Volcanic vent system discovered in the Atlantic ocean

Interesting to learn @06.51 from a strange poster who obviously inhabits some strange plane ~ that Ireland's coast has two sides! ~ No wonder it took The National Geographic and Southampton University(both of England) to help the Irish to sort these strange bubbles out! Jolly bad luck, though, that they are just outside Irish (EZZ) waters. ~~~ Great stuff Kinvara7 ~ we feel your passion!But I have a feeling our Atlantis and Hy-Brasil ancestors are killing themselves laughing!

This is so exciting! I hope to see and read much more about this. Please, let's see more articles and photo and videos about this. Work by Irish that can make us all proud!

kinvara7 - As a former High School Biology/Chemistry teacher I want to be the first here to thank you for calling IC's attention to this exciting discovery in your post a few days ago. You only hinted at what had happened but I immediately searched "Ireland," "Atlantic" and "Discovery" and came up with article after article about it. The scientific world is rightly impressed with Ireland's recent exploration and who knows the implications it will have for medicine, chemistry, genetics, energy production and a miriad of consumer interests. Ask and ye shall receive. A few days ago I heard some one say that what the world's economy needed was a discovery that would drive the engines of innovation as the American space program of the 1960's, personal computers of the 1980's and the internet more recently. Every Friday I had my science classes report on something in one of the sciences that they had found researching newpapers, the internet, TV or the books. This is just the kind of article that would have started a great class discussion about what drives us to explore and how we all benefit from the discoveries both for the pure knowledge gained as well as the applications to all fields of technology. Thanks Again! IC, lets see more Science Articles as they pull us together rather than drive us apart.

There are scientists in Ireland?

Thanks. I got a great laugh from your Captain's log joke.

kinvara7.You are not wrong.Don't apologise for the long posts.Best post I read all day.

Creakygate.Imagine that we now have Strange Pond-life bottom-feeders off both sides of the Irish coast.The Strange Pond-life bottom-feeders off the East coast are land dwellers though.

This is an area that I have a great interest in so I apologise for the long posts. While articles like 'How To Swear Like An Irish Person!' or other such daft articles get pushed to the fore, it annoys me that this story is probably going to disappear into the archive. Here is an opportunity to talk about a great success, and indeed as I have outlined, to look at all the great things being done in our marine sector, but once again Irish Central has missed it. Many on Irish Central talk about how Ireland needs inspiration and hope, and many write criticising the ability of our leaders to provide same, however, as Irish Central gives lip service about the importance of inspiration and a 'can do attitude' it seems incapable of covering the stories that would do just that.

The ocean can be a catalyst for Irish innovation. By focusing more attention on the marine sector we can develop new products and services for global markets. For example, the Marine Institute's ROV: Holland 1 (named after the Irishman who is the father of the modern submarine) contains a unique underwater lighting system being developed by the Irish company Cathx Ocean as part of a robotic “machine vision” system designed to significantly enhance image quality and to increase the autonomous function of remotely operated vehicles, thereby increasing efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Ireland’s offshore renewable energy resources have significant development potential and are considered as being among the best in the world, with the practicable wave energy resource estimated at more than 6000MW. In 2006, the Irish company Open Hydro created one of the world's first tidal energy technologies to reach the development stage of permanent deployment at sea. Furthermore, Wavebob is a leader in the design and development of environmentally sustainable wave energy systems. In 2010 it won the "Ocean Energy Technology Pioneer” Award and later funding from the ESB, Bord Gais and the US Dept. of Energy. PROVIDENCE Resources, the Irish exploration company has begun the biggest ever Oil exploration programme in Irish waters. The Polarcus vessel has completed a survey of the Barryroe area off the south coast and the information is being analysed to see if their is oil their in commercial quantities. Of course innovation is not just about energy technology or oil exploration but Aquaculture and food. A spin off company from UCC is Gourmet Marine Ltd., which created the first and only, commercial-scale, land-based system for sea urchin aquaculture; to date it has been patented in 19 countries. The industry is worth hundreds of millions of Euro annually.

The mission, led by Dr. Andy Wheeler of University College Cork, should receive more attention on Irish Central than it will. It is part of a much larger story of Ireland's marine endeavours. The discovery is the first deep-sea vent field known on the mid-Atlantic Ridge north of the Azores. This newly charted vent field has been named the Moytirra Vent Field after a battlefield in Irish mythology and appropriately means ‘Plain of the Pillars’. Indeed the largest chimney found is more than ten metres high and has been given the name Balor -the name of a giant from Irish mythology. A new frontier deep beneath the waves being named and charted by Irishmen. This follows on from Ireland's deepwater survey of its sea territories which produced a groundbreaking 3D atlas: The Atlas of the Deep Water Seabed, Ireland, charting a marine territory 10 times the land mass of Ireland; in effect the real map of Ireland. An important part to unlocking Ireland's 220 million acre marine resource. Afterall, when sea territories are taken into account, Ireland is the third largest country in the European Union. Considering that there are already pictures online of the Moytirra vents I think it's a pity that the article doesn't include them.

Strange Pond-life bottom-feeders off Irish coast? ... You don't say!