QUESTION:

I was wondering if you could tell me what the tempeture of the sea is like. (where you will be exloring the most)?

Student Name:Brooke Ellis
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Brooke! The water temperature varies quite a bit from the surface to the deep-ocean. Where the Atlantis is now, the surface water temperature is about pretty warm, about 29 degrees Celcius (85 degrees F). As you go deeper, it gets progressively colder. At around 2500 meters depth, it's about 2 degrees Celcius (36 degrees F). Around the hydrothermal vents at 2500 meters depth, it can be very hot! The water that comes out of some vents can be as hot as 400 degrees Celcius (752 degrees F)!

QUESTION:

I have heard that the temperature changes when you go deeper into the ocean and that it is extremely different from the temperature that is at the surface water. How much do you say does the temperature change the lower you get?

Student Name:Jessica Austin
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Jessica! The temperature does change very dramatically from the surface of the ocean to the deep. There is about a 27 degree Celcius difference between the surface water and the water at 2500 meters depth. It's warm at the surface (~29 degrees Celcius) and very cold at the bottom (~2 degrees Celcius). The water temperature changes again when you get close to the hydrothermal vents. The water that comes out of vents can be extremely hot, around 400 degrees Celcius!

QUESTION:

Do you love your job and do you put enough commitment in it to mak it look cool?

Student Name:Heather Ridenour
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Heather! I do enjoy my job very much and I feel lucky to have such a cool job. As you can see, we get to be part of very exciting expeditions to collect samples that will help us answer some very important questions. The job can also be very challenging as well and there are days when it can be kind of boring, like any job! Overall, I would have to say that a job in research science (especially marine science) is very fun and gratifying.

QUESTION:

How high does the pressure get when you reach the bottom? Is the pressure strong enough to crush the Atlantis?

Student Name:James Wilson
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 250 times the pressure at the surface, or 250 atmospheres. If Alvin had a hole the size of a pinhole, the jet of water that would stream in could go right through a person. So Atlantis would definitely sustain a lot of damage.

QUESTION:

Have you ever discorvered a new species? If so what did you find? Please write back!!

Student Name:Ashley Yallaly
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Ashley! The types of organisms that we study (microbes and viruses) are incredibly abundant and very diverse. Since there are so many of them in the ocean and around hydrothermal vents, we collect new kinds of microbes every time we collect samples! Even though the microbes may look very similar to each other on the outside (if you look at them with a microscope), the DNA that makes up their genomes is very different and unique.

QUESTION:

How many creatures have you seen and what are they called?

Student Name:Jordan Beck
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Jordan! I've been lucky to dive in ALVIN and have seen some very interesting creatures around the hydrothermal vents. These include giant tube worms, crabs, shrimp, mussels, crabs, octopus and fish! Many of these creatures are very white since they live in complete darkness and don't need to use color as camouflage for protection from predators. There are also tons of tiny creatures that you can't even see without a microscope (called microbes). There are millions of them in just a teaspoon of water and they play a very important role at hydrothermal vents; they're food for all the bigger creatures!

QUESTION:

What kind of viruses are in the hydrothermal vents? What is the hydrothermal vents ecosystem?

Student Name:kriston riddle
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Kriston! Most of the viruses that inhabit hydrothermal vent environments infect single celled microbes (like bacteria) and are called bacteriophages. They outnumber all of the creatures that live around hydrothermal vents, there are millions in just a teaspoon of water! Hydrothermal vents are kind of like underwater volcanoes. They are formed when the tectonic plates that make up the Earth's crust move against each other. Ocean water seeps down into the Earth's crust and becomes very hot and becomes rich in dissolved chemicals and minerals. This water eventually escapes from the crust and the minerals that were dissolved in the water become solids when they come in contact with the very cold water that surround the vents. The mineral solids form the hydrothermal vent chimneys! Lots of animals live around the vents, from tiny microbes that you can't see without a microscope to bigger organisms such as giant tube worms, crabs, fish, clams, mussels, shrimp and octopus!

QUESTION:

Do you think the hydrothermal vents have changed (if they have), because of the environment?

