a football field that runs along the summit.

An area on the summit of the West Mata Volcano erupts. At the bottom of the image is magma flowing down the slope of the volcano.

An eruption near the summit of the West Mata Volcano. The blast is in the top left portion of the image, and broken rock can be seen in the plume. The three red lines below the blast are bands of superheated lava flowing down the volcano's slope.