Rosa Rubicondior: Refuting Creationism - Why Would a Creator Create Life Around Hydrothermal Vents?

Discovery in the Deep Sea: Unique Habitat at Hydrothermal Vents

Here is something for creationists to run away from: why would a creator god who supposedly made the entire universe as a place for humans – especially American humans – to live, and arranged everything else for their benefit, create creatures in an environment so hostile that no human could survive there without specialised modern equipment? And how exactly did Noah collect two of each of the countless species that live there in great profusion, only to place them on the Ark and somehow maintain the extreme conditions they require?

The simple answer, as underscored by these discoveries, is that the whole tale is a childish fairy story. The organisms inhabiting the extreme conditions of deep-ocean trenches evolved to live there over millions of years, entirely independent of any usefulness to humans, whose existence is of supreme indifference to them.

The conditions described come from an open-access paper in Scientific Reports by an international team of oceanographers and marine biologists led by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany. They detail a unique environment 1,300 metres below the surface on a flank of Conical Seamount in the western Pacific, off Lihir Island in Papua New Guinea. What makes it unique is not simply that it is a hydrothermal vent, but that it is coupled with a cold methane seep from deep sediment layers. Hot, mineral-rich water and cold, hydrocarbon-rich methane gas rise along the same pathways, producing vent fluids filled with bubbles of cold methane.

The result is a unique ecosystem comprising dense fields of the mussel Bathymodiolus, along with tube worms, shrimp, amphipods, and striking purple sea cucumbers coating the rocks so completely that the underlying surfaces are entirely concealed.

Before methane-producing sediments accumulated, the hydrothermal fluids were even hotter, leaving behind tell-tale deposits of gold and silver, as well as antimony, mercury, and arsenic. The various lifeforms have adapted to thrive amid these chemicals, some of which are highly toxic.

Hydrothermal vents are among the most extraordinary environments on Earth — geochemical oases on the seafloor where life thrives without sunlight, fuelled instead by chemical energy. They overturn several once-assumed “rules” of biology and offer important clues about evolution, extremophiles, and possibly even the origins of life.~

What Are Hydrothermal Vents?
Hydrothermal vents are fissures on the seafloor where seawater, drawn down into the crust through cracks and faults, becomes superheated by underlying magma. This hot, mineral-rich fluid then ascends back into the ocean, emerging as jets or diffuse flows.

Two main types exist:

Black smokers - Emit dark, particle-rich plumes containing metal sulphides (iron, copper, zinc). Temperatures often exceed 350°C.
White smokers - Cooler (usually 200–300°C) and emit lighter-coloured fluids rich in barium, calcium, and silicon.

Despite the extreme heat, **the surrounding water remains liquid** because of the crushing pressure several kilometres down, which prevents boiling.

How They Form

Cold seawater percolates into cracks in the oceanic crust.
The water heats up, dissolving minerals from the surrounding rock.
Under enormous pressure, the fluid becomes buoyant and rises.
On returning to the seafloor, the minerals **precipitate** out as the fluids mix with cold seawater, building **chimneys** of metal sulphides.
These chimneys can grow several metres tall and continually reshape themselves, forming transient “cities” of mineral towers.

The Biology: Life Without Sunlight

Hydrothermal vents host unique ecosystems powered by **chemosynthesis**, not photosynthesis.

Chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea oxidise hydrogen sulphide, methane, or hydrogen to produce energy.
These microbes form the base of the food web, either living free in mats or forming symbiotic relationships with animals.

Notable vent organisms include:

Giant tube worms (Riftia pachyptila) - Possess no mouth or gut; rely entirely on internal symbiotic bacteria.
Vent mussels (Bathymodiolus spp.) - Host methane- or sulphide-oxidising bacteria in their gills.
Vent shrimp (e.g., Rimicaris spp.) - Often nearly blind, clustering in tens of thousands.
Pompeii worms - Among the world’s most heat-tolerant animals.

These species are typically **endemic**, occurring nowhere else on Earth, and are highly specialised for their extreme environments.

Environmental Extremes

Hydrothermal vents involve conditions that would kill most life instantly:

Temperature gradients from near-freezing water to >350°C within centimetres.
High pressure (e.g., 250–400 atmospheres at 2.5–4 km depth).
Toxic chemicals including hydrogen sulphide, methane, heavy metals, and arsenic.
Complete darkness; vision is often redundant.
Low oxygen environments where microbes and animals rely on biochemical adaptations to detoxify sulphides.

