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May 29, 2002 Hi Susan, I am one of Ms. Sheild’s seventh grade science students in Lexington, Massachusetts. I was wondering, how were the pictures of the Alvin (in the Woods Hole book) taken, even though the Alvin was so deep down? Were they taken by robots, or another submarine, maybe? Hopefully, you can email your reply as well as posting it on the Dive Discover web site. We all had fun in Woods Hole a week ago, and it was neat to be able to meet you. I’m looking forward to seeing slide shows with you wearing the Lexington hat we gave you. I enjoy reading the daily updates, and I also enjoy the slide shows with descriptions, and the “What’s to Eat” section each day. I also look forward to seeing some panoramic photos. Thanks for your time. Hi Eric: I am not sure which pictures of Alvin you have seen, but two sets have been taken. In the late 1970’s, National Geographic put a camera with strobes on the seafloor that was set to take pictures of Alvin, and then they picked the camera up. The second set of pictures were taken many years later with another submersible. Take a look at yesterday’s slide show and you will see that I wore the Lexington hat on the day I went down in Alvin! Hope you will continue to follow our expedition! Best wishes, Town/City: Haverhill Hi Tiffany: We all of course miss our family and friends when we are at sea. Fortunately, this is a very short cruise being a little less than two weeks. Sometimes our cruises are 4-6 weeks long and that is much harder. Having e-mail helps a lot, though, as it allows us to stay in contact with everyone. Each of us probably has different reasons for going on this trip. However, we all felt it important to come back to this area to see how the hydrothermal activity has changed since it was first discovered over twenty years ago. We have geologists, chemists, biologists and engineers on board so we have lots of different studies going on. We are using several different tools to investigate the seafloor, including an autonomous underwater vehicle, called ABE, the submersible Alvin, and a deep-towed camera system. Thanks for following along! Dear Susan, Hi, I’m Jessica Smerling, I’m from Ms. Sheild’s seventh grade science class in Lexington MA. Thank you so much for having us come to Woods hole. I had a lot of fun. I have three questions for you. What kind of food do you eat on the Alvin? Also were you on the cruise that discovered hydrothermal vents? Also what kind of camera do you use under water? Thank you for listening. Sincerely, Hi Jessica: Thanks for your questions. You can see what kind of food we are eating every day on the Daily Update page. You will find a section called “What’s to Eat?” that gives you our entire menu. You will see that we eat very well out here, and the food is delicious. I was not on the cruise that discovered hydrothermal vents, and in fact, there is no-one out here that was. We invited some of the people who were on that first cruise to join us, but unfortunately, they were unable to do so. We use many different kinds of cameras underwater, including video cameras and digital cameras. Cameras, and other pieces of equipment that are going to be used have to be put in a special pressure housing to protect them from both the seawater and the pressures that they will experience at the bottom of the ocean. I hope that you are enjoying following the expedition! Best wishes, Ms. Humphris, Hi, my name is Sharon Morris and I am one of Ms. Sheild’s 7th grade students in Lexington, MA. I have a question regarding Hydrothermal Vents. Besides the color, what is the difference between black smokers and white smokers? How come the fluid comes out either black or white? Could it come out a different color? Thank you, Hi Sharon: What a good question!! Black smokers discharge “black” fluids because they contain particles of metal sulfides that are forming as the hydrothermal fluid mixes with seawater. White smokers do not have any metals in them because they have already been removed before the fluid discharges at the seafloor. Hence, there are no black particles to form. The fluid appears white because other minerals, like silica which is white, are forming. Thanks for Diving and Discovering! Dear Tim Shank: I’m from Ms. Sheild’s seventh grade class. Is there any way you can make a “Rose Garden” or a “Rosebud” above sea level? Since you guys can make a perfect environment for one tube worm, is it much harder to make a bigger “environment chamber” for a colony of tube worms? Mike Andryauskas Dear Mike, Thank you for your really good question. Animals from the vents have been brought back to the surface and placed in small pressure chambers that allow the animals to be kept alive for a few months, even without adding food, like hydrogen sulfide, to the water. Without pressure, the proteins within the animals do not keep their shape and can not function correctly, so it is very difficult to keep animals alive for more than a few hours without pressure chambers. The chambers are typically only large enough to hold 1 to 3 tubeworms or a few clams, because the chambers need to be made of extremely expensive and heavy material called titanium. Also, the pressure chamber environment is far from a perfect one, because it is not possible to continuously maintain the proper balance between sulfide-rich water and cold oxygen-rich water over long periods of time. So, while making a “Rose Garden” above sea level or in the laboratory would help us learn much more about these animals, it is not possible with our current technology. It is interesting that animals from relatively shallow water vent environments (800 meters, for example), tend to live months longer in the lab (at normal pressure) than do those collected in the deep sea. Can you think of what you would do if you could keep clam, tubeworms and shrimp in an aquarium? Again, thank you for your question and joining our expedition. Tim Shank
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