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A picturesque Alvin launch. |
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| Smokin'! |
Saturday, November 20th, 1999
Location: 9º 49.804' North, 104º 17.361' West
Dive # 3492
Smokin'!
(Happy Birthday Lawren McCaghren!)
Mike deGruy and chief scientist Rich Lutz were busy arranging cameras and lights before the dive this morning. Although pleased with the footage he shot yesterday, deGruy wanted to make a few minor adjustments in the angles of the HMI lights. Sufficient lighting is everything when it comes to capturing high-quality images of the deep sea.
For Rich, high-quality images mean high-quality data on the incredible communities that he's been studying since they were first discovered in the late '70s. On this particular dive, Rich, Mike, and pilot BLee Williams would be concentrating their imaging efforts on portions of the 1.37km (~1mile) Biologic-Geologic Transect. This would be Rich's first visit to the transect since May 1999, and he was anxious to see how the communities and topography had changed in 6 months.
Rich Lutz
Director of the Center for Deep-Sea Ecology and Biotechnology at Rutgers University since 1995, Rich has been teaching and conducting research at the university for 20 years. He grew up in Arlington, Virginia, where he began his academic career as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia majoring in biology. From there he entered graduate school at the University of Maine, working within the Oceanography department under the tutelage of Dr. Herb Hidu. For his dissertation, Rich conducted research on the intertidal mussel Mytilus edulis; he studied everything from its shell structure for indications of growth rate to its life history for the purpose of raising the species commercially. After completing his Ph.D. in 1975, Rich continued his work on Mytilus edulis as a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Hidu. In 1977, he moved onto Yale University, where he took a post-doc position in the laboratory of well-respected deep-sea ecologist, Dr. Don Rhoads. There he continued to work on shell structure as a measure of growth rate in shallow-water mollusks, specifically mussel and clam species.
It was during his post-doc at Yale that Rich had the great fortune to take part in one of the first expeditions to hydrothermal vents. He remembers being aboard the R/V Lulu, Alvin's original support vessel, in the eastern Pacific in 1979 with such deep-sea pioneers as Robert Hessler, Howard Sanders, Fred Grassle, and Ruth Turner. They were participating in the first biological expedition to hydrothermal vents sites along the Galapagos Rift.
Vent sites along the Galapagos Rift were first discovered in 1977 by a team of geologists, including chief scientist Jack Corliss and Bob Ballard, who discovered the Titanic. Prior to 1977, geologists towing instruments behind research vessels had detected temperature anomalies along the Rift, an indication of hydrothermal plumes. The 1977 geological expedition sought to identify the source of these heat anomalies by actually visiting the seafloor in Alvin. It was then that the amazing biological communities associated with the hydrothermal plumes were first seen.
The 1979 expedition that Rich took part in was the second of that year that focused on studying the vent organisms. Rich and advisor Don Rhoads had been asked to investigate the growth rates of the mussels and clams found there in an attempt to answer two of the most puzzling questions: 1) How old are these organisms?, and 2) Do they growth faster or slower than their shallow-water relatives?"
Rich recalls his first-ever Alvin dive to the hydrothermal vents:
It was Alvin dive #986. Those were the days when they used to paint the dive numbers on the steel weights used for ballast. As we began to travel along the bottom, I remember worrying that we weren't going to find the mussel beds that we were looking for. Then, suddenly, as we came over the crest of pillow lava, the community spread out before us. I remember sitting on the bottom thinking, with 1-½ miles of water over me, this has to be the most exciting environments I've ever witnessed; I had reached a stage in my career that was the culmination of all the scientific experience I'd had up to that time. It was a truly magical dive.
Ironically, when I returned to this same site nearly a decade later on Alvin dive #2016, I looked out my view port to see, lying just beneath us, Alvin weights with #986 written on them. It was like seeing an old friend.
Now Rich returns to 9° North as leader of an expedition that will make history: the first-ever attempt to film these biologic and geologic wonders in IMAX format. Imagine, one day sitting in front of an 80-ft high, 100-ft wide IMAX screen with ghost-white crabs scurrying about amongst blood-red tubeworms as they sway in shimmering hot water coming from 10m (33ft)-high chimneys. Seeing larger than life images of these communities - and knowing that he helped bring them to audiences nationwide - will give this veteran of vent biology a wonderful sense of accomplishment. Back to top
The Dive
Arriving on the bottom, BLee headed Alvin to the vent site known as "Hole-to-Hell," located near the northern-most end of the Biologic-Geologic Transect.
In 1991, when Rich and other scientists first visited the area, Hole-to-Hell was a cloudy cauldron, filled with lava from the recent eruption; Alvin pilots refused to descend into the Hole-to-Hell for fear of another eruption. At that time, there was only one active black smoker at the site; "black," because of the abundance of iron sulfide coming from the chimney top. There was also an abundance of bacteria - a "snow storm" as Rich described - but virtually no megafauna with the exception of an area high atop an 11m (36ft)-high chimney known as "Tubeworm Pillar." Rich could see where lava had "lapped up" the sides of this pillar, wiping out the lower communities but not reaching the tubeworm clusters at the top.
During subsequent visits, Rich has seen Hole-to-Hell go through several transformations. More active chimneys have sprung up and megafauna, namely Tevnia and Riftia tubeworms, have appeared; these species indicate that this vent site is maturing. The high-definition and IMAX camera systems being used by this expedition will capture this aging process in great detail, making Hole-to-Hell the most highly-detailed, well-documented vent site in the world.
Today, maneuvering Alvin into a narrow opening between two dormant chimneys, BLee carefully positioned the submersible and zoomed the cameras in on 3 chimneys spewing super-hot, jet-black fluid. The water above them shimmered from the incredible heat. Pyrite, also known as "fool's gold," sparkled within the vent fluids in the lights of the submersible. Back to top
Diana's Day
After her pre-dive and launch duties were completed, Diana took her "quiz" on Alvin's main ballast system. She passed! Elated, she immediately grabbed her notes on the variable ballast system and headed to the ship's library to study.
Balancing a busy schedule of work and school is nothing new for Diana. As a returning, full-time student at Monterey Peninsula College, Diana is also a single, working mom. "My son Tyler is my first concern," Diana says. "I work part-time on-campus and attend classes during the day, but make sure I'm there in the afternoon when he gets home from school. Both of us do our homework and study in the evenings." How is she able to manage such a complex life? "I take one day at a time," Diana says. "That's how I make it through." Back to top
Tomorrow
Freelance videographer/photographer Emory Kristof, best known for his work for the National Geographic Society, will make tomorrow's dive with pilot Steve Faluotico and PIT Phil Forte. Emory, a pioneer in camera and lighting systems used to image the deep sea, will be using the HDTV camera system to collect images for a National Geographic magazine article. The article is a follow-up to the November 1994 National Geographic article that first reported on the 9° North vent sites and the eruptions that had recently occurred.
Stay tuned for more information on the ever-jovial Mr. Kristof and his fascinating career in tomorrow's report. Back to top
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