We’ve already had the longest day of the year on June 20 with the summer solstice, but what about the hottest? For many of us in the Northern Hemisphere, that’s sure to happen any time this month or the next, in August. If you’re looking for excuses to stay in and stay cool on the hottest days of the summer, why not also pick up a new skill while you’re at it? My Modern Met Academy offers a wide selection of quality online art classes, taught by top-notch artists within their respective mediums.

Sometimes the heat can be exhausting, both physically and mentally. Take a second to recenter and regroup with Danison Fronda’s inspiring course, Write Out Your Future: Hand Letter an Inspiring Phrase. Learn the basics of hand lettering with Fronda, including foundation strokes, handling your tools, and more. Come away from this course refreshed, and with a beautifully rendered inspirational quote and newly minted hand-lettering skills!

If you’ve got a furry friend also trying to stay cool in this weather, we recommend Introduction to Pet Photography: Capture the Spirit of Your Furry Friend. Taught by award-winning pet photographer Belinda Richards, the course gives students an in-depth look at taking portraits with a camera and, perhaps most importantly, working safely with dogs. The best part is that this course is also iPhone camera friendly, if you don’t own a DSLR.

For the budding illustrator, Anna Sokolova’s Animal Portraits in Colored Inks: Tell a Visual Story That Conveys Emotion is an amazing online class that teaches you how to add your own design signature to your art. In her course, students will learn how to think through a sketch in a variety of ways, how to use colored inks to tell their story, and above all, how to infuse personality and emotion into their art.

And if you’re just starting your creative journey, try Drawing 101: Learn the Building Blocks of Sketching taught by Margherita Cole. Cole helps you learn the fundamentals of drawing, starting from a materials breakdown to using shapes and lines to build out a variety of test subjects. This beginner-friendly class offers plenty of opportunities for you to build up your skills, and it’s an amazing foray into creating art.

As the summer heat reaches a fever pitch within these coming weeks, don’t be afraid to take some time for yourself and cool down—preferably with an online art class from My Modern Met Academy. Whether you’re learning new skills in portrait photography, building a foundation of drawing and illustration, or expanding into the world of hand lettering, My Modern Met has an online course that lets you make the most of your summer, indoors or outdoors. Once you purchase a course with us, the lessons are on-demand, meaning you can revisit them as often as you’d like and take them at your own pace.

Summer heat too much? Try a cool and inspiring online art class from My Modern Met Academy.

Refresh and regroup with Write Out Your Future: Hand Letter an Inspiring Phrase, taught by Danison Fronda.

If you’ve got a furry friend that’s also trying to stay cool in this weather, try Belinda Richards’ Introduction to Pet Photography: Capture the Spirit of Your Furry Friend.

If drawing is more your speed, try Anna Sokolova’s Animal Portraits in Colored Inks or Margherita Cole’s Drawing 101 sketching class.

My Modern Met Academy: Website | Facebook | Instagram

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READ: Beat the Summer Heat With These Cool and Inspiring Online Art Classes

Photo: mathes/Depositphotos

Nearly 55 years after first being unintentionally set on fire, the Darvaza gas crater is finally showing signs of dying down. Located in the heart of the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan, this crater is also known as the “Door to Hell” or “Gates of Hell” because of the fires that have been taking place within it since 1971.

How this fiery crater came to be is an interesting piece of little-known history. The Karakum desert region of Turkmenistan was part of the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Soviet engineers were interested in mining the desert for oil fields, so upon their arrival, they drilled for quality testing. Instead of finding oil, however, the engineers found something much more volatile: a large natural gas pocket that was unable to support the weight of heavy oil rig machinery, and subsequently collapsed.

This collapse brought down the entire scouting camp along with it, leaving behind a massive, bowl-like basin measuring 230 feet wide and 100 feet deep. To make matters worse, the natural gas that had been trapped in that pocket began leaking out into the atmosphere at an astounding rate, endangering local wildlife and nearby communities.

Scientists sought to burn off the natural gas as an end-all solution, estimating it would take a few weeks to resolve. In reality, the Darvaza crater has been burning for decades, and it’s only in 2025, nearly 55 years after its inception, that the fires of the Gates of Hell seem to be subsiding.

According to Turkmengaz, the state-subsidized national gas company, the Darvaza crater’s flames have demonstrated a visible weakening as of June 5, 2025. Scientists who monitor the crater’s fires presented research at the International Scientific and Practical Conference on Environmental Aspects of Innovative Technologies in Hydrocarbon Development (TESC 2025) that indicates the flames have diminished to nearly a third of their original size.