Many vent animals have remarkable physiological systems, such as:

Specialised haemoglobins that bind sulphide without being poisoned.
Symbiotic organs (bacteriocytes) to house chemosynthetic microbes.
Heat shock proteins and membrane adaptations for extreme temperature changes.

Geological and Evolutionary Significance

Hydrothermal vents are important for several reasons:

Rapid speciation and high endemism - Isolated vent fields act like islands.
Insights into Earth’s chemistry - Vents contribute to ocean chemistry and are part of global geochemical cycles.
Origins of life hypotheses - Alkaline vents, with their natural proton gradients and catalytic minerals, are leading contenders for where early metabolism may have first evolved.
Astrobiology - Vents on Europa or Enceladus could host similar chemotrophic life.

Why They’re a Problem for Creationism

Hydrothermal vents are a powerful counterexample to any notion of a world created exclusively for humans’ benefit.

These ecosystems:

Exist in places utterly **inaccessible and lethal to humans** without heavy technology.
Contain **vast biodiversity** that has no relevance to humans.
Follow **evolutionary patterns** of adaptation, divergence, and endemism.
Could not plausibly have been “collected” by Noah, nor survive outside their extreme habitat.

They perfectly illustrate evolution’s capacity to shape life to any available niche, independently of human concerns.

The team summarise their discovery in a GEOMAR news release.

Discovery in the Deep Sea: Unique Habitat at Hydrothermal Vents
Novel hydrothermal system links two seabed phenomena

19 September 2025 / Kiel. An international research team led by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel has discovered a globally unique system on the seabed off the coast of Papua New Guinea. During their expedition aboard the research vessel SONNE, they came across the “Karambusel” field, where hydrothermal vents and methane seeps occur immediately adjacent to one another. The discovery is significant not only for geology but also provides new insights into the development of deep-sea communities. The study describing the discovery is published today in the journal Scientific Reports.
Off the coast of Papua New Guinea, researchers discovered a novel type of hydrothermal field where two processes occur simultaneously: the release of hot hydrothermal fluids and unusually high amounts of methane and other hydrocarbons. This combination makes the system unique worldwide. It lies at a depth of around 1,300 metres on a flank of Conical Seamount in the western Pacific, off the island of Lihir in Papua New Guinea. A study presenting the discovery was published today in Scientific Reports.

ROV delivers the surprise
.
We essentially have a hot vent bubbling right next to a cool gas seep – a combination that has never been described before. No one really expected to find a hydrothermal field here, let alone one that is so exceptional.

Dr Philipp A Brandl, first author
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
Kiel, Germany.

[Dr Brandl] served as chief scientist on the SONNE expedition SO299 DYNAMET, which explored the Tabar–Lihir–Tanga–Feni island chain in 2023 to study the region’s underwater volcanoes (seamounts).

Although previous expeditions had indicated minor hydrothermal activity, the field remained undetected during several research cruises. It was only through the use of the ROV Kiel 6000 that the peculiarities of this underwater landscape were revealed.

It was a real surprise, especially for those of us who had worked in this area multiple times.

Dr Philipp A Brandl.

A hybrid system of hot and cool vents
Hydrothermal vents and methane seeps usually occur in different places on the seabed. In this case, however, they are in close proximity is due to the unique geology of Conical Seamount, where thick sediment layers containing organic material lie beneath the volcanic structure. Ascending magma heats these layers, generating methane and other hydrocarbons. At the same time, this magmatic heat also drives mineral-rich fluids upwards, where they emerge as hot vents at the seabed.

Both fluids – the hot water from depth and the cooler, methane-rich gases from the sediments – travel along the same pathways to the surface. Consequently, hot fluid and cold gas bubble up from the seabed just a few centimetres apart.

A habitat unlike any other
This direct neighbourhood creates an entirely new hybrid environment, providing a habitat for an extremely diverse range of animals. Dense fields of the mussel Bathymodiolus, tube worms, shrimp, amphipods, and striking purple sea cucumbers cover the rocks.

In places, you couldn’t see a single patch of rock because everything is so densely populated. We are confident that some of the species there have not yet been described. However, a dedicated expedition would be needed to fully study this unique habitat.

Dr Philipp A Brandl.

Due to the abundance of mussels, the scientists, along with local observer Stanis Konabe from the University of Papua New Guinea, named the field ‘Karambusel’. In the local Tok Pisin language, this means ‘mussel’.

