During the fourth dive of the Seascape Alaska 3 expedition, the team observed several pavement of agglutinated tubeworms often covered in bacterial mats that were either orange (as shown here, seen at a depth of 2,012 meters; 1.25 miles) or gray. A sample of the orange mat was collected for further analysis.

Bacterial Mat

Image courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, Seascape Alaska. Download larger version (jpg, 1.4 MB).

During the fourth dive of the Seascape Alaska 3 expedition, the team observed several pavement of agglutinated tubeworms often covered in bacterial mats that were either orange (as shown here, seen at a depth of 2,012 meters; 1.25 miles) or gray. A sample of the orange mat was collected for further analysis.