Student Name:Kenzie M.
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Yes. The vents spring up and die out because of changes in the the ocean floor. The vents at the East Pacific Rise (where we are now) formed because two plates of ocean crust pulled apart from each other, allowing the magma below to bubble up. The chemicals in the magma create an environment that can support vent life. But as the plates shift, vents can close up and the garden of life around them dies out -- only to spring up again somewhere else where there's a new vent.

QUESTION:

What is the hydrothermal vents ecosystem like and what kind of fish live there?

Student Name:Ben Glenn
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Ben! Hydrothermal vents form along areas of the sea floor where the tectonic plates that make up the Earth's crust move against each other. Ocean water seeps beneath the crust and becomes very hot. The hot water beomes concentrated with dissolved chemicals and minerals. When the hot water escapes from the Earth's crust, the dissolved minerals becomes solid when they come in contact with the very cold water that surrounds the venting area. These solid minerals form the chimneys that contribute to the vent environments. Lots of creatures thrive off of the chemicals in the hot water that come out of the vents. Bacteria and other single celled microbes really like these chemicals and use them as food. These microbes help support the larger animals that live around the vents (like tube worms, crabs, mussels, clams, shrimp, and fish). There are two main kinds of fish that live around the vents. One is white and one is gray. They are both long and skinny, but the grey one has a bigger head and looks like a tear-drop.

QUESTION:

How cold dose it get at night in the boat ?

Student Name:Conner Gregory
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Not cold at all! We are near the equator, and the temperatures are in the seventies at night.

QUESTION:

Since you are Co-Investigator of the National Science Foundation. What are some of your responsibilities for pre-paring the Atlantis and the Alvin for the dive? :)

Student Name:Sarah Davis
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Sarah! I am a Co-Principal Investigator of a science project to study viruses at hydrothermal vents. This project is funded (or supported) by the National Science Foundation. Our entire group comes up with a research plan together to determine which hydrothermal vents the ALVIN will visit on each dive to the bottom of the sea. The captain and mates of the Atlantis help us by positioning the Atlantis in the best spot (on top of the water)to send ALVIN into the water from. The ALVIN is deployed from the Atlantis in the morning, it dives to the bottom and visits the hydrothermal vents, it returns to the surface after the experiments for the day are complete and then it is recovered back onto the Atlantis!

QUESTION:

Why is it so important for you to have safty suits on?

Student Name:Kiersten D.
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Kiersten, We don't wear the safety suits unless there's an emergency and we have to abandon ship. Then there's the risk of getting hypothermia in the cold water, and that's what the suits protect us from. They are not used on an everyday basis or in the sub.

QUESTION:

What is the "Alvin" made of?[ like what type of metal] and why does it take 2 hours to get to the ocean floor if it's only about a mile and a half down?

Student Name:Zack M.
State:MO Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Alvin's observation sphere is made of titanium, a strong light metal. Its shell is made of syntactic foam -- a material made when billions of microscopic hollow glass spheres are encased in a matrix of epoxy. It takes so long to descend because Alvin doesn't use power during this time; it just drops because of negative buoyancy, meaning it's heavier than the water.

QUESTION:

What is your favorite deep-sea creature?

Student Name:Rylee
State:IN Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Rylee! I would have to say that my favorite deep-sea creatures are viruses. Even though you can't see them. there are tons of them in the water around the vents (millons in a teaspoon!) The ones we study don't infect people, just little organisms called microbes (like bacteria). We think they have very important jobs in hydrothermal vent environments, that's why we study them!

QUESTION:

What happens to the 1000 lbs of lead left at the bottom of the sea every time you dive with Alvin? That seems awful!

Student Name:phil
State:Canada Country: Canada

ANSWER:

 Hi Phil! Actually, the weights are not made of lead, they're made of a type of steel alloy that degrades (rusts) over time. Certain microbes can use the dissolved metals as an energy source. Pilots and scientists in ALVIN also can use them as a kind of sign-post that they are getting near an active vent site. So, it's not as bad as it sounds.

QUESTION:

What is the hardest part of the job?

