flstandardbreds Chapter 1255
Chapter 1255
A new batch of air-conditioned clothing needs to be manufactured.
All the hot spring fish have died.
This batch of hot spring fish was highly valued by the entire base, but now they have all died, so the research institute needs to release another batch of fish fry as soon as possible.
The news of the complete extinction of the hydrothermal vent fish in the sea should have been a devastating event at the base.
After all, that was the food supply for more than 10,000 people in the future.
But just at this critical moment, the news of the disappearance of the ships and vessels of the sub-island shocked everyone first.
The survivors were still gripped by the fear that "without a boat, they would be stranded and die on the island."
The bad news about the hot spring fish was like a pebble thrown into a boiling oil pan, not even causing a decent splash.
Some people, upon hearing the news, simply nodded numbly.
That's true. With such a huge earthquake and the underwater volcano churning like a boiling pot, how could those hydrothermal vent fish possibly survive?
No one cried out in despair, no one beat their chest in frustration.
It's not that I don't feel sorry for you, it's that I've become numb to it.
Lin Wei, however, had no time to wallow in despair.
She's been so busy lately that she hasn't even had time to drink water.
The open-air aquaculture base was completely destroyed. A layer of dead fish with white bellies floated on the sea surface, long since buried by volcanic ash and nowhere to be found.
The remaining half of the fish fry at the base became their last lifeline.
These are the future food supplies for the base, and there is no room for error.
Lin Wei led her team to the aquaculture pond by the sea, clutching the testing equipment in her hand. The values on the screen were glaringly red.
Xiaoxue sighed, her voice full of exhaustion: "Sister Lin, the pollution level of the surrounding seawater is three times higher than the standard, and the water temperature fluctuates wildly. This environment is simply not something that hot spring fish can withstand."
Lin Wei didn't speak, but just stared at the gray sea in the distance.
She patted her chest and assured Captain Qin that open-air farming would definitely succeed.
What now?
Failure after failure left me feeling utterly humiliated.
She gritted her teeth and said, "We have to try again; we can't give up."
Xiaoxue hesitated, as if she wanted to say something but then stopped.
The base only has half of the fish fry left, which are very precious. Their research institute tried to borrow them, but they probably won't be able to this time!
Just when the entire research institute was racking its brains over the hot spring fish, Zhou Shuwan did something that shocked everyone.
She went directly to Captain Chen and got straight to the point.
"Captain Chen, I would like to request half of the hot spring fish fry in the base."
Captain Chen was very surprised: "What did you say?"
"I want to release half of these fish fry back into the seabed."
Zhou Shuwan repeated it, her tone very calm.
Captain Chen's brows furrowed instantly.
"Dr. Zhou, what's the situation on the sea surface right now? There are layers upon layers of volcanic ash, and the water temperature is high enough to boil an egg, not to mention the seabed!"
Zhou Shuwan nodded; of course she knew.
It could be said that she knew better than anyone else what the seabed looked like.
"Captain Chen, do you remember?" she said slowly, her voice gentle yet carrying a strange persuasiveness. "These hydrothermal vent fish were not bred at the base. They were found by our family in a submarine near a hydrothermal vent in the deep sea."
Captain Chen was taken aback.
He certainly remembered where the fish came from.
Back then, Zhou Shuwan led her family in a submarine to brave the deep sea, risking their lives to bring back fish fry.
Later, the fleet tried to mimic the environment of underwater hydrothermal vents, but they could only barely keep these fish alive; they could not possibly cultivate them on a large scale.
Zhou Shuwan looked at him and continued, "We've been trying to mimic their living environment—temperature, pressure, water quality—we've tried everything we can think of. But what was the result? Open-air aquaculture was a complete failure, and the fish in the greenhouses could barely survive. Because we can never create a real deep-sea hydrothermal vent environment."
Captain Chen remained silent.
With their current technology, they certainly cannot achieve the true environment required by hydrothermal vent fish.
"Then what you mean by seabed deployment..." Captain Chen suddenly thought of something, his eyes lighting up with surprise, "Dr. Zhou, you mean, where on the seabed now is there a place where hydrothermal vent fish can survive?"
Zhou Shuwan looked up, her gaze fixed on the gray sea outside the window, as if she could see through the thick layer of volcanic ash to the scene beneath the deep sea.
“It’s a blessing in disguise,” she said softly. “This underwater volcanic eruption destroyed a lot of things, but it also created new life. A new hydrothermal vent has formed on the seabed, forty nautical miles from our base.”
Captain Chen was slightly taken aback.
Forty nautical miles!
I never expected that Zhou Shuwan would know even from such a long distance!
"The principle of hydrothermal vents is similar to that of volcanic geysers; both involve hot water from deep within the Earth's crust that gushes out through cracks. Some people call those vents underwater chimneys."
Captain Chen nodded.
This was the knowledge he and Captain Shang had frantically learned after the Zhou family brought back the hot spring fish.
Zhou Shuwan's thoughts drifted back to a few days ago.
During those days, the earth's crust in the entire sea area was trembling violently.
Her senses are a hundred times more acute than those of ordinary people, and she can clearly "see" the movements on the seabed.
Magma surged underground, like an angry dragon tearing through rock layers and bursting out of the earth's crust.
The scalding magma sizzled upon contact with the icy seawater, instantly vaporizing to form a massive column of steam.
The rocks on the seabed were heated red-hot and cracked open, with rubble and lava mixed together, covering the sky and the earth.
It was a devastating celebration.
Zhou Shuwan can "see" the trajectory of the flowing magma, the cracks in the rock strata, and the roar of the seawater being boiled.
Just when she thought that the sea area was doomed, her senses detected something unusual.
Forty nautical miles away, in the depths of a previously unremarkable trench, a new fissure has appeared in the earth's crust.
The gap wasn't large, but it looked like a gash torn open by God himself.
Hot water from deep within the earth's crust, carrying minerals, flows continuously upwards through this crevice.
At first, the water flow was very unstable.
Sometimes it's big, sometimes small; sometimes it's cold, sometimes it's hot.
The surrounding rock strata, unable to withstand the pressure, would occasionally collapse on a small scale, with rubble rolling down and almost completely blocking the crevice.
During those days, while taking care of her parents, Zhou Shuwan also kept sensing that place.
The water flow in that crevice, which was initially chaotic, gradually became stable.
Then, a stable fountain formed on the seabed.
Looking around the fountain, layers upon layers of minerals slowly accumulate.
Under the high pressure of the deep sea, those minerals gradually condensed into chimney-shaped structures.
White.
It was a pure white with a faint fluorescent glow.
It's exactly the same chimney as when Zhou Shuwan and his team discovered the hot spring fish.
Zhou Shuwan guessed that this should be the most ideal environment for the growth of hot spring fish.