Scientists have also observed that the crater fires are now only visible when up close to the cavity, whereas in the past, its flames could be seen miles away. Turkmengaz officials and scientists are hopeful that this rapid decline is thanks to an exhaustion of natural gas stores, meaning that the blazing crater may be on its way to finally dying out.

The news is welcome amongst the citizens and leaders of Turkmenistan. The burning crater has long been a topic of discussion, with many opining that the continuous burning of precious natural gases is simultaneously wasteful and dangerous. The gradual extinguishing of the Darvaza crater marks the possible end of one of the world’s most unusual man-made phenomena. As the fires wane, they close a decades-long chapter in Turkmenistan’s landscape and history.

An accidental man-made crater from the Soviet era that has been burning for 54 years in Turkmenistan is finally beginning to die down.

Photo: mathes/Depositphotos

The Darvaza gas crater is also known as the “Door to Hell” or the “Gates to Hell” because of the fires that have continuously burned in it since a natural gas pocket beneath the earth collapsed in 1971.

Photo: Kloeg008/Depositphotos

However, as of June 5, 2025, national authorities have reported that the crater's flames have decreased significantly.

Photo: AlexelA/Depositphotos

This news comes amid discussions related to the precious natural gas wasted as a result of the original 1971 accident, and may signify the end of an era for Turkmenistan's landscape and history.

Photo: mathes/Depositphotos

Sources: Soviet-era gas crater ‘Door to Hell’ is finally dying down after 50 years of burning; Turkmenistan's achievements in reducing methane emissions announced at TESC 2025

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READ: The World’s Largest Flaming Gas Crater Is Showing Signs of Dying Out

Alvin Lucier (Photo: Non Event via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0))

What if death weren’t the end for human creativity, but instead the catalyst for a new kind of art? Revivification is a haunting and immersive installation created in collaboration with the late American composer Alvin Lucier that probes the liminal space between life and the afterlife. Speculative science fuses raw emotion to create a piece that invites us to question not just how far creativity can go, but whether it even should go that far.

Revivification is an immersive installation in the Art Gallery of Western Australia that, according to the gallery, has been “four years in the making.” The concept was developed by artists Nathan Thompson, Matt Gingold, and Guy Ben-Ary, in collaboration with neuroscientist Stuart Hodgetts and Lucier.

One of the most respected experimental composers of his time, Lucier’s compositions were known for drawing from principles of physics in sound. He often took a curious and playful approach to creating music; one particularly memorable example is his 1969 piece titled “I Am Sitting in a Room,” where he read a passage multiple times over while recording on the same tape. Lucier repeated the process until it became nearly impossible to pick out the words of his phrase in the cacophony.

Lucier began working with the artists and scientists on this project in 2018, three years before he died in 2021. Ever the risk-taker, the composer provided the group with his blood. White blood cells from this sample were “reprogrammed into stem cells,” then into organoid structures that are meant to resemble and mimic a developing human brain.

In Revivification, these cerebral organoids run the show, physically and metaphorically. Placed in the center of the installation space in an incubator, the organoids represent Lucier’s “in-vitro brain” that lives beyond his earthly and departed body. Electrical signals derived from this brain matter then send impulses that trigger mallets to periodically hit 20 brass plates mounted to the installation space.

The result is a haunting experience that prompts us to think deeper about the creation of art that occurs during and after our lifetimes. University of San Francisco cognitive neuroscientist Indre Viskontas has one way of framing it. “Creativity really has to have a conscious element to it,” she says in an interview with NPR. “I don’t think this particular piece of art is conscious. Those cells have no intention.”

Revivification doesn’t offer an easy answer or way out; rather, it lingers in this uncertainty, much like the reverberations of Lucier’s compositions. By animating remnants of a life once lived, the installation challenges us to confront questions of agency, authorship, and legacy. Is the music produced by Revivification a continuation of Lucier’s work, a resurrection, or something completely new and original?

Revivification is on view at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth now through September 21, 2025.

The late experimental composer Alvin Lucier is still creating music three years after his death, thanks to science and brain matter derived from his white blood cells.

Photo: iLexx/Depositphotos

In the immersive installation Revivification, cerebral organoids developed in a lab send out electrical impulses to mallets, which then periodically hit brass plates lining the gallery's walls to create sound.

