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Deep-sea Takeout

Tevnia jerichonana tubeworms sprout from a “sandwich”—an artificial colonization surface made of non-toxic plastic. This sandwich was recovered from the seafloor after spending 11 months in a hydrothermal vent habitat along the East Pacific Rise by biologists in the human-occupied submersible Alvin. The experiment was designed to examine the influence of larval supply on the colonization of new vents following a seafloor eruption that occurred in 2005-2006. (Photo by Lauren Mullineaux, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)