A Special Dive Log by Hepsi Zsoldos, Earth Science Teacher,
Talley Middle School, Wilmington, Delaware

I've had October 29 marked on my calendar for a long time because it was the date for the first phone call to the deep for Extreme 2002. I had hoped to be able to dive once in Alvin, but there are so many scientists on board who need to go that it seemed not to be possible. When I did get the news that I was diving, my heart stood still for a moment, and then starting pounding with excitement. I was going on a dive to the bottom of the ocean!

I never thought I'd get to do something like this; go out on the Atlantis, dive to a hydrothermal vent site, and teach students from all over the world at the same time. The phrase"it's a dream come true" is a trivial expression of how I feel about this experience. It's one huge experience that combines all the things I have ever loved. I love teaching — and I'm doing lots of that with the phone call, e-mails, and experiments for students. I really like ocean research (my students at Talley Middle School will tell you that!) and I'm surrounded by it 24 hours a day. I also like to talk with people (any one of my friends will corroborate that!). I'm learning new things every day about ocean science, meeting all kinds of new people, making new friends, getting to do things that I never thought would be available to me, and sharing it all with so many wonderful students and their teachers. It's everything that a one month experience could hope to provide.

Sealing the hatch at the start of the dive. Blee checked with me to make sure I really wanted to go. Ha ha!

The morning of the dive, I was wide awake at 4:45 am. I didn't need to be up until 6:00, but I was too excited to sleep. I'd already loaded my things to take into the sub the night before. I packed a pillowcase with things I'd need on the bottom while diving. I knew it would get cold in the sphere once we were down, so I packed a pair of wool socks, a pair of sweat pants, a turtleneck, a heavy wool sweater, a wool hat, and a pair of mittens. I wasn't sure that I'd need them, but it turns out that they were perfect for tucking the camera and the Sipper computer into. I couldn't take any clothing that wasn't wool, cotton, or silk into the sub because things that have a lot of polyester can spark and cause an electrical shortage. So, on the surface, I climbed into the sub in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. It was quite warm in the sphere once the hatch was sealed, but it didn't take long for it to get cold!

Hepsi takes a last look at the light through the starboard window.

The dive to the bottom would take about 90 minutes. During that time, the pilot, Blee Williams, the port observer, Dr. Craig Taylor from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and I went over the dive objectives for the day. We wanted to test two instruments for Dr. Taylor. One is called the AMS (Autonomous Microbial Sampler) and a trap called "Harold." The AMS has six water samplers that are meant to sample water from the vents. The "Harold" trap is basically a basket of wire and rocks. Dr. Taylor wanted to place the cage over a warm-water vent and leave it for a few days. The expectation is that bacteria will attach themselves to the rocks and grow. When Harold is retrieved, Dr. Taylor will have a huge colony of bacteria to study.

Dr. Taylor ready to descend!

The other dive objectives pertained mostly to the collection of temperature and water samples around vents where Alvinella (Pompeii worms) were growing. The pilot needs to set the sub into a position to take "Sipper" samples. The Sipper is a device that allows a temperature and water sampler to be placed inside an Alvinella tube. Once the pilot finds a "hot worm" (over 50°C), a Sipper sample is taken. The goal was to take 4-6 Sipper samples around hot worms and then to collect some worms to bring back for study.

The third dive objective was to collect a "beehive." This is a very brittle vent structure where extremely hot water is coming out (around 300°C). It's called a beehive because it looks like the beehive hairstyles of the 60's — big and poofy. Scientists from Arizona State University are interested in the water chemistry around these very hot vents. We were hoping to take a Sipper sample at the beehive, collect it, take another Sipper sample, and then deploy a long-term collection device for them.

The dive itself seemed to go by in no time. Once in the sub, we made ourselves as comfortable as possible and watched the view through our windows. I was on the starboard observer's side, so I could only see things happening on the right-hand portion of the sub. There was surprisingly little motion when the sub was lifted off the deck. Once the sub was in the water, the swimmers unhooked the tow line and the huge 6"-thick lifeline from the sub before swimming around to take the lines off the basket. It's pretty cool to watch the swimmers outside the window. Once released, we were able to start our descent to the bottom. By 356 meters depth, it was pitch black, but I could see lots of small bioluminescent critters go by the window. It was like watching a meteor shower underwater. Blee turned the autoheading on to keep us from spinning around as we descended and to keep the sub focused toward the dive area.