The installation prompts us to ask questions about agency, authorship, and legacy in creating art after life.

Sources: Artificial ‘Brain’ Aims to Allow Composer to Keep Making Music Three Years After His Death; Revivification; A Musician’s Brain Matter Is Still Making Music—Three Years After His Death

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READ: Musical Composer’s Brain Matter Is Still Making Music Three Years After His Death

This Friday, America will celebrate its 249th birthday on the Fourth of July. The country’s Independence Day is one of celebrating in community, and honoring quintessentially American principles of freedom, liberty, and justice for all.

Freedom in all its forms also means the permission to create and express yourself how you choose. To celebrate, My Modern Met Academy is offering an exclusive 4th of July sale, from July 1-4. Enjoy 15% off any online art class of your choosing with code FREEDOM15, and let your creativity run wild and free.

My Modern Met Academy has a myriad of online art course offerings, so everyone can explore and enjoy a different skill or medium of their choosing during this exclusive sale. We only collaborate with top-notch artists who are also instructors, meaning that the quality of your lessons is at the highest caliber. Whether you’re interested in abstract acrylic painting, botanical watercolor illustration, realistic colored pencil drawing, or even embroidering your favorite memories, My Modern Met Academy’s got the course for you.

With our online, on-demand course structure, you truly have the freedom to take your art lessons at your own pace, and learn wherever you’re able to connect to the Internet. Once you purchase a course, it is yours as long as you have an Academy account: this means you’re able to revisit your courses however much you’d like. Repeat the same lesson five times over, or speed through the class videos at 2x speed—whatever your tastes, our amazing art courses adapt with you.

Interested in learning more about our classes? Get a preview of just some of what we have to offer by watching the videos below. Then head over to My Modern Met Academy and use the code FREEDOM15 for 15% off your purchase.

This Fourth of July, My Modern Met Academy is offering an exclusive sale from July 1-4. Enjoy 15% off any online art class of your choosing with the code FREEDOM15, and let your creativity run wild and free.

Realistic Portrait Drawing Made Easy

Acrylic Painting Masterclass: Explore Color & Abstract Landscape Painting

Architectural Illustration for Everyone: Draw Buildings in Ink and Colored Pencil

Mixed Media Thread Painting: Learn to Embroider Your Travel Memories

Botanical Watercolors: Learn to Paint Realistic Flowers

My Modern Met Academy: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest 

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READ: Let Freedom (and Creativity) Ring With My Modern Met Academy’s Fourth of July Sale

Photo: Government of the Republic of India via Wikimedia Commons ( CC BY-SA 4.0 )

How old does a person have to be to enact radical positive change in the world? A preteen known to some as the “Indian Greta Thunberg” has answered that question for nearly half her life. At the age of 12, Prasiddhi Singh has already planted over 150,000 trees in India, and has no plans of stopping at this already impressive number.

Singh is considered India’s youngest environmental leader. After being personally affected by a cyclone at just 7 years old, she began following her passion for environmentalism by replanting “fruit forests,” in the hopes that they would eventually be able to provide protection from future storms. This idea has yielded far more than just trees—it’s also given hope to many populations in India and beyond.

“Fruit forests” are Singh’s environmental specialty, and they follow a relatively simple but ingenious business model. By planting a variety of trees that yield fruit, these forests create biodiverse landscapes. These landscapes, in turn, are viable not just for reforestation, but also to provide protection and relief for food-insecure populations.

The concept has become popular around the country, and Singh has drawn in numerous volunteers to help plant her fruit forests. A majority of them hail from Tamil Nadu, Singh’s home state.

By the age of 8, Singh reported to the Times of India that she’d planted over 10 fruit forests with the help of volunteers. It was also at this age that she received her first award (and India’s highest civilian honor for children) in 2021 for her reforestation efforts, the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraska.

Now aged 12, Singh’s experiences and accolades have grown alongside her. She’s planted numerous fruit forests, begun the arduous task of restoring lakes and mangroves throughout India, and spoken at a variety of events, including TEDx programs and UN Climate Change summits. Singh also founded the Prasiddhi Forest Foundation, and most recently, was named the June 2025 Young Planet Leader.

