A team of researchers including Jill McDermott, chemical oceanographer and faculty member in Lehigh University's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, discovered the off-axis hydrothermal field, named YBW-Sentry, in the area of the global mid-ocean ridge known as the East Pacific Rise. The study area is about 200 miles off the coast of western Mexico. The new vent site covers an area equivalent to a football field, roughly twice the size of the nearest active hydrothermal vents in the region. The chimneys resemble candelabras that are the height of a three-story building. The findings have been published today in an article titled "Discovery of Active Off-Axis Hydrothermal Vents at 9° 54'N East Pacific Rise," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are found around the world, most often in volcanically active locations along the crest of the global mid-ocean ridge system. Magmatic activity, driven by upwellings of heat in Earth's mantle, causes the brittle tectonic plates that make up Earth's outer shell, or crust, to split. As the plates spread, new seafloor rock is formed by magmatic activity and volcanic eruptions. This magmatic and tectonic activity creates cracks through which sea water percolates in crustal rocks. Much like hot springs on land, hydrothermal vents spout mineral-rich liquid that has been heated beneath the seafloor.