Pilot Blee Williams at work.

9:45 — We got to the bottom. We were in 2,502 meters of water — a mile and half below the surface of the ocean! I couldn't wait for Blee to turn on the lights so I could see for myself this fantastic world at the bottom. I've watched an awful lot of video of vent systems and read as much as I can about them, but they hadn't prepared me for my first view. It was awesome in the truest sense of the word. I was overwhelmed by the sight of these enormous pillow lavas with crabs and brittle stars all over them. All kinds of odd-looking fish and eels scurried out of the sub's way. There wasn't much color to this portion of the ocean floor — it was mostly black and gray lavas, but the textures of the rocks were amazing. Some of the lava looked like pulled taffy; some was very rocky and broken off into big chunks. Other spots looked like yawning caverns. These were places where the pillow lava had collapsed after the hot lava under them retreated. There were several of these hollow pillows where crabs stood guard against invaders.

The chimney at Bio-9 from the pilot's window. You can see the port manipulator holding the Sipper in place. You can also see the worms covering the vent site as well as microbial "snow."

Blee asked us to keep watching out the window as a safety precaution. The pilot can't see very far to his left or right and relies on the observers to apprise him of any obstacles that might be a hazard (black smokers, big pillars). No worries about that, I wasn't moving from that window. There are several cameras available to the observers that have views on all sides of the sub, but I wanted to look out the window as much as possible. The only drawback was that the window was is on the side of the sub, and it's uncomfortable to keep watching from that position. You get a big crick in your neck, not to mention that your nose and face need to thaw out from the cold permeating the sides of the sphere.

10:01 — Our first destination was P-vent. It wasn't too hard to navigate from where we came in as the bottom has a lot of markers on it. Nine degrees north is a well-studied vent site, and over the years, the pilots have laid down a "road" of numbered markers along the Axial Summit Caldera (ACS). It kind of reminds me of an interstate system with mile markers and exit signs. It's very easy to follow them to the right vent. We got to P-vent and dropped a new target there. Blee showed us that the biggest vent had fallen over, but the hobo was still there. There were also some Alvinellas around on the big spine, but not enough to take samples from. He says that it's changed dramatically from last year.

On the transect up to Bio-9, we had plenty of time to really look at the seafloor. There was an awful lot of bacteria growing on the basalt. The microbial mats were very thick in areas where there were warm seeps and thinner in others, but it was very obvious. We also saw several pockets of Riftia (the giant tubeworm), but none of them looked very healthy.

Brrrrr! It got very cold after all the lights were turned off. Hepsi really needed another layer of warmth. Good thing the Alvin crew thinks ahead and provides wool blankets. They've had well over 3,800 dives to know how cold it gets.

10:18 — We arrived at "Alvinella Stump" at the Bio-9 vent site. This has been an active Alvinella study site for a few years, but this year, there were almost no Alvinellas found. We dropped another target at the site, and took hand-held video and stills. There was a nice black smoker atop the stump, but no Alvinella. We took some hand-held video through the window to document the lack of worms at the site. Although the sub is bristling with cameras, the pilots routinely take video and still photographs through their window for extra documentation. This is a backup plan in case the cameras don't record.

10:36 — We're on our way to "Fish Hole" to sample with the AMS and leave "Harold." My face was getting numb from the cold, and I had to wipe the window a few times to get rid of the condensation. (By the end of the dive, the sides of the sub were dripping with condensation). When we arrived, Blee told us that "Fish Hole," as we knew it, didn't exist. It's really helpful to have pilots who have been driving over the same spot for a while. They are able to watch the seafloor and vent system changes better than almost anyone else. They clock some serious bottom time. Blee found a new spot to set up the AMS and called it "Neo Fish Hole."

We set up to take Sipper sample #1. It was a little tough to do because the equipment has been arranged on the basket of the sub a little differently. Blee was forced to work through the cameras more than he would have liked to; he was having trouble seeing how things were going out the pilot's window. The first sample was taken in about 10.7°C. A second sample was taken at the same spot in 11.9°C water. So two Sipper samples taken first thing. Easy as pie, right? Not at all. The pilots just make it LOOK easy.

