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| Thursday, December 2nd, 1999 |
En route to Manzanillo, Mexico...
The success of any given expedition is often measured by answering the question: “What do we have at the end of the cruise that we didn’t have at the beginning?” For this particular cruise, we now have the following as a result of tireless efforts and dedication of the crew of the R/V Atlantis, the pilots of Alvin, and the highly diverse scientific team.
1) New and exciting insights into the nature of the biodiversity associated with mussel populations at 9 North as compared to that at other vent sites throughout the world’s oceans.
2) A successful deployment of a prototype sulfide delivery system that has allowed an initial assessment of the extent to which sulfide serves as a cue for larval settlement at deep-sea vents.
3) A data set that will provide considerable insights into the existence of endogenous biological rhythms at deep-sea vents.
4) Microbial cultures, several of which are growing anaerobically at temperatures in excess of 95 degrees Centigrade, prepared from isolates obtained from high-temperature smokers and flanges.
5) An extensive data set to assess the presence or absence of photoautotrophs in the vicinity of deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
6) A tremendous quantity of unprecedented images of a marvelous hydrothermal vent system taken with an IMAX film camera and a prototype high-definition television video system. These images will provide, as part of an ongoing time-series study funded by the National Science Foundation, the scientific data to assess biological and geological changes that have occurred at the 9 North site since the April 1991 volcanic eruption in the region. In addition, these images should provide: 1) the stock vent footage for a BBC documentary series entitled “The Blue Planet”; 2) “proof-of-concept” footage to assess the feasibility of putting together a full-length IMAX film for museums and other IMAX theater sites throughout the world; and 3) frame-grabbed prints for inclusion in an article in National Geographic Magazine on results obtained during the expedition. It is estimated that, as a result of the above efforts, in excess of 100 million people worldwide will see hydrothermal vent images generated during the course of this cruise.
7) A daily log and summary of the expedition posted on the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center’s web site (www.marinetech.org). |
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