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It was a world independent of sunlight, oxygen, or anything else normally associated with life. This was a living system based not on photosynthesis but on chemosynthesis, an arrangement that biologists would have dismissed as preposterous had anyone been imaginative enough to suggest it.
那个世界独立于阳光、氧气和其他通常与生命有关的任何东西。这种生命体系的基础不是光合作用，而是化学合成。要是哪个想像力丰富的人提出这种安排，生物学家们肯定会认为是很荒谬的。
Huge amounts of heat and energy flow from these vents. Two dozen of them together will produce as much energy as a large power station, and the range of temperatures around them is enormous. The temperature at the point of outflow can be as much as 760 degrees Fahrenheit, while a few feet away the water may be only two or three degrees above freezing. A type of worm called an alvinellid was found living right on the margins, with the water temperature 140 degrees warmer at its head than at its tail. Before this it had been thought that no complex organisms could survive in water warmer than about 130 degrees, and here was one that was surviving warmer temperatures than that and extreme cold to boot. The discovery transformed our understanding of the requirements for life.
喷气孔释放出大量的热量和能量。20来个这类喷气孔产生的能量相当于一家大型发电厂；周围温度的变化幅度也很大。喷口的温度可达400摄氏度，而两米外的水温也许只有零上二三摄氏度。他们发现有一种名叫“阿尔文虫”的软体虫就生活在边缘地带，头部的水温比尾部的水温要高出78摄氏度。此前大家认为，复杂的生物无法在54摄氏度以上的水里存活，而这里却有一种软体虫，它们能同时生活在高于那个温度的与极冷的水里。这一发现改变了我们对生命需求的认识。
It also answered one of the great puzzles of oceanography—something that many of us didn't realize was a puzzle—namely, why the oceans don't grow saltier with time. At the risk of stating the obvious, there is a lot of salt in the sea—enough to bury every bit of land on the planet to a depth of about five hundred feet.
它还回答了海洋学的一大难题——许多人不了解的问题，就是一个难题——即，海洋为什么不是越来越咸。有一点是显而易见的，我也不怕说一说：大海里有许多盐——多得能把本星球的每一小块陆地埋起来，埋到大约150米深。