Traces of precious metals in the rock

The unusual gas composition at the Karambusel field influences both the communities of life and the geological features. The methane emitted is highly concentrated, exceeding 80 per cent, while hot fluids rise from the magma simultaneously, creating unique chemical conditions in the subsurface. Metals such as gold and silver, together with elements such as arsenic, antimony, and mercury, are deposited in the rock. Thus, the area bears the marks of an earlier, high-temperature phase involving precious metals, alongside present-day, cooler activity.

Threats from human activity

Despite its unique geology and biology, this site is under threat. Mining is already taking place in the region, for example, at the Ladolam gold mine on Lihir, where waste and residues are discharged into the sea. Exploration licences for minerals and hydrocarbons on the seabed also exist. This endangers the fragile habitat and its highly specialised fauna.

The researchers are therefore calling for urgent further study, targeted marine spatial planning, and effective protection measures to preserve this extraordinary ecosystem.
We have discovered an unexpected treasure trove of biodiversity in the Karambusel field that needs to be protected before economic interests destroy it.

Dr Philipp A Brandl.

Publication:
Brandl, P.A., Sander, S.G., Beier, C. et al.
Coupled hydrothermal venting and hydrocarbon seepage discovered at Conical Seamount, Papua New Guinea.
Sci Rep 15, 32389 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-17192-x

Abstract
During research expedition SO299 with the German RV Sonne, we discovered the first deep-sea hydrothermal vent system along the Tabar-Lihir-Tanga-Feni island chain in northeastern Papua New Guinea. The Karambusel vent field is hosted by a volcanic center on the western flank of Conical Seamount that formed ~ 89 ka ago. Karambusel is remarkable in that it hosts both a fossil high-temperature, gold-rich mineralization and an active low-temperature (< 51 °C) vent system precipitating arsenic-, antimony-, thallium-, and mercury-rich sulfide minerals. Chemosymbiotic fauna is associated with the vent system and we identified more endemic species than in previous studies on nearby seeps. Our study shows that the magmatic event at Karambusel likely triggered the epithermal mineralization at Karambusel and at the central summit of Conical Seamount. The current hydrothermal fluids originate from condensed magmatic vapor or connate fluids. Gas bubbles were observed at some vent sites and the proportion of methane in the gas phase exceeds that of any other hydrothermal vent system. The composition of the light hydrocarbons points towards a thermogenic origin. Karambusel is thus the first hybrid magmatic-hydrothermal vent and hydrocarbon seep system discovered globally which explains the highly endemic vent fauna as a consequence of the unique ecological niche.

Introduction
The ~ 250 km-long Tabar-Lihir-Tanga-Feni (TLTF) island chain in northeastern Papua New Guinea (Fig. 1) is a hot spot for oceanographers, biologists, geologists, and the mining industry. Its individual islands represent the emerged portions of volcanic complexes that formed on structural highs within the New Ireland Basin¹. The basin started to form in a forearc setting in the late Eocene some 40 Ma ago and since then accumulated up to 6 km of volcaniclastic and carbonate sediments e.g.,^1,2. Today, the basin is undergoing extension in NW-SE direction and compression in NE-SW direction. Crustal thinning triggered alkaline magmatism 3.6 Ma ago and volcanism is decreasing in age towards New Ireland¹.

