Loki's Castle
| Loki's Castle | |
|---|---|
The top three feet of a 40-foot (12-meter)-tall vent chimney at Loki's Castle, mid-July 2008 | |
| Location | Mid-Atlantic Ridge |
| Coordinates | 73°33′00″N 08°09′00″E / 73.55000°N 8.15000°E |
| Min. elevation | −2,352 metres (−7,717 ft) |
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Loki's Castle is a field of five active hydrothermal vents in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, located at 73 degrees north on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Iceland and Svalbard at a depth of 2,352 metres (7,717 ft). When they were discovered in mid-July 2008, they were the most northerly black smoker vents known to science.
They are of geological interest as they occur in a relatively stable region of the Earth's crust with diminished tectonic forces and consequently fewer hydrothermal vents. They are the site where a biologically distinct class of archaea, the Lokiarchaeota, were discovered.