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Show 77 SfcGhe h DR. BALLARD explained that the hot springs are associated with volcanic activity on the floor of the world's oceans, caused by the movement of the huge plates of the earth's crust. "Volcanic action in the deep sea is very different from the erupting volcanoes we know on land," he said. "The extreme pressure and cold at the its mother ship, Lulu, together with Woods Hole's research vessel, Knorr, spent seven weeks at the site. Samples of the water flowing into the sea from the underwater vents were collected by the submarine. When tested in a laboratory aboard Knorr, they proved to be rich in hydrogen sulfide. camera sled and a baited "creature camera" devised and USING A TOWED So- ciety photographic specialists, and taking pictures through Alvin's port- holes, the scientists obtained a photo- - DR. BALLARD agreed. Without J .:::&V' Photos by Emory Kristol undersea hot springs might have beenmissed. The phenomenon hadn't been anticipated, and the expedition consisted of chemists, National Geographic Society on ability to develop nearly 100,000 color at the site, he said, some of the information on the teeming life at the "geologists, (cj GIANT CLAM and darker oversixed mussel were found the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by researchers probing hot springs that flow into the sea from volcanic activity beneath the Galapagos Rift. Expecting to find a barren underwater "desert," scientists instead discovered teeming colonies of sea animals thriving around the fissures on the floor of the ocean, where sunlight never penetrates. A "creature camera" devised by National Geographic photographic specialists was dropped over the side to record the marine life. The battery-operate- d camera, in its underwater housing, focused on a basket pressure-resistaof bait suspended in front of its lens. With the basket resting on the seabed at 9,000 feet, the camera's powerful strobe lights illuminated the clams, mussels, fish, and other animals clustered around the mineral-ric- h springs. the photos bottom of the sea quenches and chills the molten rock that erupts from the earth's interior. Instead of exploding, the lava oozes out onto the seafloor like toothpaste squeezed from a tube." The lava swiftly hardens to become new crust, which then is broken by repeated eruptions until in some areas the seabed is reduced to rubble strewn with bulbous "pillow lava." ALVIN AND Galapagos Islands. operated by National Geographic the hydrogen sulfide level of the water in the Galapagos Rift, or both. d which were brought back to the United States for study. The giant clams, nearly a foot in length, were found feeding at the hot springs on the seabed, along with mussels, sea anemones, tube worms, fish, octopus, and other marine organisms. fissures in the ocean floor at the Galapagos Rift, 210 miles north of the le seawater. Hotter vents have been found in the seafloor in other places, but they had little or no marine life, possibly because the water was too hot or did not have hot the seabed where mineral-ricwater flows up from deep in the earth. arm The submarine's also retrieved oversized clams and mussels from the floor of the Pacific, submersible n WHEN THE WOODS Hole Oceanographic Institution last year sent Dr. Ballard to dive with Alvin in the Cayman Trench, a gigantic trough 12.000 feet down in the Caribbean Sea, the National Geographic Society operated a film laboratory aboard Knorr, so researchers could examine the results of their underwater color photography on the spot. Dr. Corliss of Oregon State credited the same method with enabling the Galapagos team to accomplish "five years' work on one expedition." The technique permitted the ship to tow the camera sled on "scouting trips" over the sea floor. Then its pictures would be developed and scientists would select the most promising site for the next day's dive in the submarine or the best place to put the "creature camera" into the water. "Being able to look at 600 feet or more of color film within 12 hours of the time it was exposed let us adjust each day's plan to get the most efficient use of our limited time at sea," Dr. Corliss said. "Ordinarily we wouldn't see the pictures until we returned home. Then it takes two more years to organize another expedition to go back and check out something that looked interesting in the photographs." WHILE THIS PHENOMENON has been observed where shallow water acquires a high hydrogen sulfide content, the dives at the Galapagos Rift provide the first evidence of its occurrence in the deep sea, according to Dr. Holger W. Jannasch, a marine biologist at Woods Hole. One of the chief scientists on the Galapagos expedition, Robert D. Ballard, also of Woods Hole, noted that the water at the mouth of the vents was around 55 degrees F., or about 17 degrees warmer than the surrounding graphic record of dense colonies of marine life clustered around cracks in deep-divin- three-ma- Alvin. the National Science sponsored Foundation, said the scientists believe further analysis will show "there are bacteria in the water from the vents that metabolize sulfur. They subsist on the sulfur in the water and, in turn, are eaten by the clams, mussels, and other animals." Scientists Probe Deep Ocean Floor claw-equippe- the earth, close to the magma chamber the fiery molten rock that produces the volcanic activity. Here it is heated and rises to form the hot water geysers on the ocean floor that Dr. Ballard and his colleagues went to explore in the by THURSDAY. AUGUST 25, 1977 Scientists who dived 9,000 feet to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean report they found marine animals thriving at depths sunlight never penetrates. The discovery was startling because in the sea, as on land, sunlight is the chief source of energy for the food production that supports most life. Researchers from Oregon State University, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insitution, Massachusetts Insitute of Technology, Stanford University, and the U.S. Geological Survey used the g Woods Hole submersible Alvin in February and March to probe The seawter percolates down through the crevices as much as a mile into 'The abundance of marine life was a a wholly unexpected find," said John B. Corliss, an oceanographer from Oregon State University. "The first question, then, was what is the source of food to support these communities?" Dr. Corliss, who assembled the research team as part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration physicists, oceanographers, geophysicists and not a biologist among us," he said. The team reported news of their find to Woods Hole while still at sea, and biologists radioed back advice. nt The Time is Ripe )r I nnnhfSJlAj(ZJk5 190 Freezer Beef Sale! v tjv m t: - BUY ANY NEW AMANA FOOD FREEZER BEFORE SEPTEMBER l m 3, 1977 AND rvtr ww ' ' ftp) fj -- GET 100 LBS. OF TRIMIUERS USDA CHOICE BEEF FOR JUST 19 PER POUND! 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