The Mid-Atlantic Ridge hosts vent communities along a spreading seam
Where tectonic plates pull apart beneath the Atlantic, magma and circulating seawater create chains of hydrothermal habitat along the ridge crest.
Unique shrimp, mussels, and microbial mats colonize each active field, often genetically distinct from Pacific cousins separated by continents of seafloor.
A mountain range underwater is also a biological highway. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge stitches vent life across an ocean that never sees the sun.
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