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![\"Hadal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754089209_127_maxresdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHadal Chemosynthesis-based Communities – YouTube
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Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n Ocean researchers have discovered thriving alien-like communities filled with tube worms, mollusks and spiky white creatures at the bottom of ocean trenches in the northwest Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n The discovery, by a Chinese-led research team using a submersible at depths of around 31,000 feet (9,500 meters), represents the deepest and most extensive communities of chemical-reaction-powered life-forms known to exist on Earth.<\/p>\n These bizarre creatures survive in extreme conditions. They sustain tremendous amounts of pressure in total darkness and get their energy from chemical reactions rather than from the sun. The researchers’ findings, published Wednesday (July 30) in the journal Nature<\/a>, suggest that this chemosynthetic life may be more widespread than scientists’ previously thought, according to a statement released by the journal’s publisher, Springer Nature.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Researchers used the manned submersible Fendouzhe to reach the trenches (composite image). (Image credit: Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, CAS (IDSSE, CAS))<\/p>\n The newly identified communities were in trenches in the hadal zone<\/a> \u2014 the region of the ocean below about 20,000 feet (6,000 m). Hadal trenches include some of the deepest parts of the ocean and are largely unexplored.<\/p>\n “It’s exciting \u2014 especially for a deep sea scientist \u2014 to go to a place that human beings have not explored,” Xiaotong Peng<\/a>, one of the study’s lead authors and deputy director of the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told BBC News<\/a>. “It’s a great opportunity to discover new things. And what we saw was quite amazing.”<\/p>\n Related: The Mariana Trench is home to some weird deep sea fish, and they all have the same, unique mutations<\/a><\/p>\n Sunlight doesn’t reach deep into the ocean, so life on and near the deep seafloor can’t use photosynthesis<\/a> \u2014 the process by which plants, algae and some bacteria convert sunlight into energy. Researchers have long proposed that the hadal trenches host communities powered by other chemical reactions that rely on hydrogen sulfide and methane emanating from the seafloor, but such chemosynthesis-based communities are rarely documented, according to the study.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2nYHoHwUdXDzacsENkpz8P.jpg\")
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![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/H8zVYb8wpwifPDPELZ3vx4.jpg\")
Tube-dwelling polychaetes and spots of microbial mats were filmed at the bottom of the Aleutian Trench, 6870 m deep.(Image credit: Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, CAS (IDSSE, CAS))![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/F58v8vfRtyYEtBV8KzwBkY.jpg\")
The manned Fendouzhe submersible ventured into the dark depths of the hadal zone. (Image credit: Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, CAS (IDSSE, CAS))![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/QoETtxGJq3fyevVWJaVSXS.jpg\")
The researchers found dense clusters of bivalves at a site called Clam Bed, 5743 meters deep. (Image credit: Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, CAS (IDSSE, CAS))<\/p>\n