The Prasiddhi Forest Foundation was founded in 2018, and seeks to teach and inspire environmental reforestation and conservation efforts through workshops, events, and classes. The foundation centers itself around a “3G Network,” a clever play on a technological term that actually places emphasis on “generating” your own oxygen, “growing” your own food, and “gifting” these efforts to the community.

Prasiddhi Singh’s remarkable journey is just beginning, and shows that age is no barrier to making a difference. Through passion, purpose, and persistence, even the youngest of individuals can inspire the world, and plant the seeds for a more sustainable and supportive future.

To learn more about Singh's work and foundation, visit the Prasiddhi Forest Foundation website.

At only 12 years old, environmentalist Prasiddhi Singh has already planted over 150,000 trees in her native India.

 

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A post shared by Prasiddhi Singh (@prasiddhi.official)

Singh's efforts began when she was just 7 years old, after suffering from a devastating cyclone.

Photo: alessandroguerr/Depositphotos

The environmentalist's “fruit forest” approach to reforestation in India offers a sustainable and supportive solution that protects at-risk populations in more ways than one.

 

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A post shared by Prasiddhi Forest Foundation (@prasiddhiforest)

In 2018, Singh launched a foundation aimed at spreading sustainability awareness and practices. And this month, she was named the June 2025 Young Planet Leader.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Prasiddhi Forest Foundation (@prasiddhiforest)

Watch her Young Planet Leader video below:

Sources: 12-Year-old Girl Plants 150,000 Trees in India, Becoming a Reforestation Leader; Prasiddhi Forest Foundation

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READ: 12-Year-Old Plants Over 150,000 Trees in Valiant Reforestation Efforts in India

In a tiny Italian town that, until very recently, was half abandoned, something magical happens every year. For a few days in the transition between spring and summer, mural artists from all over take to the streets of Civitacampomarano to participate in the CVTà Street Fest. A once-declining city center explodes with life and color, attesting to the importance and beauty of art in everyday life.

This wonderful festival celebrated its 10th anniversary just a few weeks ago, and right in the middle of it all was My Modern Met Academy instructor and renowned street artist Alice Pasquini. Pasquini founded the festival in 2016, and has developed it throughout the decade to much acclaim. Featuring art by muralists from Britain, Germany, Japan, and more, the works have accumulated across the city walls to a count of over 70. Each one is distinct in content and style, and sure to appeal to a wide variety of audiences.

If you’ve ever been interested in the process that goes into creating this often layered, colorful, and sometimes subversive type of art, this is your sign to enroll in Introduction to Stencil Art. Taught by Pasquini herself, this online course offers a unique chance to learn about a fundamental tool for creating murals, from an expert mural artist.

Pasquini begins her course by providing a brief historical overview of stencil art. Having this context is ideal for understanding the varied and surprising ways that stencils can be used, and how you may choose to work with them in your own practice. Then, Pasquini breaks down the materials that will yield best results for creating durable stencils that can be used no matter the situation.

When it comes to sourcing and creating stencils, Pasquini makes sure to take an even-keeled approach. Learn to develop an eye for selecting images or patterns that would make ideal stencils, and then, learn how to transfer those images to your surface of choice. Students will also have the chance to learn how to use software like Photoshop to help create their stencils, though Pasquini places emphasis on hand-crafting.

Once you’ve created your stencil of choice, try your hand at using it in a stencil poster project with Pasquini’s guidance. You can employ a number of techniques to achieve a bold and unique look. Layer your stencil in different places and orientations, or use a variety of colors to create a sense of depth and vitality in your work. The best part of stencil art is the infinite creative possibilities it presents.

Whether you're a longtime admirer of street art or just beginning to explore its possibilities, Introduction to Stencil Art offers an inspiring entry point into the craft. Guided by Alice Pasquini’s expertise and passion, this course is more than a technical lesson. It’s an invitation to engage with a dynamic art form that brings communities together, just like the murals of Civitacampomarano. Let your creativity take to the streets with this online, on-demand art course.

The Italian village of Civitacampomarano just celebrated 10 years of its annual street art festival, CVTà Street Fest.

 

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A post shared by Cvtà Street Fest (@cvtastreetfest)

The festival was founded by Alice Pasquini, renowned street artist and My Modern Met Academy instructor.

Learn how to create stunning art like Pasquini in her exclusive online art course, Introduction to Stencil Art.

Pasquini will teach you the basics of this important and versatile art form, including history, sourcing and transfer methods, and how to cut and use your stencils in a bold and unique work of art.

