Diving into Uncharted Waters

Marine Lab Director Cindy Van Dover Literally Wrote the Book on Hydrothermal Vents p.3

Getting there was no easy trick. In 1982 Van Dover was an unemployed marine biologist with limited resources, recurring seasickness and no firsthand experience at deep sea research.

But she did have abundant determination. Parlaying her experience studying larval species of crabs—species that had been found at some of the hydrothermal vents scientists had discovered in recent years—she talked her way into a job as a scientist on a research cruise slated to head to the East Pacific hydrothermal vents later that year.

It would be another three years, however, before she would earn a seat in Alvin and get to see a vent site firsthand.

“That first dive, you really appreciate how extraordinary it is for you to be there,” she says. “You realize the enormity of it—you’re a mile and a half below the ocean in a sub that’s not much bigger than a two-person bathtub. And outside the view port is this other world, this strange world of alien formations and bizarre animals unexpectedly thriving in the most extreme conditions on Earth.”

Indeed, by most measures, a deep-sea hydrothermal vent site is about as hospitable to life as the dark side of the moon. The ocean is pitch black—no sunlight ever penetrates that deep—and the pressure is so intense it would crush a human’s lungs instantly. The water around the vents is, at turns, hotter than boiling and nearly freezing. The particles and fluid rising like smoke from the chimney-like rock formations are toxic to some species.

Yet despite these extreme conditions, many species, particularly invertebrates such as mussels, clams, crabs, shrimp, sea anemones and tubeworms, flourish there. They get all the nutrients they need from the superheated chemical soup spewing out of the vents.

“It’s like a fantasy world, a scene out of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” Van Dover says. “You want to share the experience with people. It seems too glorious to keep to yourself. It’s like being the first person to step on the moon. You want the whole world to experience it, too.”

In becoming a pilot and sharing her experiences as a researcher and deep sea explorer through her writing and teaching, that’s exactly what Van Dover hopes she’s done.

“Beyond what I call the travelogue appeal—the sheer beauty of these sites, and the amazing diversity of life that flourishes there—there is so much we can learn from a study of hydrothermal vents,” she says passionately.

The knowledge gained from studying the vent sites has benefits that extend far beyond the field of marine biology, she believes. By studying vents and the chemosynthetic ecosystems surrounding them, scientists have increased their knowledge of volcanic systems. They’ve learned more about how undersea ore deposits form, and how to find those deposits. Vent studies have yielded new information about extremeophiles— microorganisms that can adapt to high temperatures, high pressures and toxic environments, and which may have uses in industry, medicine and exploration.

“Our understanding of where life originated on Earth has been affected by our study of hydrothermal vents and deep-sea ecology,” she says. “It even helps guide how we look for life on other planets.”

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