Student Name:Brianna
State:TX Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Brianna! I guess I would have to say that the hardest part of my job is finding funding (i.e money) to support the science that I love to do. Scientists have to spend a lot of time writing grant proposals that we send to funding organizations (such as the government and private foundations)to ask for research support. Since there are lots of scientists and not a lot of money, this can be a very competetive process!

QUESTION:

Could Pangea have caused the trench?

Student Name:Nathan
State:WV Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Nathan! About 250 million years ago, all of the continents on our planet were joined as one major supercontinent. The tectonic plates that cover the Earth's crust are constantly moving. Sometimes they move apart, sometimes they collide into one another and sometimes one moves under another one. These are the same types of movements that create hydrothermal vents! Over millions of years, these movements caused the supercontinent (Pangea) to split apart into all the continents that you see on a globe today.

QUESTION:

Will Alvin break if there is too much pressure?

Student Name:Caitlin
State:WV Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Dear Caitlin, Alvin could break if it went beyond the depth it was built for, a maximum of 4500 meters.

QUESTION:

In your role in this expedition as an environmental virologist, what can your findings tell us? How will the information be used?

Student Name:Saona Patel
State:NC Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Saona! As an environmental virologist, I am part of group that is researching the viruses that inhabit the hydrothermal vent environments. We are studying how these viruses interact with the microbes that they infect and prey upon. We hope that our experimental findings will tell us how certain groups of viruses differ from one another and how they potentially influence how their microbial hosts adapt to the extreme conditions that characterize hydrothermal vent environments.

QUESTION:

What is the meaning of metagenomics? And will it apply to this expedition?

Student Name:Jazmin Sanchez
State:NC Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Jazmin! The definition of metagenomics is the study of genetic material (i.e. DNA) that is extracted directly from a sample that is collected from the environment. We are using metagenomics during this expedition to study the DNA of bacteria and viruses that inhabit hydrothermal vents. Since we can't culture these creatures very easily, we learn more about all of the members of the community if we use metagenomics!

QUESTION:

Why did you stay on land?

Student Name:Cody Wagoner
State:NC Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Cody! I'm participating in the expedition from land because I had to attend a very important meeting related to another type of science project that we are doing in our lab. Even though I can't be out at sea with the rest of our group, it's been a lot of fun to follow the expedition through the website and I communicate with them everyday through email. We talk about how the sampling and experiments are going, it's almost like I'm there in person!

QUESTION:

How do you find viruses, do you try to find them when you bring a sample up or do you try to find them from the sub? Also, once you find them, how can you tell that the temperature and pressure difference hasn't affected the virus?

Student Name:Kyley Carman
State:OH Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Kyley! Our research group uses a special piece of equipment called the Large Volume Water Sampler (LVWS for short) to collect water from around the hydrothermal vents. This water is sent through a series of filters that become progressively smaller. The really large creatures are not collected, they're too big to enter our sampler. The smallest creatures (microbes and viruses) get caught on the various filters depending on how big they are. Since the viruses are the smallest, they (for the most part) pass through all of the filters and get collected into some water-proof bags! We then send the sampler to the surface of the ocean where we fish it out of the ocean and place it back on board the Atlantis. We then perform a bunch of experiments on the microbes and the viruses. To answer your second question, the change in temperature and pressure that the microbes experience on their trip to the surface probably affects them to some degree. That's why we separate them from each other using the LVWS when they are in their natural environment (the hydrothermal vents). That way, we can be sure that the experimental data we analyze is correct.

QUESTION:

What do you expect the viruses will do to the microbes? What are the viruses benefiting to hydrothermal vents? Are there certain viruses that have a greater effect than others on hydrothermal vents?

Student Name:Max Kaiser
State:WI Country: USA

ANSWER:

 Hi Max! The viruses are going to infect the microbes, create more of themselves (called replication) and eventually blow up the microbial cell. It doesn't sound like a nice process, but viruses actually are an important part of the hydrothermal vent ecosystem. They're important because they help ciruclate the nutrients around the vents that all of the creatures need to survive. We also think that certain viruses may actually help their microbial hosts survive the very extreme (or harsh) conditions that characterize hydrothermal vents. We think they do this by carrying special genes that allow microbes to adapt (or adjust) to these conditions.