A group of local marine researchers has discovered a hydrothermal vent on the seafloor, rendering South Korea the second nation in Asia after Japan to make such a discovery.

The Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute said Thursday that a team of ocean and deep-sea environment experts had discovered the hydrothermal vent in the deep-sea bed east of Papua New Guinea where the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates meet.

A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents, commonly found in places that are volcanically active, are regarded to hold the key to unraveling the earth’s evolution and mysteries of life.

Only five to six nations around the world, including the United States, have records of discovering hydrothermal vents.