My Modern Met Academy: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest 

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READ: Learn How to Create Stunning Mural Art Like Internationally Acclaimed Street Artist Alice Pasquini

Photo: nm737/Depositphotos

Many people begin to notice the arrival of spring with the large, beautiful blooms of the magnolia flower. Magnolia trees can be found in many parts of the world, and their beautiful forms have symbolic, medicinal, and visual meaning across cultures—and have for centuries. If you’re ever near a magnolia tree, though, look closely: you’ll notice that beetles, instead of bees, will be moving amongst the flowers.

So, why beetles over bees? The answer is simpler than you might think. Magnolias are so ancient that they were around long before bees came into existence. They’ve been around for over 100 million years, in fact, and beetles have existed for even longer , approximately 300 million years.

Named after the French botanist Pierre Magnol, magnolias belong to one of the oldest lineages of flowers on Earth. (Dinosaurs still walked the Earth at this time, to put it into perspective!) Given this ancient setting, the pollinators we’re most familiar with, butterflies and bees, had not yet evolved. Beetles were the primary insect pollinators for the time, and so they became the de facto agents for the magnolia’s survival.

This partnership between the flower and the beetle reveals itself in the magnolia’s look and scent. The flowers are large and shaped like a bowl, which is ideal for beetles to climb into. Their petals also boast more muted colors, as their partner pollinators navigate better through scent than sight. Which leads to the next, and perhaps most iconic, trait of the magnolia flower: its intoxicating scent that attracts beetles to it, meant to mimic the smell of fermenting or ripening fruit.

Another aspect of the magnolia that shows its advanced evolution is the sturdiness of the petals. Where many flowers usually have reputations for being delicate, the magnolia has developed thick, leathery petals. This is to withstand the beetle’s movement within its center, which can be clumsy and at times, rough.

As far as pollinators go, the beetle isn’t the most sophisticated. They can’t hover to collect nectar (or collect nectar at all) or perform more advanced pollinating behaviors. The way they pollinate is more of a happy accident. In their search for food, beetles will plow through petals of flowers, often leaving a mess behind. But in this process, they also get coated in pollen, which they carry on to the next flower, and the one after that, as they continue their search.

The beetle's method of pollinating, though not as sophisticated as that of bees or butterflies, has stood the test of time, at least for our dear magnolias. The ancient flower’s partnership with beetles is a testament to both of these agents’ ancient origins and resilience. With sturdy petals and a rich scent, the magnolia continues to thrive today, just as it did millions of years ago: through simple, time-tested evolution.

Magnolias, the beautiful pink and white flowers that bloom in early spring, have been around since dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Photo: courtyardpix/Depositphotos

They're so old, in fact, that they rely on beetles instead of bees to pollinate them.

Photo: Reinhold Möller via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Beetles, who have been around for even longer than magnolias, predate bees by hundreds of millions of years.

Photo: wasnoch/Depositphotos

The arrangement, makeup, and scent of magnolia flowers reflect their unique and ancient partnership with beetles.

Photo: matenchuk/Depositphotos

Sources: Magnolias are so ancient they’re pollinated by beetles — because bees didn’t exist yet; The Botany of Magnolias

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READ: Magnolias Are So Old That They’re Pollinated by Beetles

Have you ever walked through a gallery showing abstract art and thought, “I could paint that?” Many of those artworks may be more complicated than meets the eye. Either way, if that thought has ever crossed your mind and made you wonder what you could do with a canvas, paint, and a brush, My Modern Met Academy has a number of online classes that will help you begin to develop your own abstract art practice.

As a beginner abstract artist, it may be helpful to take inspiration from nature in initial projects. Dream Your Own Abstract Acrylic Floral Paintings, taught by Nitika Ale, takes the familiar shapes and colors of flowers and abstracts them into expressive works of art. Ale emphasizes an understanding of color theory and painting techniques in her lessons, giving amazing advice that’s manageable even for the most novice of artists. Combined with her supportive and intuitive approach to art, students who take this course will come away with a painting approach that is expressive and organic.

Megan Elizabeth’s class, Dappled Light: Learn Abstract Painting with Acrylics, offers a chance to build those skills by capturing the ephemeral and ever-changing experience of light shifting through nature or materials like glass. Learn to work with acrylic paint in a variety of applications, as well as building a balance between a focal point and the diffused light beams that surround it. By the end, you’ll have a piece of art that feels lighter than air, and hopefully a spirit that matches the canvas.