Some volcanic systems in the TLTF island chain are host to porphyry and epithermal gold mineralization including the active mines at Simberi in the Tabar island group and Ladolam (Luise volcano) on the island of Lihir (Niolam), and the Conical Seamount, ~ 20 km to the south e.g.,^1,3 (Fig. 1). Ladolam is exceptional in being the world’s largest alkalic low-sulfidation epithermal Au deposit in terms of total contained Au (50 Moz or > 1,400 t)⁴. No signs of recent hydrothermal activity were observed at Conical Seamount during research expeditions SO94 (1994), SO133 (1998) and SO166 (2002) with the German RV Sonne, and FR04/00 (2000) with the Australian RV Franklin. Chemosymbiotic fauna was observed, collected, and described at two other localities in the TLTF chain that are < 10 km east of Conical Seamount and are less than one kilometer apart from each other: Edison Seamount and the so-called Mussel Cliff (Fig. 1A). The fauna collected from these two localities e.g.,^5,6,7 shows little taxonomic connectivity to other vent systems in the western Pacific⁸. This contrasts with the hydrothermal vent fauna of the nearby Manus backarc basin (part of the ‘Bismarck Sea’; Fig. 1) that acts as a network hub for the western Pacific vent fauna⁸. In addition, no active deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites were previously known from the TLTF island chain. The presence of chemosymbiotic fauna was interpreted to result from widespread diffuse hydrothermal flow at the volcanic Edison Seamount⁹. Strong methane (CH₄) water column anomalies (0.5–10 µL L⁻¹), with highly negative carbon isotopic compositions (δ¹³C < -50‰) of hydrocarbons and the presence of authigenic carbonate minerals led to the conclusion that Mussel Cliff is an active cold seep¹⁰. In this study, we report the discovery of the first active deep-sea hydrothermal vent field in the TLTF island chain. Seafloor footage, samples, and data were collected during SO299 DYNAMET (geoDYNAmics & METallogeny) with the German RV Sonne in June-July 2023 using the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Kiel 6000. The newly discovered Karambusel vent field represents a unique site combining features of hydrothermal venting and hydrocarbon seepage at a single locality. The site records a multi-stage mineralization history and is characterized by the simultaneous expulsion of warm hydrothermal fluids (max. 51 °C) and cooler (< 20 °C) hydrocarbon-rich fluids and gases of thermogenic origin. The vent field is situated at the top of a younger volcanic edifice that erupted at the western flank of the 287 ka-old¹ Conical Seamount. The seamount formed on top of a 3–4 km (locally exceeding 6 km) thick sequence of volcaniclastic and carbonaceous sediments that accumulated in the basin since the Eocene^1,2. Thus, multiple host rock lithologies may influence the fluid and gas compositions and as such, the vent field and associated mineralization combine features of different types of ore deposits (epithermal, hydrothermal, and sediment-hosted). Our new findings of vent specific fauna creates additional links to other western Pacific vent systems and therefore may limit the high level of system endemism recently suggested for this area⁸. Fig. 1

Fig.1

Bathymetric maps of the sites investigated. The small map at the top illustrates the locality of Lihir island (arrow) within the TLTF island chain in Papua New Guinea (PNG). (A) Overview map of the study area with the southern part of Lihir Island including the Luise (hosting the Ladolam Au mine) and Kinami volcanic complexes and the offshore South Lihir Volcanic Field; Note the faults around Conical Seamount and the anticline SE of Edison Seamount. The approximate position of profile shown in Fig. 8 is illustrated by the black dashed line. The blue dashed line depicts the axis of the seismically imaged anticline. (B) Map of Edison Seamount and Mussel Cliff and (C) Conical Seamount along with SO299 stations, ROV tracks, observations and measurements. (D) Close-up of the Karambusel vent field. Maps created with QGIS 3.34 LTR using bathymetric data of RV Sonne expeditions SO94, SO133, SO166 and SO299, and ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003 topographic data (NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team).

Fig. 2.

Representative ROV images of the Karambusel vent field. (A) Focused fluid and gas discharge (between samples 026_ROV-07 and -08). (B) Juxtaposition of a 41.9 °C warm fluid vent (no gas) and a cooler fluid vent with gas bubbles (10.2 °C) (081_ROV-13); Note the absence of fauna in direct vicinity of the vents. (C) Shimmering warm fluids (51 °C) discharging from a focused vent site. Note the abundant tube worms, shrimps and crabs close to the vent, Bathymodiolus mussels in proximal and stalked barnacles in distal position to the site (157_ROV-10). (D) Patches of white microbial (Beggiatoa gen. inc.) mats and dispersed tube worms Paraescarpia echinospica sp. inc. within volcanic rocks stained with iron oxyhydroxide minerals (081_ROV-19).

Fig. 3.

Petrology and geochemistry of unaltered volcanic whole rock samples (loss on ignition < 3 wt%). (A) Polarized plain light microphotograph of sample 157_ROV-17 from Karambusel: amph – amphibole, cpx – clinopyroxene, ox – oxide, phlg – phlogopite, plag – plagioclase. (B) Geochemical data of unaltered lavas from Conical, the nearby Edison and Tubaf seamounts^11,12,13,14 (Fig. 1) and the Karambusel eruptive center in the total alkali versus silica diagram¹⁵ and in (C) ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb versus ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb. Lead isotope data of Karambusel (lava) from this study and all other data from Kamenev et al.¹². NHRL – Northern Hemisphere Reference Line after Hart¹⁶.

