Who's Who

Edmond Mathez is a curator in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the American  Museum of Natural History.  Ed is an igneous petrologist, which means that he works on igneous rocks (rocks crystallized from magma or molten rock).  He studies particularly large igneous rock bodies including the Stillwater Complex of Montana and the Bushveld Complex of South Africa.  Both of these complexes contain economically important concentrations (ores) of platinum group metals.  Ed's research on these complexes has ranged from mapping deep in the platinum mines to conducting experiments in the laboratory in order to understand how the platinum gets concentrated in the sulfide minerals in these rocks.  On this cruise, Ed will put his expertise on ores to use in the study of the mineralogy of the black smoker structures, which themselves are sulfide ores.  As the department chairman, Ed also is also kept busy managing the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and developing the Museum's new Hall of Planet Earth.
 
John Delaney is a professor at the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington. As an ore deposit geologist early in his career, he became fascinated with geological processes such as volcanism and geothermal activity that can concentrate metals.  After living in
and working on active volcanoes of the western Galápagos Islands, and diving to the seafloor in ALVIN, he decided to focus on active submarine volcano-hydrothermal systems along the global spreading-center network. Working with a unique set of rocks from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, it became evident that fracturing and mineral deposition on the seafloor
was identical to quartz veins beneath massive copper-iron sulfide deposits on land. The idea that placing instruments within active submarine vent systems would allow direct insights into the formation of metal deposits became a compelling focus for his research. Recognition
that volcanic gases provide a significant nutrient source for the microbial communities at the base of the chemosynthetic food chain demonstrated that submarine volcanoes can support life independent of the sun. The presence of volcanoes throughout the solar system and the
possibility of an ocean and volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Europa converge to make the exploration of volcanoes and life at the seafloor here on earth one of the most effective approaches human beings have of learning to explore other worlds for primitive forms of life.

Margaret Carruthers is a planetary geologist in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the American Museum of Natural History. She has a wide range of scientific interests from geoscience education on Earth to hydrovolcanism on Mars.  At the Museum her work includes keeping the rock samples under control and aiding the development of the Museum's new Hall of Planet Earth.  Previous sample collecting expeditions have taken her to the recently discovered Shona Hotspot in the far South Atlantic, to the platinum mines of  Montana, and into the deep interior of Central Park.  Margaret also enjoys identifying mystery samples from the public and serving as an emergency consultant to desperate fifth graders with overdue rock reports.  On this cruise she will be putting her knowledge of remote sensing and image processing to use in working with the Jason  images of the hydrothermal vents.

Chuck Fisher is an associate professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University. His research interests are centered on the ecology and physiology of hydrothermal vents and cold seep animals.  He enjoys unraveling the intricacies of the interactions between the host and symbiont in the symbiont-containing animals (like the tube worms), as well as designing experiments and instruments that allow us to study the ecology of both individual species and entire communities.  Chuck's most satisfying scientific projects are those that generate real enthusiasm and excitement among the students with whom he works.  Real pleasure, however, comes from skiing, snorkling, or camping with his daughter Lisann.

Deborah Kelley is an acting assistant professor at the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington. Her initial interests at the university included music, Russian, and graphic design, but during her senior year she discovered geology and oceanography.  The
combination of being outdoors and the opportunity of going to sea, along with a newfound excitement of catching a small glimpse of the workings of Earth, pulled her in, and she remains caught.  She had the good fortune early on as an undergraduate and as a master's student of working with John Delaney, who taught her to ask questions and be careful about
what she assumed.  During her graduate studies, she spent two field seasons working on the Troodos Ophiolite in Cyprus, an exposed section of oceanic crust that formed ninety-one million years ago and studied deep-seated plumbing systems that fed submarine hot springs.  As a postdoctoral fellow at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, she continued her studies on fluid circulation in the oceanic crust. Since 1993, she has worked with the hydrothermal working group at the University of Washington.  Her current projects include mapping of
hydrothermal fields on the seafloor and constraining the evolution and distribution of volatiles in submarine environments.  This year she discovered a new joy in teaching and looks forward to advising graduate and undergraduate students. She feels incredibly lucky for the opportunity to be involved in seagoing and submersible studies.  In October 1997, she will spend another two months at sea on the Ocean Drilling Program research ship, the Resolution, which will drill into a crystallized magma chamber at the Atlantis II Fracture Zone (Indian Ocean) that fed eruptions to the seafloor twelve million years ago.

Veronique Robigou is an oceanographer at the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington. In collaboration with a large research group, the focus of her research has been mapping the geology of hydrothermal vent fields and sulfide edifices in submarine volcanic
systems. Early on, these maps served as exploration tools to locate hydrothermal activity on the seafloor, and now she uses precisely navigated, high-precision maps to pursue her interest in how such rapidly changing systems evolve through time. Since her first dive
in ALVIN, her fascination with visiting the ocean depths has never ceased. Each submersible or remotely operated vehicle dive brings back the initial thrill of discovering and exploring unknown territory for the first time. Wherever she is, she cannot help sharing her adventures
at sea with teachers, students, and the general public. More formally, she volunteers as a science partner in several educational programs regionally and nationally. She is a strong advocate of programs like REVEL that promote bridging the gap between high-technology,
state-of-the-art research, and the imagination of the next generation. Her greatest pleasure? Feeling the warmth of the sun on her skin!

NOVA  has been the "star of science television" for more than twenty-four years but has never before ventured to the realm of black smokers.  Producer Susan K. Lewis is thrilled to be on board to capture the unfolding adventures of this  expedition and later to take viewers on their own journey to the deep.  The footage that she gathers this cruise and next summer will be broadcast nationally on public television in 1999.  Susan notes that, no matter how vivid her "vision" may be, she would have nothing to show without the expert skills of cameraman Mark Knobil and sound recordist Andrew Yarme. While they'll leave much of the underwater filming to the ROV Jason  (which fares better under 200 atmospheres of pressure), the NOVA team has brought lights, cameras‹and seasickness potions‹and is ready for action.


© 1997, American Museum of Natural History