Golden Fishing Village

The pit bull was still very loyal to his duty. When he saw Ao Muyang and others appear, he wanted to get up and bark.

The general pressed its head down with his front paws. The pit bull whimpered to show that he saw a stranger. The general told it with his actions that no, he didn't see it.

Ao Muyang went up and dragged the general away. If Lao Lu and his party saw it messing with someone else's guard dog here, I'm afraid there would be another conflict.

The pit bull was tied up by Lao Lu and his gang for a long time. It spent the whole spring in loneliness. Now it was like a thunderbolt when it met the general. Ao Muyang thought that the general forced him, but later found out that it was the pit bull who seduced the general.

Because after he dragged the general away, the pit bull howled in the corridor all night, and the tone of the voice was very resentful. King Kong came out and yelled at it several times but it was useless.

With the arrival of Ao Muyang, the research team will officially start work.

The first two robots, or small beach cars, were put into the water. They moved on the seabed and were driven by radio signals from the ship to take photos and take samples on the seabed.

Watching the car moving around on the seabed from the screen, Ao Muyang asked, "Can't we use this car to take samples? There is no need to dive, right?"

An expert named Gu Dawei shook his head and said, "No, the sampling procedures are complicated, and robots can't do such multi-program work. In addition, their use has high environmental requirements. If the terrain is too complicated, they can't move."

After the robot moved underwater, some coefficients were transmitted back to the computer.

There are five black chimneys in this seabed, which is considered a hydrothermal area. The diameter of the black chimney is not large. The largest one is only 30 centimeters, and the others are mostly 10 to 20 centimeters.

There is a steady stream of black smoke coming out of the ground. This is mineral-bearing hydrothermal fluid. The central temperature is as high as 350 degrees Celsius. If divers dare to approach, they will become stewed meat in minutes.

After the extremely high-temperature mineral-bearing hydrothermal fluids are ejected, they quickly mix with the surrounding seawater to produce precipitation and become "black smoke". The black smoke continues to spray upwards, which looks spectacular.

After the robot collected seawater from multiple locations, it returned to the ship, and then the students took down the sampling tubes for testing.

Ao Muyang followed and took a look. The sediments ejected from the local black chimneys are mainly composed of pyrrhotite, pyrite, sphalerite and copper-iron sulfides. The surrounding water is corrosive and toxic due to the presence of sulfur and mercury, which is very dangerous.

The robot also collected a piece of information, that is, the acidity in the core area of ​​the black chimney is also extremely high, with a pH of about 2, which is a strong acid.

In such an environment, there is still life that is thriving. According to the image data collected by the robot, there are many bubbles around the gushing hydrothermal fluids. Shen Zhifu came over and took a look and said: "Let's cultivate microorganisms on the hydrothermal fluids and use various culture media. Now there are microorganisms using the chemical energy in the dissolved salt for primary production."

The two doctoral students following him nodded and wrote down the instructions in their notebooks.

Shen Zhifu gave them some instructions, and then explained to Ao Muyang and the other two: "We can't see it with our naked eyes, but there are many microorganisms in this place. They also constitute the first link of the food chain and provide food for primary consumers. Therefore, studying black chimneys will help us understand the initial life form of the earth."

Ao Muyang nodded to show that he understood, and Yu Xinbo whispered behind him: "But this has nothing to do with our eggs."

Shen Zhifu didn't hear him clearly and asked: "What? Teacher Yu, what did you say?"

Zheng Songlin hurriedly said: "Nothing, nothing, Professor Shen, aren't we going to rely on robots to make a 3D temperature chart for the black chimney sea area? Have you made it?"

Shen Zhifu smiled and said: "Don't worry, it hasn't been made yet, but it's almost done. The robot below is drawing a 3D temperature chart."

Lao Lu and his group boarded the ship separately and headed for the horseshoe reef area. Shen Zhifu went up and asked enthusiastically: "Lao Lu, are you coming back for lunch at noon?"

"No, we brought compressed biscuits and military rations." Lao Lu patted a box on the boat and said.

Near noon, the 3D temperature chart was produced.

Shen Zhifu did not lie to them. The Black Chimney Sea was not that dangerous. Although the temperature was as high as 350 degrees Celsius when the hydrothermal fluid erupted, the water temperature dropped exponentially from the center to the surrounding area. The seawater outside the two-meter range dropped to 50 degrees Celsius.

The 3D temperature chart was very well made, with different colors to represent the temperature difference. Each iconic temperature zone was clearly depicted, and the seabed topography displayed on it was very accurate.

After lunch, Ao Muyang started to go into the water.

The research ship was very professional. Not only was it equipped with a full range of laboratory equipment and tools, but also diving tools, including cylinders, air bags, masks, underwater breathing apparatus, backboards, lead belts, fins, diving caps, and other conventional equipment.

In addition, they would carry sonar equipment when they went into the water. Ao Muyang did not understand these things. Zheng Songlin and Yu Xinbo had more contact with them, so they explained them to him.

Multi-beam, side-by-side sonar, shallow-layer and deep-sea GPS, these are all very professional tools for underwater detection and scanning. This is the first time Ao Muyang has come into contact with them, which makes him a little embarrassed. He is the leader of the diving team.

However, Zheng Songlin and Yu Xinbo did not look down on him. Yesterday, Ao Muyang helped them and dared to confront Lao Lu and his gang head-on, which has won their respect.

Black chimneys are also called deep-sea hydrothermal springs because they are located in extremely deep waters of the ocean. The earliest black chimney discovered was located in a trench.

The black chimney they were going to explore was considered shallow, with a depth of only more than 280 meters, and professional divers could conduct deep diving face-to-face work.

Ao Muyang went into the water first. According to the plan, he had to dive into the safe area around the black chimney, then smash the ground hook and tie the rope, so that the people behind him could go into the water and dive down along the rope.

After entering the water, he first adapted to the water temperature, then emerged from the water and gave a thumbs up to indicate that everything was normal. The deep diving suit was very heavy, and it was not easy to complete these simple tasks.

After receiving his signal, Zheng Songlin and the other person responded with an OK gesture, and then Ao Muyang officially dived.

He scanned the surroundings and looked down, and found that the resources in the sea here were quite abundant, with hairtail, sea bass, and pomfret, all of which were schools of fish, large or small, static or moving.

This is easy to understand. Since the discovery of underwater hot springs here more than ten years ago, the State Oceanic Administration has protected the surrounding waters. Ordinary ships are not allowed to enter this sea area, so the underwater resources have not been subjected to destructive fishing and there are still relatively more fish.