The way that samples are taken and traps are deployed is the most incredible thing (besides the fact that we're on the bottom of the ocean looking at this fabulous world). All of the equipment is loaded onto a platform (the basket) on the front of the sub. It's a grated platform that allows equipment to be strapped on for collection samples. On this dive, we had the "Bio-Box" (also called the coffin) to collect worms and chimneys, there was the DISSR, the AMS, the Sipper, a box called the "Shank Box," the Harold trap, a "slurper" to collect microbial material, and a milk crate to collect rocks in. The pilot uses the manipulator arm to pick up the sampler from the basket, place it where it needs to be, take the sample, and then place the sample back into the basket. Some samples are easier to get than others, but it is really the pilot's skill that makes collecting these samples possible.

The pilot's position is quite uncomfortable. He sits on a little box, leans forward, and places most of the weight of his upper body on his head while he looks out the window and drives the sub. He spends anywhere from four to five hours in that position and gets very cramped and sore. Alvin pilots must have the worst back and neck aches of anyone on the planet.

Back to the dive — 10:55 — We deployed the slurper at Neo-Fish Hole and left it there to suck water through it for half an hour. Dr. Taylor wanted to collect some bacteria from the warm-water vent. Large clumps of bacteria float up out of these diffuse, shimmering areas and they are of great interest to biochemists. We then placed the AMS in the hole. The AMS has six ports on it to collect samples. Each one has a cap on it to protect it during the descent, but we noticed that two of the caps had come off before we got to the bottom and were useless. That wasn't good news, but Dr. Taylor decided to collect the remaining four. We made several attempts to fire off the caps and collect water, but we weren't able to get the pump to pull water through the sample tubes. This was very disappointing as the AMS had misfired on the first dive as well.

Things like this happen frequently. You can plan and tinker and retool your equipment all you need to, take it sampling, and hope for the best. Some of the time, it works; some of the time, it doesn't. That's one of the things that make science so interesting. You have to constantly readjust your plan to do what needs to be done. Dr. Taylor never got any samples on our dive, but he and his post-doctoral assistant, Dr. Stefan Sievert, worked on the AMS for the next 24 hours to get it ready for number 5. They are hopeful about the outcome.

11:29 — We turned the slurper off, stowed it in the basket, and noticed that the Sipper had become entangled in another piece of equipment. Blee spent several hard minutes getting the Sipper up from where it had fallen between two other pieces of equipment. Remember, he can only use the manipulator arm to do this. It's like using a pair of tweezers to pick up a needle from the floor. Not easy.

11:52 — We were able to collect a few rocks and successfully deployed the Harold trap over a warm-water seep. Dr. Taylor will return in a few days to retrieve it and examine the results.

I seem to be the only one who was affected by the cold. Blee put on three pairs of socks and a sweatshirt. I guess he was working too hard to get cold. Dr. Taylor added a pair of socks, but I looked like the Michelin Tire Man in my wool socks, wool sweater, sweats, wool hat, and turtleneck.

12:15 — Atlantis called down to do a speaker check for the phone call. We decided to work right up to the time of the patch from the boat, so we parked the boat (in mid-water) about 2 meters off the bottom. We found that the vent, Bio-9, had very active Alvinella on them. There were poking their bodies in and out of their tubes while we looked them over for potential sampling sites. Between 12:22 and the phone call (at 12:45, we took three Sipper samples in tubes that ranged in temperature from 42 – 61° Celsius.

Hepsi gets a chance to talk to students all over the United States on the first call to the deep.

The phone call from the schools was THE BEST. My thanks to all the participating schools for their GREAT questions for Dr. Cary on the Atlantis and those of us in the sub! It was so cool to hear voices from 3,000 miles away on land plus the 2,500 meters of water we were in. Well done, you guys!

Before moving the sub, Blee needed to stretch, and he let me look for a few minutes at the view through the pilot's window. This is definitely the view to have! Bio-9 is a huge chimney covered with active Alvinella worms. To the right of it is another large chimney that is active. The whole area is covered in bacteria, and large flocks of it float by like snow. All around the site, hot water shimmered its way from the vents out of sight into the darkness above. I could not get enough of looking out the window. The vents themselves look like the drip sand castles I used to make as a child at the beach, only those were minuscule in appearance and were washed away each night by the tide. Some scientists think that hydrothermal vent systems may be where life began, so these structures, and their inhabitants, have been around for hundreds of millions of years. They can grow at a rate of a foot per day and are never exposed to tides. They appear to be ageless. Definitely not like my sand castles.

