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We're finding more of these strange hot springs every year.
每年我们都会发现更多这种奇异的热泉。
In some places, they can be astonishingly violent.
在某些地方，热泉的剧烈程度相当惊人。
Super-heated water -- hot enough to melt lead -- spouts from the seafloor.
足以融化铅的过热水，从海底喷涌而出。
Dissolved minerals condense around them to form towering chimneys, known as hydrothermal vents.
溶解的矿物质在热泉周围凝结形成高耸的烟囱状，被称为深海热液喷口。
They are home to unique communities of animals that all rely on the nutrients in the scalding water.
深海热液喷口是独特动物群落的家园，这些动物依靠滚烫的水中的营养物质生存。
Some suggest that vents like these could be the places where life on Earth first began four billion years ago.
有观点认为四十亿年前，生命正是起源于类似这样的喷口。
And there is now evidence of hydrothermal vents on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
如今有证据表明，木星和土星的卫星上同样存在热液喷口。
Could they too be supporting life?
它们也能孕育生命吗？
Here on Earth, the influence of these vents extends far beyond their chimneys.
在地球上，这些喷口的影响范围远远不止于烟囱周围。
The essential nutrients carried in these plumes can rise all the way to the surface two miles above.
烟雾中携带的基本营养物质可以一直上升至三公里之上的海平面。
Here, they stimulate the rapid growth of tiny marine plants on an astronomic scale.
在这里，它们能极大的促进微小海洋植物的生长。
This phytoplankton is so abundant that it produces half of all the oxygen on Earth.
大量的浮游植物产生了地球上一半的氧气。
It's also food for a host of minute animals -- zooplankton.
浮游植物同时也是许多微小动物的食物，也就是浮游动物。
Together, they are the basis of the food chains that sustain nearly all life in the ocean.
它们共同构成了海洋中几乎所有生命的食物链基础。
In the Pacific waters off South America, they feed anchovy that gather here in billions.
在南美洲附近的太平洋海域，它们是聚集在这里的数十亿条凤尾鱼的食物来源。
This is one of the world's most productive ecosystems.
这是世界上生产力最高的生态系统之一。
