A: "No, I have not always wanted to be a geologist. In fact, in fourth grade, which was my introduction to rocks, I hated geology so much--it was just awful. The teacher told us to go out and collect six different rocks and identify them. That is difficult enough for a trained geologist. Imagine a fourth-grader trying to do this assignment!"

Q: What is a Black Smoker and how do they form?

A: A black smoker is a deep-sea hydrothermal (hot water) vent. "The "black smoke" that comes out of a black smoker is actually very, very hot water with tiny sulfur-rich particles in it, so that it looks like black smoke. As these minerals pile up on the ocean floor, they form what are called "sulfide chimneys" or the Black Smoker Chimneys--where black smoke spews out of them. (It's actually not that simple. Exactly how these chimneys form is still a mystery. It's also part of the reason we went on the expedition: to collect the chimneys for further research.)"

Q: What was your favorite expedition?

A: "The fall 1997 cruise was especially interesting because it was a "reconnaissance" cruise, which means that we were exploring and mapping. We took a ship to get out to the site, and then we used ALVIN, a manned submersible, and JASON, an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) to explore the sea floor. We took thousands of photographs and collected sonar data which helped us determine the size and shape of the chimneys. We needed this information before we could try to cut the chimneys down and bring them up to the surface.

"Even though I never went down in ALVIN (I am too claustrophobic), it was very exciting being in the JASON control room, watching the seafloor: the rocks, the animals, the smoke through the cameras. Seeing someone else's photographs or videotape is not nearly as exciting as actually being on the ship and being in control of the ROV. I feel really fortunate to have been on that expedition."

Q: So you've never physically been down there?

A: "No, No . . . ha ha ha."

Q: When you were on the Black Smoker expedition, were there any interesting things you learned?

A: "I learned something really cool about animals that live at the bottom of the ocean. They are different from animals on the surface. For one thing, they live at these extraordinary pressures. Nobody could have dived down at these depths; you would just be crushed completely. And that is why ALVIN, our submarine, was used: it has a six-inch-thick titanium sphere, so that it could not get crushed by the pressure! The pressure is so great that it would feel like 500 pounds pressing all sides of every inch of your body.

"The animals can deal with this kind of pressure. But that means that these deep-sea animals could not handle being brought to the surface. A good analogy is why astronauts wear space suits; they do not only wear them because they need oxygen; the main reason is because astronauts need to be pressurized. If you went out into space without a space suit, and only an oxygen line, leading to Earth, you would explode because there would be nothing to keep your insides inside.

"The water that these deep-sea animals live in is full of disgusting stuff that we would hate. I mean, you wouldn't want to drink this water, even if it wasn't 400 C. But the animals love it. This water is full of hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten egg (fart-smell)--that's what they eat!"

Q: What was the most interesting thing you have found as a geologist?

A: "The most interesting thing that I found was something that I didn't physically find. When I was doing my research on Martian geology at graduate school I found these really cool volcano-like and crater-like structures, and I went on to figure out what they were for my master's thesis. (I did this by comparing the Martian features to similar-looking features on Earth, with photographic analysis.)"

Q: What was the coolest geology fact you've ever heard?

A: "This I only learned recently: the Sun, like the Earth, is four and a half billion years old; but that's half of its age. In another four and a half billion years, the sun is going to expand into a red giant and gobble up the Earth. That's a pretty amazing fact."

Q: Can you tell us something about minerals that few people know?

A: "Water is H₂O. It has a specific chemical composition (which is hydrogen and oxygen). Water is natural. Since water is liquid, it's not a mineral. But ice is solid, and it has a crystalline structure, so ice is a mineral."

Q: But is ice from our freezers a mineral, since minerals cannot be man-made?

A: "Well, I know what you're saying about something man-made not being a mineral, but ice is still a mineral because ice exists naturally. It's the temperature, not a person, that causes the water to turn to ice."

Q: Can you make a rock in a lab?

A: "Yes, but it's a very complicated process. And you can't make rocks as nice as nature makes them because you don't have the time. It can take millions of years."

Q: Is there one goal you are working toward in your research?

A: "I am focusing more on public education than basic research right now. My big goal is getting the public to fall in love with geology, what earth science is, what we geologists do, and what the Earth and the planets are all about. That's a pretty big task, I think."

For more on the Black Smokers, visit the Web site on the Black Smoker Expedition.