Twenty years after the discovery of sea-floor hot springs, vast stretc
hes of the global mid-ocean-ridge system remain unexplored for hydroth
ermal venting, The southwest Indian ridge is a particularly intriguing
, region, as it is both the slowest-spreading of the main ridges(1) an
d the sole modern migration pathway between the diverse vent fauna of
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans(2). A recent model postulates that a l
inear relation exists between vent frequency and spreading rate(3) and
predicts vent fields to be scarcest along the slowest-spreading ridge
sections, thus impeding migration and enhancing faunal diversity(2).
Here, however, we report evidence of hydrothermal plumes at six locati
ons within two 200-km-long sections of the southwest Indian ridge indi
cating: a higher frequency of venting than expected. These results sug
gest that fluxes of heat and chemicals from slow-spreading ridges may
be greater than previously thought and that faunal migration along the
southwest Indian ridge may serve as an important corridor for gene-fl
ow between Pacific and Atlantic hydrothermal fields.