Xiang Yang was stunned. The scene before him almost made him think he was back in the reef of the Xisha Islands.
Xiang Yang first looked around to make sure there was no danger, and then he swam carefully into the ring.
As soon as we entered, the diving equipment immediately issued a high temperature warning.
Xiang Yang turned his head and looked at the thermometer on his arm, and was surprised to find that the surrounding sea water had reached an astonishing temperature of over 50 degrees.
"Is it a liquid vent or an active volcano?" Xiang Yang immediately stopped. Whether it was a liquid vent or an active volcano, it was very dangerous for humans.
The so-called liquid vent is actually an underwater volcano, but when it erupts, it sprays hydrothermal fluid instead of magma.
At the very center of the hydrothermal vent, the temperature can exceed 300 degrees, and there are large amounts of toxins in the surrounding water, making the living environment extremely harsh.
"Strange, I have never seen these crabs before." Xiang Yang stared at a group of crabs swimming not far from his feet, thoughtfully.
Regardless of whether there is a hydrothermal vent or an active volcano at the bottom of the ring, there is no doubt that the temperature increases as you go deeper into the ring. It is simply a miracle that these marine creatures can survive in such a harsh environment.
Xiang Yang dived down carefully little by little. Under the ring, Xiang Yang saw many unfamiliar marine creatures. Even creatures like octopuses were very different from those in the outside world.
As for starfish, Xiang Yang even saw a seven-armed starfish that he had never heard of or seen before.
It was not until he dived dozens of meters that Xiang Yang finally saw a familiar creature.
They were a group of crabs, very large in size. The largest one was nearly twenty centimeters long, and the average was about fourteen or fifteen centimeters.
This crab is different from other crabs in that it has a very thick hair pad at the front of the lower end of its shell.
This is snow crab, which contains a large number of bacteria or parasites and cannot be eaten by humans without special treatment.
Xiang Yang saw the group of snowshoes, and the group of snowshoes also saw Xiang Yang, but they did not run away. Instead, they gathered together little by little, as if ready to attack Xiang Yang at any time.
Xiang Yang smiled and shook his head. He had never thought of catching these snow crabs.
Snow crabs are very smart crabs. They generally only live in volcanic craters under extremely cold waters. They are one of the few creatures in nature that can produce their own food.
The thick blanket under the snow crab shell is the snow crab's farmland. They will cultivate a large number of bacteria in the blanket as their own food.
Because the temperature at the volcanic vent is extremely high and the bacteria divide very quickly, creatures like snow crabs will never lack food throughout their lives.
Of course, it is not easy to survive in the crater.
Humans once discovered a large number of snow crabs in an underwater crater 2,400 meters deep. Many of the snow crabs had very obvious burn marks on their bodies, which was caused by being too close to the crater.
Quietly bypassing the group of snow crabs, Xiang Yang continued to explore the bottom of the ring.
Soon, Xiang Yang saw an unknown plant.
This plant is covered with snow-like branches and leaves, and even its roots are snow-white, with three orange-red flowers the size of a teacup blooming on it.
Xiang Yang forgot the name of this plant, but he had seen it in an academic paper. It was said that this flower could decompose the toxic chemicals in the black smoke erupted by underwater volcanoes and turn them into its own nutrients. Even in the dark seabed, they could still survive well.
Continuing to explore around the ring entrance, Xiang Yang was surprised to find that the temperature around him was actually starting to drop. Previously at the entrance, the temperature was as high as over 50 degrees, but now the temperature here is only over 30 degrees.
Here, Xiang Yang saw many things that looked like bean sprouts. These things were tightly crowded together, forming a densely packed area. Xiang Yang didn’t know whether they were animals or plants. He just felt that it was really spectacular to see so many mysterious creatures gathered together.
Suddenly, Xiang Yang felt as if he stepped on something soft.
Xiang Yang quickly flashed and swam to a place a few meters away in an instant, then he looked carefully at the place where he had been standing before.
"It turns out to be an octopus." Xiang Yang breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the mysterious creature clearly.
"Hey, that's not right. This is not an ordinary octopus." But then Xiang Yang discovered something wrong. The top of the octopus's head was very large and very short. It was not pointed like an ordinary octopus. Instead, it looked very much like the octopus in cartoons, with a round head and bulging eyes, which looked very scary.
Xiang Yang didn't recognize any of the creatures in the ring except the snow crab.
In a rock crevice that was more than ten centimeters wide and hundreds of meters long, Xiang Yang also saw a very strange-looking crab. The shell of this crab was shaped like a pear, with a pointed mouth and a large back. It was only seven or eight centimeters wide, but about ten centimeters long. It looked very strange, which somewhat broke Xiang Yang's inherent perception of crabs.
The strangest thing is that under the shells of these crabs, like snow crabs, there is actually a thick blanket.
These strange crabs were crowded in the cracks of the rocks, like white skeletons, looking extremely hideous and terrifying.
Then on the rocks, Xiang Yang also found a large number of barnacles, snails and anemones.
The barnacles are real barnacles, lime-colored, very standard cylindrical barnacles. And because there are not enough dangerous substances in the sea water, they are very thin. This thing has a very strong vitality and can basically survive anywhere there is sea water.
Xiang Yang almost didn't recognize that snail.
The shell is about the size of an ashtray, and its shape is very much like a purple clay teapot.
If Xiang Yang had not seen the two iconic fleshy horns on its head, he would have thought he had discovered a new type of conch.
Most of the marine life here are incompatible with other marine life in the outside world. Even Xiang Yang, who is knowledgeable, was stunned for a moment, and it took him a long time to recover.
At the same time, on the ice floe, a first mate handed Chen Qingsheng a cigarette, then laughed and said, "Your captain has gone underwater, why don't you go down and take a look?"
When Chen Qingsheng heard the tone of the first mate's voice, he immediately knew that he was teasing Xiang Yang for overestimating his own abilities and diving more than 500 meters underwater.
Chen Qingsheng was not angry. He smiled and said, "I am not qualified to be the first mate, but there is nothing I can do. There are probably not many people who can go down to such deep waters. I just want to help our captain, but I can't go down."