Study finds direct links between old carbon, graphite, and seafloor hydrothermal vents

Researchers at the University of Delaware have shown for the first time that the old carbon found on the seafloor can be directly linked to submicron graphite particles emanating from hydrothermal vents. To conduct their study, the researchers used samples of nanoparticles from five different hydrothermal vent sites collected during a research expedition to the East Pacific Rise vent field in the Pacific Ocean. Then the researchers analyzed the samples under scanning and transmission microscopes at the National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth) at Virginia Tech.