What
the NOAA-funded team discovered last summer is once again causing oceanographers
to rethink their ideas about how life changes and adapts in
the
sea.
Credit: Dr. Kathy Crane
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Rose Garden
vent site discovered in 1977. The site's thicket of tube
worms reminded scientists of
long-stemmed roses.
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Marking the
25th anniversary of one of the most important discoveries of the past
century, a scientific team returned to the Galapagos Rift, a remote area
in the Pacific far off the coast of South America. Scientists made startling
discoveries in an area famed for its lush and unique hot-spring animal
communities. They discovered animals never before seen on the Galapagos
Rift, and the first-ever observed species of hydrothermal sponge that,
in time, may have medical and/or biochemical applications.
Led by co-chief scientists Dr. Steve Hammond, chief scientist of NOAA's
ocean exploration program, and Dr. Tim Shank, professor at Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution, scientists from eight other universities and
institutions returned to the active seafloor where volcanically powered
hot springs were discovered in 1977. Discovery of the Galapagos hot springs
and animals resulted in revolutionary new ideas about our ocean environments
and revealed the
existence of a totally new means
of existence of life on this planet.
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This summer's scientific explorers went back to observe regions
where previous dives had found hot water
gushing shimmering mineral-rich fluids from fissured lava flows
into the cold, dark depths. They went back to observe the condition
of colonies of huge tubeworms and other spectacular animals that
live in these sites. The famous Rose Garden site that became an
icon for hydrothermal vent biology was obliterated by a recent
lava flow. But the team discovered a nearby young community of
vent animals beginning to colonize the new lava. They named it
Rosebud.
Click
the image to watch a video of
deep-sea life on the Galapagos Rift.
(QuickTime, 2.6 Mb)
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Credit:
Craig McLean
Tubeworms at Rose Bud, a newly
discovered community of hydrothermal
animals that seem likely to fit on the family tree of a budding
Rose Garden.
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Credit:
Dr. Ian MacDonald/Texas A&M
Mom polar bear and her cubs were spotted leaping between ice
floes or meltponds.
In the Arctic, scientists lower a string of sample bottles through
holes drilled in ice to collect plankton at different water
levels. Note the "polar bear observer" on left.
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When a submersible returns, buckets of samples are brought to the
ship's wet lab, where they are sorted and numbered, then sub-sampled
for biological and chemical testing. These organisms were collected
during the Islands in the Seas exploration from Florida's eastern
coast to North Carolina, an area known as the South Atlantic Bight.
"The views from the bottom have been spectacular," observed teacher-at-sea
Kimberly Williams, of New York. "We saw an amazing number of sea spiders-a
deep-sea, Indiana Jones nightmare!" This octopus was sighted during
the Pacific "Submarine Ring of Fire" exploration off the coast of
western North America.
Nearly seven-feet tall, this large pink sea fan coral belongs to the
genus Paragorgia. Within its branches is a thriving community
of brittle stars, crabs, and shrimp that was documented during this
year's Gulf of Alaska expedition. Catalina Martinez, expedition coordinator
and a Sea Grant Fellow in NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration, says
the area was so biologically rich and unique that scientists named
it the "Garden of Eden." Sediment cores (shown on lower left) sampled
sediment and water on the seafloor.
Bathymetric (depth) contour map of Davidson Seamount showing each day's
dive tracks. Located just outside the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary,
Davidson is an inactive volcano roughly as tall as the Sierra Mountains
(2,300 m) but its summit is still far below the ocean surface (1,300 m).
Although first mapped in 1933, it's only recently that technological
advances are allowing scientists to study how this unique geological
feature was formed and explore what lives on it and, because seamounts
affect surrounding ocean currents, what's happening above it.
Scientists suspect Davidson may be a "hot spot" for sperm whales,
and it's been suggested that they may be feeding on giant squid
far below the surface.
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Credit: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
In a Davidson Seamount crevice, a cusk eel takes refuge under an umbrella
of gorgonian corals.
Scott Benson, NOAA Fisheries marine ecologist, used "bigeye"
high-powered (25x150) binoculars during Davidson Seamount
expedition last May.
Captain Craig
McLean, director of NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration, takes
the Alvin submersible initiation plunge on exploration
to Galapagos Rift.
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