In July 2025, scientists revealed that the Chinese submersible Fendouzhe had discovered thousands of tubeworms and clams thriving 9,533 metres beneath the northwest Pacific—the deepest chemosynthesis-powered animal communities ever recorded. In total darkness, symbiotic microbes sustain them using methane and hydrogen sulphide rising through faults in the ocean floor.
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The communities announced in July 2025 were not discovered during a July 2025 dive. The observations came from an expedition between 8 July and 17 August 2024, when the Chinese crewed submersible Fendouzhe crossed sections of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, the Kamchatka-Aleutian transition and the western Aleutian Trench.
What appeared in Nature on 30 July 2025 was the analysis. Xiaotong Peng, Mengran Du and a large international team reported chemosynthesis-based animal communities over a roughly
What appeared in Nature on 30 July 2025 was the analysis. Xiaotong Peng, Mengran Du and a large international team reported chemosynthesis-based animal communities over a roughly
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