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Just wondering,
Chris Lizewski

Hi Chris:

We essentially have a mini-power plant on board Knorr. We have four diesel engines, each of which has a generator attached. The engines turn the shaft of the generator and create alternating current (AC).

Thanks for writing!
Susan Humphris

Hey,
My name is Emily and I go to Nantucket High School. I have a question regarding the hairy snails you found at the hydrothermal vents.

You said that they were similar, and could be related to snails in the Western Pacific Ocean. Do you think they could be distant relatives, separated by the continental drifting of Pangea? And then changed slightly through evolution, etc? Do you think they are ancient enough for that to be possible? And one more question -- are there any pictures of them on the web site? That’s pretty interesting. I’ve never seen a hairy snail before.

Thanks a lot,
Emily Hall

Hi Emily:
Thanks for the great question. We are curious about the exact same things you wrote about. It is certainly possible that the hairy snail populations in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific have been separated long enough to have evolved or changed slightly. This could be a consequence of isolated breeding populations, as well as a difference in environments.

They are not old enough to have been affected by the break up of Pangea. However, you are definitely on the right track when you consider what other types of plate tectonic motion or barriers could have come between them within the past 200 million years or so.

Check out the 9 April Daily Update for a picture of one!

Thanks for writing to us.
Shana Goffredi

My class was doing some research on the animals that live in the smokers. Some of my friends and I were wondering how a shrimp could eat something bigger than itself. We read that the shrimp eats clams and some other hard shell animals. Does it wait till the animal is dead or does it kill and then eat it?

A woman from Corvallis, Oregon
Kaya

Hi Kaya:

Shrimp are typically scavengers, meaning they eat things that are dead. Just like vultures eat a dead zebra on the plains of Africa, most shrimp eat dead and dying organisms, including mussels and other shrimp.

On this trip, we used dead squid as bait in traps to attract the shrimp. Certain species, like the ones swarming on the black smokers, eat bacteria that grow on the sides of the chimneys, as well as on the shrimp’s body- sort of like farming their own bacteria.

Thanks for the question!
Tim Shank