The other thing I really noticed about the vents and the biology were the colors. I've always thought that the deep ocean was mostly black and gray basalt features punctuated by some white crabs and brittle stars. I couldn't have been more wrong. The array of oranges, browns, and grays are more than any artist's palette can capture. Add to that the brilliant red of the Alvinella and Riftia, and you find that the deep ocean is very colorful indeed.

Back to the dive — 1:29 — We tried to take another Sipper sample higher at Bio-9, but we couldn't get it to fire. We tried several times to get #8 to fire, but ended up taking a sample with #9. We were bummed that a sample had been wasted, but that's the way field work goes. Sometimes, you have to try a different strategy and alter your plan to get what you want.

2:00 — The most intensive collection of the dive started. Several scientists on board need whole Alvinella worms. They have to be plucked off the vent, taken out of their tubes, and placed into a sampler called the DISSR. (Read more about the DISSR later this week!). As you can imagine, the pilot must work hard to "convince" the worms to come out of their tubes and go into the sampler. The DISSR has a small hole where the pilot puts the worm. It is tedious and painstaking work. At the end of an hour, Blee collected one enormous worm, one large, two medium, and two small worms.

During the collection, we watched a hungry crab hang around on the basket trying to get a free meal from the samples Blee was collecting. (The crab swam away when Blee got tough with it.)

2:17 — One of the cameras, the pan and tilt, jammed and was not usable anymore. That was unfortunate as this is the one that really allows the passengers to look around in front of the sub. Just another one of those things.

2:50 — We headed to an unusual marker on the ocean bottom. A former Alvin tech, Dave "Spaceman" Olds, retired in early 2000. He was immortalized by other Alvin crew members Bruce Strickrott and Paul Oberlander as a life-size plywood cutout. Paul laid on a piece of plywood and was traced. They cut him out, painted him holding a multi-meter and pointing at the vents, and then anchored him to the ocean floor near Bio-9. Blee drove over to say hi and take photographs. That's something you don't see every day.

2:56 — We collected an active black smoker for Dr. Taylor's work. This required several attempts as the smokers themselves are very fragile. They crumble when touched and collecting an intact one requires a combination of skill and luck. We got lucky on the third attempt and got a very good sample for Dr. Taylor.

3:05 — Blee advised us that the power was getting low, but that he would make the attempt to place a probe called the "Mosquito." This probe is designed to be placed inside an Alvinella's tube and monitor the temperature of the worm over several days. This is a really tricky placement as the pilot has to hold the sub perfectly still, find a level place for the probe, and stick the wire probe inside the tube without damaging the worm. Blee found a great spot about 5 meters up the Bio-9 vent, but had a lot of trouble maneuvering the sub as we had lost rudder control earlier. There was a good bit of current along the side of the vent and a large smoker directly starboard. Pretty tricky. He made two attempts to place the Mosquito, but was unable to given the conditions.

3:25 — We had to leave the bottom because of power limitations and the fact that the sub has to be back on the surface by 5:00 local time. That is a firm arrival time at the surface.

The surface view from the starboard window. It was great to see the light.

It took us 93 minutes to get back to the surface. We passed the time by chatting about the site and taking pictures. I was a good target for that as I was pretty well a block of ice. Once the lights and thrusters were turned off, it was cold and damp and I got even colder if possible. Good thing the sub has wool blankets on board. I needed it. Blee took the time to really stretch his cramped legs and back. He certainly deserved a break.

I am really impressed with the skill and determination the pilots have to be the best they can at their jobs and their commitment to collecting the best samples for the scientific party. The Alvin crew as a whole are highly dedicated to the operation and maintenance of the sub. They are another example of why the crew on the R/V Atlantis is so highly regarded by both scientists and other research vessels.

Although the Alvin dive is certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most people and is the most visible part of a research cruise aboard the Atlantis, there are many more exciting things going on behind the scenes; there are many more stories to be told. So stay tuned for more Atlantis adventures!