Mega Plumes. In 1986 a small fishing vessel arrived off the Juan de Fuca ridge in the north Pacific and discovered a deep-sea hydrothermal system unlike anything ever seen. The phenomenon was a mega plume, an enormous buoyant balloon of hot water floating in the deep sea.
Quentin Cooper is joined by marine geologist Dr Bramley Murton and marine ecologist Dr John Copley to discuss the cause of these hydrothermal phenomena and the influence they may impress on the oceans and their flora and fauna. Producer Colin Grant