If you find yourself gravitating more towards the clean and rectilinear instead of more expressive abstract art, not to worry: My Modern Met Academy has two classes that can help you achieve that bold look you’re going for. The first is Acrylic Painting Masterclass: Explore Color & Abstract Landscape Painting, taught by Luiza Niechoda. She dives deep into the process for creating an abstracted landscape work, teaching important lessons on creating a cohesive color story, as well as techniques for painting crisp lines and forms on canvas. Students will also learn how to stretch their own canvases, truly making this a masterclass that includes lessons they will find useful in any kind of painting endeavor they embark on.

For those who are interested in bridging technology with abstract art, Elyse Dodge’s Acrylic Landscapes: Reimagining Mountains as Polygons is the perfect marriage between the two. Learn how to create bold and vibrant geometric landscape paintings using graphics software like Adobe Illustrator. Then, transfer your abstracted landscape onto canvas and bring your composition to life.

Whether you're drawn to expressive brushstrokes, delicate plays of light, or the precision of geometric forms, there's an abstract art path for everyone. With guidance from talented instructors at My Modern Met Academy, even the most hesitant beginner can find their creative footing. These classes not only teach technique, but also encourage personal expression, making abstract art more accessible and rewarding than you might have imagined. The best part is that once you purchase these classes, they’re yours forever—learn the lessons at your own pace and come back to them as needed.

If you've ever been interested in making abstract art, but aren't sure where to start, My Modern Met Academy offers a quality selection of online classes to help you.

Start slow, and take inspiration from nature in Nikita Ale's Dream Your Own Abstract Acrylic Floral Paintings and Megan Elizabeth's Dappled Light: Learn Abstract Painting with Acrylics. 

If clean lines are more your thing, try Luiza Niechoda's Acrylic Painting Masterclass: Explore Color & Abstract Landscape Painting, and learn how to stretch your own canvas while you're at it.

For those who are interested in bridging technology with abstract art, Elyse Dodge’s Acrylic Landscapes: Reimagining Mountains as Polygons is the perfect marriage between the two.

My Modern Met Academy: Website | Facebook | Instagram 

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READ: Interested in Abstract Art? These Amazing Online Art Classes Let You Make Your Own

The “beauty shot version” of Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents. (Photo: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center via NASA Scientific Visualization Studio)

Photos taken from space help us better understand things that happen on land. They visualize land masses such as mountain ranges, show where different ecosystems meet, and even how the population of cities expand over time. But have you ever considered that space imaging may also help us understand the Earth’s oceans, too?

Oceans cover about 71% of Earth, while land makes up the remaining 29%. It’s no secret that much of the world’s oceans are a mystery, but a project from NASA may help us uncover just a bit more of what happens beneath the surface.

An ocean current visualization model created by NASA’s Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECOO) Group plots out the most traveled underwater highways on Earth. Pulling data from buoys, spacecraft, and other instruments, the model almost resembles Vincent van Gogh’s famous impasto style, immortalized in Starry Night.

Besides looking beautiful, this visualization also demonstrates the importance of Earth’s oceans in creating the conditions that allow life to thrive. Ocean currents function as underwater highways and operate on horizontal and vertical axes. Thanks to this dual flow, ocean currents transport carbon, nutrients, and heat around the planet. In effect, these underwater highways support marine ecosystems and regulate the Earth’s climate.

In an article written for NASA, James Riordon says: “In addition to affecting global weather patterns and temperatures, western boundary currents can drive vertical flows in the oceans known as upwellings. The flows bring nutrients up from the depths to the surface, where they act as fertilizer for phytoplankton, algae, and aquatic plants.” A prime example of this happens near the Kuroshio Current of Japan. Upswelling that occurs there supports robust local marine ecosystems, which support Japan’s fishing industry.

The oceanic current patterns connect to essentially form a “conveyor belt,” which distributes heat from the equator towards the poles of the planet. It has a direct effect on regional climates, both near and far. Take, for example, the Gulf Stream and the United States. This particular current is responsible for moderating temperatures along the U.S.’s Eastern Coast. It is also important for the climate in Europe and parts of Africa: without it, the winters in the former would be significantly colder, and droughts would be more severe in the latter.

If you’ve watched any of the hurricanes that have recently occurred in the United States, you may notice that sometimes they seem to follow the path of these underwater highways as well. With climate change and the increasing addition of freshwater from melting polar ice caps, the underwater highway systems are experiencing a slowdown in their current exchange.