Fig. 4.

Specimen and reflected light microscopic images of the Au-rich polymetallic breccia. (A) Polymetallic breccia with pyrite/marcasite (px/mrc) bearing mafic clast embedded in a sulfide-rich amorphous silica (a-Sil) matrix overprinted by orpiment (or). (B) Dendritic intergrowth of sphalerite (spp), chalcopyrite (cpy), and galena (gnu). (C) 20 μm sized electrum associated with tennantite-tetrahedrite (ttn-ttr), sphalerite, orpiment, and amorphous silica.

Fig. 6.

Hydrocarbon gas composition plotted in a modified Bernard diagram (C₁/(C₂ + C₃) vs. δ¹³C_C1 in ‰ V-PDB)⁴¹ indicates a thermogenic hydrocarbon source. The data plots along a mixing line (dashed line) of thermogenic and microbially derived methane (10% increments if not labelled otherwise). Endmembers are a headspace sample extracted from a pushcore containing residual CH₄ hydrates within the Karambusel vent field (SO299 157_ROV-16) and from a Niskin bottle collected at a ~ 30 °C warm vent at the southern flank of Karambusel (SO299 026_ROV-nis2), and a seep sample from the Guaymas Basin (SO241 047_GC-700)³⁹. Note that for Mussel Cliff only samples from below the sulphate-methane transition zone (i.e., where CH₄ is least affected by microbial processes) are included.

Fig. 7.

Chemosymbiotic faunal communities of the Karambusel vent field (A-D), Mussel Cliff (E, F), and Edison Seamount (G, H). Karambusel: (A) focused, warm vent (~ 29 °C) with dense populations of syboglinids, Bathymodiolus mussels and Shinkaia crabs, (B) Shinkaia crabs, Alvinocarididae shrimps, Bathymodiolus mussels, gastropods (Phymorhynchus and Paralepetopsis), (C) Microbial mats on altered volcanic rocks with Lamellibrachia curly tube worms, Paralepetopsis limpets and Archinome hairy worms, (D) microbial mats on sediment with Desbruyeresia gastropods. Mussel Cliff: (E) Dense population of Bathymodiolus mussels on carbonate crust; Associated fauna are Munidopsis squat lobsters, Paraescarpia tube worms, Paralepetopsis limpets), ophiuroidea fam. indet., holothuria (Chiridota); Note the dispersed Paraescarpia tube worms with clusters of Leucolepas stalked barnacles in the background; (F) Similar faunal assemblage to (E) but occurring as an isolated patch around a small fluid outlet; Sabellidae feather duster worms are surrounding the Bathymodiolus population. Edison Seamount: (G) dense cluster of Calyptogena gen. inc. vesicomyid clams on volcaniclastic substrate, Alvinocarididae shrimps, Munidopsis squat lobsters, Leucolepas stalked barnacles and Bathymargarites gastropods are associated, (H) Close-up of the Spionidae ‘worm carpet’ populated by Alvinocarididae shrimps.

Brandl, P.A., Sander, S.G., Beier, C. et al.
Coupled hydrothermal venting and hydrocarbon seepage discovered at Conical Seamount, Papua New Guinea.
Sci Rep 15, 32389 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-17192-x

Copyright: © 2025 The authors.
Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

Discoveries like this make it ever harder for creationists to maintain the fiction that Earth’s biodiversity was deliberately engineered for our convenience. The deep oceans remain utterly indifferent to human wishes, yet teem with life perfectly adapted to pressures, temperatures, and chemical conditions no land animal – least of all humans – could endure. These ecosystems exist because evolution exploits every available energy source, not because a designer thoughtfully prepared a planet for us.

What we see instead is a world shaped by natural processes over immense timescales, producing organisms superbly fitted to their own environments and wholly unsuited to anywhere else. Far from supporting any tale of recent, purposeful creation, the existence of such specialised life only underscores the vast age of the Earth and the power of evolution to carve out niches wherever conditions allow.

In the end, the deep-sea vents of the western Pacific tell a story that is both richer and far more awe-inspiring than any Bronze Age mythology: a planet where life emerges, adapts, and flourishes in places we once considered impossible, unconcerned by human narratives and indifferent to our invented cosmologies. Creationists may flee from such evidence, but for anyone interested in reality, it offers yet another clear window into how nature truly works.

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