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...geological formation inhabited by previously unknown life forms.

Before that time, it seemed clear that life was based on light: without plants to turn light energy and carbon dioxide into sugars, how could life exist? The ocean floors are almost totally dark, so under this logic, they should be barren. And yet the volcanic cloud-venting "black smoker" chimneys on the bottom of the seafloor were home to acid and heat-loving bacteria. A whole range of larger life -- clams, crabs, tubeworms--appeared to be living off those bacteria, much as we surface-dwellers live off plants. Scientists realized there was more than one way to get the energy needed for life.

Kelley led an expedition to the newly discovered vent, now called the Lost City hydrothermal field, in 2003. Unlike other deep sea vents, the energy at Lost City isn't generated by an underwater volcano, but from a chemical reaction between seawater and the underlying mineral, called peridotite. This reaction gives off heat, hydrogen, and hydrocarbons, leaving behind a common mineral called serpentine, a material you might find it in your own kitchen as a green "marble" counter-top.

Lost City is unique for now, but Kelley says that the geology at the Atlantis Massif is not rare, and that she expects other life islands based on peridotite will be found. "It really expands the places we find earthly life," she says.

The first discovery of living things growing where it was once thought impossible for them to grow was accidental. At Yellowstone National Park's hot springs in the 1960s, Thomas Brock of Indiana University found bacteria blooming at 176 degrees F, a species he named Thermus aquaticus. Decades later, in 2003, Derek lovely and co-workers at the Univesity of ...