OCEAN EXPEDITION TO 'LOST CITY' USES ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS TO
LINK LAND, SEA-BASED EXPLORERS

July 25, 2005 — A precedent-setting ocean expedition will use "telepresence" to connect Robert Ballard at sea with Chief Scientist Debbie Kelley ashore as they explore the unique Lost City hydrothermal vents. The July 23 through August 1 mission is financially supported and coordinated by NOAA. (Click image for larger view of one of four pinnacles that form the summit of the 200-foot tall carbonate chimney called Poseidon in the Lost City hydrothermal field. The white chimney in the foreground is actively venting 55 degrees C fluids. As the chimneys age, they turn grey to brown in color, such as the one shown towards the back. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit NOAA / University of Washington.)

"Lost City is a remarkable, unique field of tall chimneys that spiral up from the ocean floor, and we are telling its story in real time through a precedent-setting ocean expedition that raises the bar on use of communications technology," said Ballard, University of Rhode Island oceanography professor and the expedition's principal investigator. "Normally, on a deep-ocean expedition, I talk with the mission's chief scientist across a table on the research vessel," he said. "In this case, we talk across the planet.

"Only now has our nation, led by NOAA, created a major program to explore the vast uncharted regions of our planet that lie beneath the sea," said Ballard. "Stay tuned for new discoveries!"

From NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown in the mid-Atlantic ocean, Ballard will communicate with Kelley, who will be in a specially designed command center at the University of Washington. She and other scientists connect to Ballard, and to images from the seafloor, via "telepresence," using high-speed Internet and satellites. "With teams ashore at the University of Rhode Island and University of Washington, more intellectual capital can be applied to the mission," said Ballard. In the past, missions have been limited by ship-to-shore communications capacity, the finite number of berthing spaces on research vessels and by competing obligations, which sometimes precluded top scientists from going to sea.

"Lost City is truly one of the most remarkable places on our planet. Its serendipitous discovery shows that there is still much left to be learned about our oceans and the life they sustain," said Kelley, who with colleagues discovered the field of hydrothermal chimneys in 2000, the first of its kind to be discovered. Unlike "black smoker" chimney vents first discovered on the Galapagos Ridge by Ballard in 1977, the fluid venting at Lost City is not driven by heat from cooling volcanoes, but from heat when seawater reacts with rocks below the field

"NOAA's mission includes advancing the understanding of our planet," said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "These missions to explore little-known deep-ocean areas such as Lost City, are key to expanding that knowledge base."

Fluids in black chimney smokers are hot (reaching more than 700 degrees F), but at Lost City vents are cooler (less than 200 degrees F) and are so alkaline they are similar in pH to products used to unclog household drains. Because of its unique chemistry, the field hosts novel life forms that live in the absence of sunlight, and thrive on methane and hydrogen gases given off during alteration of the rocks.

The Lost City vent field is on an underwater mountain the size of Mt. Ranier, on ocean crust about 1.5 million years old. "Because of its unique chemistry and geologic setting, Lost City may be one of our closest analogues to hydrothermal systems active during early formation of oceans on Earth and other planets," said Kelley.

Beginning July 23, and because of the support of VBrick, EDS and TELEX/RTS, anyone with access to the standard Internet will see live images from the ship at sea and as available, from underwater robots as they explore Lost City's chimneys. Click on "Live Video" at NOAA Ocean Explorer: The Lost City. Telepresence will also connect the ocean expedition in 40 real-time exciting Immersion Presents broadcasts to teachers, students, Boys and Girls Clubs, and audiences at aquariums and museums in the U.S. and Mexico.

Technology will reach the ocean floor when the Institute for Exploration's remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs) ARGUS and HERCULES explore, image, take readings and samples of fluids and animal life at Lost City chimneys. HERCULES has advanced optical and acoustic imaging systems and sophisticated manipulators to document and conduct fine-scale motor operations in deep water and low visibility.

Active for at least 30,000 years, the field is on top of a large submerged mountain called the Atlantis Massif on the mid-Atlantic Ridge, a portion of an underwater chain of mountains that zippers around the Earth for 40,000 nautical miles. There are more than 30 active and inactive chimneys in the field that is at least 1,300 feet long and 1,000 feet wide at a depth of 800 meters, or about 2,600 feet.

Major partners in the Lost City expedition include NOAA, the Universities of Rhode Island and Washington, Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration, JASON Foundation for Education, Immersion Presents and The National Geographic Society.

NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Ocean Explorer: The Lost City

NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown

Media Contact:
Jana Goldman, NOAA Research, (301) 713-2483 ext. 181