Researchers worry that if currents continue to slow, these underwater highways may collapse. Such a breakdown would greatly affect planetary heat distribution, marine ecosystem support, and weather pattern disruption. As we appreciate the beauty of this ocean visualization model and Earth’s underwater highways, we must remember how delicate these systems that sustain life are, and the consequences we may face if they become altered beyond repair.

To learn more about the ocean visualization model, visit NASA's website.

While images from space usually show us what happens on land, a new project by NASA dives deeper into the Earth's oceans.

Photo: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Reto Stöckli via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Developed using data from the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECOO) Group, the visualization model examines the planet's current systems. These “underwater highways” regulate the Earth's temperature, support marine ecosystems, and determine regional climate and weather events.

View from outside the International Space Station of Hurricane Florence on the morning of September 12th, 2018 (Photo: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)

Watch the video below to learn more about the ocean visualization model.

Sources: Going with the Flow: Visualizing Ocean Currents with ECCO; An Ocean in Motion: NASA's Mesmerizing View of Earth's Underwater Highways

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Photo: National Science Foundation (University of Washington/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Deep in the ocean, near an underwater mountain in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, lie a series of carbonate “towers” that rise from the inky depths to create a jagged landscape. With only the light of remote-operated vehicles sent to examine the site, these structures appear eerie and ghostly. The various towers clustered together give them an urban feel, leading scientists to call this natural wonder the Lost City.

The Lost City Hydrothermal Field was first discovered in 2000, over 2,300 feet below the surface. It is the longest-living vented environment in the ocean, and nothing like it has been found in the years since its discovery. Scientists estimate this unique underwater vent field has been in existence for at least 120,000 years, maybe longer.

Despite this structure’s desolate ocean surroundings, its designation as a “Lost City” isn't quite apt. The upthrusting mantle reacts with seawater to disperse methane, hydrogen, and other gases out into the ocean. As a result, novel microbial communities survive in the nooks and crannies of the vent system, managing to live even without oxygen thanks to the presence of hydrocarbons produced by the towers’ chemical reactions. Some of the calcite towers also double as chimneys; they spew gases at temperatures as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit and house a variety of crustaceans and snails. Larger species, such as shrimp, sea urchins, crabs, and eels, have also been found near the site, but with significantly less frequency.

Aside from being a natural wonder, understanding Lost City is key to understanding ourselves. The hydrocarbons produced in these mineral vents occur as a result of chemical reactions on the deep seafloor, not due to carbon dioxide or sunlight. Because hydrocarbons are also known as the building blocks of life, the chemical processes that take place in the Lost City could be the very same ones that began life on Earth, and potentially on other planets.

In 2018, William Brazelton, a microbiologist, told Anna Kusmer at The Smithsonian that, “this is an example of a type of ecosystem that could be active on Enceladus or Europa right this second.” The idea that the moons of Saturn and Jupiter could have similar conditions for life is an exciting one. And, there's more to be discovered about Lost City. Researchers announced in 2024 that they were able to successfully recover a core sample of mantle rock from the site.

Lost City is the only thermal field of its kind, making it valuable for the knowledge we can, and are, gleaning from it. But developments in mining rights to the surrounding deep sea may have negative impacts on the impressive mineral vent system. Amid calls to designate the natural wonder as a World Heritage site, we must act swiftly to protect the Lost City, not just for its impressive look, but also for its potential to unlock the secrets of life itself.

An underwater “Lost City” located in the deep-sea Mid-Atlantic Ridge may hold the key to understanding how life on Earth began.

Photo: OptimusPrimeBot via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The hydrothermal field contains a series of jagged “towers,” which are made of mineral carbonate.

Photo: Susan Lang, U. of SC. / NSF / ROV Jason / 2018 © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Despite its extreme environment, the Lost City is home to a few critters due to its production of hydrocarbons, as a result of deep-sea chemical reactions.

Photo: Susan Lang, U. of SC. / NSF / ROV Jason / 2018 © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Scientists believe that examining the Lost City's mineral conditions may offer more clues into how life came to be, on this planet and beyond.

Photo: NOAA via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Sources: Diving Deep to Reveal the Microbial Mysteries of Lost City

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READ: Underwater “Lost City” May Hold the Key To Understanding How Life on Earth Began