Most of the discoveries were made in an ocean basin that could have been isolated from other ecosystems for millions of years.

Its 180-decibel-plus bellows, below our range of hearing, could conceivably carry through a deep, cold layer of seawater across an entire ocean basin.

At the edge of the ocean basin, 200 million years later, they will slide beneath the lighter continental crust in a final volcanic firework display.

The great quantities of dense water sinking at polar ocean basin edges must be offset by equal quantities of water rising elsewhere.

This incipient ocean crust remains locked to the continental margin when the ocean basin closes, emplacing the incipient ocean crust into the collision zone.