WEBVTT

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The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is
literally a mountain range that

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divides the Atlantic Ocean into
two: east and west. It extends

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on its northern extent to just
northwest of Greenland and it

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goes all the way down almost
into the Southern Ocean to

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about the same latitude as the
southern tip of South America.

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Plates that form the surface of
the Earth are splitting apart.

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The plates come apart and the
molten rock underneath it is

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coming up and that causes new
crust of the Earth to be formed

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and it pushes those plates
apart. And that's what's created

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the Atlantic Ocean in the first
place.

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It's like a line. It's like a
zipper running all the way down

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the Atlantic, and that zipper is
literally opening and being

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replaced by hot molten rock
that binds to the edge of the

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crust and so we're always
making new seafloor.

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The southern part has actually been
pretty well mapped and partly

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explored because of there's a
lot of hydrothermal vent

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activity that takes place there
but north of the Azores,

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there's very very little that
we know. In fact, there are

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virtually no good bottom
topography maps for more than

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300 miles north of the Azores,
and so this is one of the

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things that we're going to be
doing on this expedition is

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trying to create some good maps.
and once you have the maps and

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you have a better knowledge of
the bottom, then that induces

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exploration and asking
questions about, well, oh, what

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will we find in this kind of
habitat and that kind of habitat?

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So, north of the Azores, very,
very poorly explored.

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There has been work done previously here
but it's been hit and miss.

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It's been very sporadic and
it's been more of work of

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opportunity so as the ship is
transiting through here to get

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to another location they might
stop, they might do a little

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multibeam mapping. They might take a
geological sample. But in terms

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of the number of dedicated
expeditions just to exploring

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this area, it's really few and
far between so that makes it

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really exciting. In the deep
sea, in these very specialized

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locations called hydrothermal
vents, bacteria are feeding on

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energy from inside of the Earth
and they are becoming the base

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of the food chain for lots of
other really interesting and

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endemic organisms. So we're
really hoping that we can

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discover some hydrothermal
vents. Um so far as I know

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there's only been one or two
that have been discovered north

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of the Azores and so this may
be an opportunity to discover more.

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It's always exciting
because we have some

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predictions of what we're
going to see and very often

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they're upended. I think one of
my most memorable views was on

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dive one when we were climbing
this slope that was a pile of

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coral rubble at first, and it
was kind of interesting to see

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all these dead coral skeletons,
but perhaps a little bit

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depressing and wondering why we
weren't seeing the live ones,

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and then we came into this
field of just brilliant yellow

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among this you know completely
black deep sea and this field

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went on and on and on for tens
and tens of meters. Eguchipsammia

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stony coral just a spectacular sight
that I've never seen before.

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One of the things that I I really
found most beautiful to me as a

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geologist was some of those
beautiful pillow formations we

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found and those beautiful
pillow lobes especially there

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was there's one that we came
across that look like it had

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been just snaking down this
small hill and it had gotten to

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a point where the the outside
crust had become too cold for

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it to continue and then there
was this beautiful breakout

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where the head of it had been
fragmented and then this

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beautiful other pillow lobe
pushed right out of it and and

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that was a textbook example of
how those those form and push

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forward. The other thing that I
I really appreciated was you

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know having Scott here as a
biologist. Uh I haven't had

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this opportunity before to be
side by side with someone in a

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completely different discipline
and an expert in their own

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field and and realizing this
really beautiful intricate

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codependent relationship on the
geology and the biology. These

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pillow lavas that we see
provide homes and structures

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and and little refuges to the
biology and then the biology

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also helps precipitate some of
the weathering of the of those rocks.

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We found very high
abundances, high density, high

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diversity sessil communities,
corals and sponges, all kinds

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of color, lots of abundance
from the moment we hit the seafloor

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to the moment we left. And
these are some of the places

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that we have some sense are
down there, but we don't know

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for certain. We don't know
exactly where they are. We're

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still trying to learn why do we
see such communities in this

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place and not that place. Um to
see them is really important

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for conservation and management
knowing the places that perhaps

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we want to protect these
organisms are very long lived.

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Really exciting to get down
there.