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The Earth's longest mountain range is underwater. Called the Mid-Ocean Ridge system, it is over 56,000 kilometers (35,000 mi) long and snakes around the globe like a zipper or the stitching on a baseball.

The East Pacific Rise is part of this system. This ridge is in a geologically active area, where the Earth's tectonic plates are moving apart and new seafloor is being born, giving rise to hydrothermal vents, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

The East Pacific Rise was discovered during the Challenger expedition in 1875. Over 100 years later, in 1979, the submersible Alvin made its first trip to the East Pacific Rise and revealed "black smokers" spewing super-heated water.

vent

The East Pacific Rise is one of the fastest-spreading sections of the Mid-Ocean Ridge system. While many tectonic plates move about as fast as your fingernails grow, the plates here move an average of 14.2 cm (5.6 inches) each year.

Click on the red stars and Alvin to find out more on the key stops of our journey to 9 degrees North. map3


On November 29, 2003,
an international research team led by University of Delaware marine scientists set sail from Manzanillo, Mexico, on a 23-day expedition to explore hydrothermal vents at
the 9° N dive site along the East Pacific Rise. This geologically active area
is part of the Mid-Ocean Ridge system.

Click on the icons at right to learn more about key locations on the team's journey.
San Diego University of Delaware
Manzanillo
Dive location 1.5 day journey to and from the dive site (xxx nautical miles)
Tectonic button
Fast Fact
Click her to reveal the tectonic plates which surround our expedition site.

The Pacific Ocean is the largest body of water on Earth. This great ocean is larger than the total land area of the world. It's about 15 times the size of the United States and contains about 25,000 islands. Its average depth is about 2.8 miles. To learn more,
More about the Pacific Ocean.

sextonHow do mariners find their way on the high sea? Modern-day sailors rely on several high-tech tools such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), a satellite-based radio navigation system initiated in 1973 by the U.S. Department of Defense for military applications. Today, the GPS system is widely available for civilian use. It can provide users with accurate information about their location at any time, in any weather, anywhere in the world.

Twenty-four GPS satellites circle the Earth twice a day, transmitting signal information. GPS receivers compare the time a signal was transmitted by a satellite with the time it was received. The time difference tells the GPS receiver how far away the satellite is. By taking distance measurements from several more satellites, the receiver can compute latitude, longitude, altitude, and time.

The U.S. Coast Guard requires mariners to know celestial navigation to operate a vessel more than 200 miles offshore. By using a traditional navigational tool such as a sextant (represented in the graphic above), mariners can determine their location by measuring the vertical angles between two or more stars and the horizon line. This sighting process is called "shooting a star."


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Earthquake Zone!Check out some of the recent earthquake activity near our Extreme 2003 dive location.
Virtual Expedition How many nautical miles will the Extreme 2002 crew travel to and from their dive location? How dee is the ocean?

 

What's it feel like when you're descending in the submersible Alvin? Where is the Earth's longest mountain range? Contact Us

 

Copyright University of Delaware, November 2003