By Sid Perkins
The geological tremblings caused by a small earthquake off the coast of Washington State in June 1999 died out rather quickly and caused no damage onshore, but ripples are still spreading through the scientific community.
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Data collected by sensors located in the undersea neighborhood where the earthquake struck are now changing ideas about how fluids circulate within rocks beneath the seafloor. Research reported in the Sept. 14 Nature by several groups of investigators suggests that the flow of water to hydrothermal vents might be much more complex than geologists had thought.