Alvinella pompejana builds its tube on the chimneys of hydrothermal springs in the Pacific. The very hot water that comes out of the Earth’s crust meets much colder ocean water. The worm thus evolves in a medium where the temperature changes strongly over small distances.
It moves between nutrient-rich water and colder, oxygen-rich water, also mixing water into its tube. His body carries a layer of bacteria whose role contributes to his relations with this extreme environment.
Measuring a high temperature at the bottom of the tube does not mean that the entire body of the worm uniformly withstands the same heat. This avoids a misleading image of an animal simply living in a boiling pan. The astonishment lies in its ability to occupy this very unstable boundary between waters of different properties.
What we know
Temperature of the medium distinguished from that of the body; no uniform survival in the boiling water asserted.
To go to the source
References consulted on 3 October 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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