Objectives: The goals for this independent laboratory exercise are: (a) become better acquainted with the geologic characteristics of oceanic ridges and hydrothermal vents, (b) familiarize yourself with some of the tools used in deep sea exploration, and (c) gain some insight into the nature of oceanographic expeditions and life aboard a marine research vessel.

Background: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is one of the world's premiere marine research centers. It does both geological and biological research. The website you will be visiting for this assignment has been prepared for educational purposes, but WHOI is primarily a research organization. Increasingly, however, Wood's Hole is involved in educational outreach.

Instructions: Answers are located at the italicized web addresses in each question. When you click on the link, the web page will open in a separate window. You should close the window after you finish with the question(s) for that webpage. The underlined phrase that precedes some questions is a menu item on the left-hand side of WHOI's Dive and Discover East Pacific Rise webpages. You will probably want to print a copy of this webpage before you begin.

Notes: (a) For each question, record the rejected answer on your Scantron. (b) You must do your own work (i.e. work independently) on this exercise.

Go to http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/expedition2/index.html
1. Mission & Objectives - Confirm two and reject one:
____ (a) D & D's 2nd voyage (1/27–2/8/2000) dived a site about 1500 miles east of Ecuador
____ (b) the Pacific and Cocos Plates diverge at the East Pacific Rise (EPR)
____ (c) when scientists dived the EPR in 1991, they saw an active volcanic eruption

2. Mission & Objectives - Confirm two and reject one: A team of scientists is visiting the EPR with Alvin -
____ (a) to study the area's gravity and magnetic fields
____ (b) to sample and study a newly discovered deep sea fauna that reside on the EPR
____ (c) to sample the EPR's lava flows and hydrothermal vents

Go to http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/ridge/index.html then click on the "Mid-ocean ridge interactive" and follow the menu items as indicated.
3. Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) fault scarps at slow spreading ridges are higher than those at fast spreading ridges
_____ (b) the axial trough is where most lava eruptions and much hydrothermal venting occur
_____ (c) the Earth's magnetic field has "flipped" almost fifty times in the last few 100 m.y.

Go to http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/vents/index.html then click on the "Hydrothermal vents  interactive" and follow the menu items as indicated.
4. Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) hydrothermal vents produce water heated to temperatures over 500^o C
_____ (b) hydrothermal fluids contain a variety of dissolved minerals including metals
_____ (c) white smokers are cooler than black smokers and lack dissolved metals

5. Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) most known hydrothermal vents occur along oceanic ridges
_____ (b) passage through a hydrothermal vent has only minor effects on sea water chemistry
_____ (c) the effluent from hydrothermal vents called "black smokers" is fluid not smoke

Go to http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/ventcd/site_index.html and follow the links associated with "A Scientific Revolution: Major Discoveries".
6. Confirm two and reject one of the following statements concerning hydrothermal vents:
_____ (a) photosynthesis does not form the basis of vent ecosystems
_____ (b) geothermal heat drives chemosynthesis and supports a thriving vent community
_____ (c) gold and silver leach from ocean crust and commonly precipitate onto the sea floor

Go to http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/tools/alvin.html
7. Confirm two and reject one:
____ (a) at maximum depth, working time on the bottom is about four hours
____ (b) DSV stands for Deep Surveillance Vessel
____ (c) Alvin can hover over the bottom, or move about under its own power

8. Confirm two and reject one; Alvin is probably best known for -
____ (a) recovery (i.e. salvage) of a lost hydrogen bomb from the Mediterranean Sea
____ (b) exploring deep-sea hydrothermal vents
____ (c) surveying the sunken ocean liner Titanic

Return to http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/expedition2/index.html click on "Daily Updates" and select the date indicated below from the calendar near the upper right-hand side of the page. Alternatively, for your convenience, I have provided hyperlinks below.

9. Daily updates, Jan. 27 - Confirm two and reject one:
____ (a) the scientists were shown how to put on "Gumby suits" during a fire and boat drill
____ (b) all diving scientists must go through a topside orientation, in part to observe their reaction to the cramped quarters of the Alvin
____ (c) the menu aboard the research vessel appears very vegetarian-friendly

10. Daily updates, Jan. 28 - Confirm two and reject one:
____ (a) today the crew prepared and deployed the Towed Camera Sled (TCS)
____ (b) according to a sidebar on this page, avoiding unintentional grounding -- and keeping out "the Big O" -- are vital to the integrity of Alvin's electrical systems
____ (c) while still underway to the dive site, this day was primarily spent getting acclimated to the sea and getting equipment ready for use.

11. Daily updates, Jan. 29 - Confirm two and reject one:
____ (a) Alvin's mothership is the RV Atlantis
____ (b) Alvin uses a satellite-based global positioning system to navigate the sea floor
____ (c) a deep dive on Alvin would probably be problematic for scientists with a shy bladder

12. Daily updates, Jan. 30* - Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) the camera on the sled seemed to be suffering from the Y2K bug
_____ (b) the research tools on board functioned with no major problems
_____ (c) the nighttime TCS surveyed more sea floor than the daytime geophysical survey
*Note: on PC's this page's text is "buggy"  (seems to work fine on Macs though); I contacted WHOI about it, but they've not responded.

13. Daily updates, Jan. 31 - Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) hull maintenance was an important part of the crew's work day
_____ (b) apparently, camera sled surveys are conducted around the clock
_____ (c) only minor technical difficulties were encountered today

14. Daily updates, Feb. 1 - Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) today's itinerary includes vent mapping and videography, along with fluid sampling
_____ (b) the camera batteries ran down prematurely, but no other major problems occurred
_____ (c) "penetrators" connect controls inside Alvin to equipment on its exterior via wires passing through the titanium hull

15. Daily updates, Feb. 2 - Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) the crew successfully recovered the temperature probe at a black smoker vent
_____ (b) longer charging time did not solve the camera battery problems
_____ (c) the grab sampler worked flawlessly in recovering a lava sample from the sea floor

16. Daily updates, Feb. 3 - Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) to date, the TCS has provided almost 10,000 digital images
_____ (b) due to their tight work schedule, expedition scientists were excused from today's shipboard safety drill
_____ (c) today's dive traversed about 7.5 kilometers of sea floor; the gravimeter, magnetometer and video worked perfectly

17. Daily updates, Feb. 4 - Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) one of the TCS's batteries exploded, damaging the camera irreparably
_____ (b) the port thruster is temporarily out of commission until it can be inspected inshore
_____ (c) the cruise will be cut short two days and tomorrow will be the last geophysical dive

18. Daily updates, Feb. 5 - Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) the camera crew experienced difficulties keeping the TCS off the bottom overnight
_____ (b) heavy downpours interfered with the crews' duties several times before today
_____ (c) the North-South gravity "tie-line" should provide the same data value at each crossing point if the earlier East-West measurements were accurate

19. Daily updates, Feb. 6 - Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) according to "Today's slideshow", the temperature of "P Vent" is 376° C
_____ (b) nearly every dive of this cruise averaged more than 5 hours of bottom time and survey distances of 7 km
_____ (c) according to the sidebar "Today's weather", the sea condition was "rough"

20. Daily updates, Feb. 7 & Feb. 8 - Confirm two and reject one:
_____ (a) Alvin made its last dive on Feb. 6 and then "headed for the barn"
_____ (b) the chief scientist declared that all goals were met & the working hypothesis verified
_____ (c) the sea state was calmer on the transit home than on the last dive day