Sampling hydrothermal iron with adaptive AUV Sentry dives
Image courtesy of Chris German, illustration by Natalie Renier, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
In a laboratory aboard research vessel Atlantis, Chris German watched as data came in from autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry, looking for indications that the vehicle was passing through a plume of fluid released from a hydrothermal vent.
German, chief scientist and a geochemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), wasn’t alone in the lab. He was working with a research team that included people who can model the movement of fluids in the deep sea, computer programmers helping visualize where the vehicle is and what its sensors are picking up, and the engineers who operate Sentry for the National Deep Submergence Facility. Together, they watched the dive information displayed on a wide screen and a fleet of laptops. It was August 2023, and this was a National Science Foundation-funded expedition to the Juan de Fuca Ridge, a hydrothermally active area off the coast of Vancouver, Canada.
They were sampling for hydrothermal iron-which comes out of vents with concentrations 1 million times higher than in normal ocean water making it a major source of a micronutrient that is essential for life.
To obtain these samples, the team was running unusual and uniquely challenging missions with Sentry, which included making real-time course modifications, remotely triggering sample collection from a brand-new version of the Suspended Particulate Rosette Sampler (SUPR), and flying the vehicle in midwater at a constant depth, rather than its more typical mode of navigating at known altitudes near the seafloor. It was also novel for autonomous vehicle operations to have the science party and vehicle team working so closely together in the same lab while Sentry was underwater.
The expedition led to a wealth of samples containing hydrothermal iron and other trace elements, exactly what German and his geochemistry colleagues were after.
Sentry diving with a brand new SUPR sampler designed and built by expedition co-PI Chip Breier (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley).
A missing 90%
In the last decade scientists have discovered the iron that comes out of hydrothermal vents and seamounts nourishes the global ocean, making its way to the surface thousands of kilometers away. But the iron that reaches the surface makes up just 10% of what comes out of hydrothermal vents. The other 90% goes missing within the first 100 kilometers away from the source-if not closer.
At a time when the scientific community is studying how iron helps the ocean draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, scientists like German want to know what allows that 10% to escape the seafloor-and below-and fertilize the ocean. He also wants to know where the other 90% goes. Understanding the journey of this iron to the ocean surface on Earth could also help scientists recognize indicators of habitability-or even life itself-in the oceans of other planets.
The command center for adaptive AUV Sentry missions. Left to right: Guangyu Xu (Applied Physics Laboratory) and Victoria Preston (WHOI and Northeastern University) watch visualsations of Sentry’s sensor data. Sentry expedition leader Matt Silvia works with engineers Renee Gruner-Mitchell and Isaac Van Door as they keep vehicle watch. Photo by Chris German, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Plume forecasting
To get a handle on this problem, German and his collaborators needed samples and data that would allow them to build a three-dimensional model of what happens to the plume of materials released from a hydrothermal vent within the first 10 to 100 kilometers of its origin, something no one had done before.
The science team used a predictive model, developed by Guangyu Xu, from the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory, to anticipate where the plume was going to go. This model drew from continuous, real-time data collected at the Juan de Fuca Ridge at an underwater observatory run by Ocean Networks Canada, as well as other ocean circulation models.
“Guangyu basically generated something like the Weather Channel app’s radar for rainfall prediction,” German said. “It provided us with daily updates showing us where the hydrothermal plume should be going every four hours into the future.”
Visualizing a dive
Once a dive was underway, the scientists needed to know if they were on the right track. Communication between Sentry and the ship is minimal. It acoustically transmits short text messages that communicate vehicle status and some of the sensor data.
That’s where a computer program, developed by Victoria Preston, came into play. Preston is presently a postdoc at Northeastern University, but she first started working on this program as a student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography with Anna Michel, WHOI’s chief scientist for deep submergence, and has used it on Sentry missions in the past.
Preston’s program takes the data that comes back from Sentry and places it on a map. It also plots the sensor data measuring things like methane, reduction in oxidation, particle size, and temperature, so scientists can see if they are closing in on water samples with the chemical properties they are trying to find.
“My research background is thinking about adaptive robotic systems and forward path planning,” Preston said. “I want to give scientists situational awareness while a vehicle is underway and give them information they can act on.”
The ability to anticipate where the plume would go and to determine if Sentry was on the right track combined with the Sentry Team’s flexibility in how they ran the dives, resulted in gallons of water samples to start building the three-dimensional model of what happens to all the iron in hydrothermal plumes.
![The Hydrothermal Estuaries expedition was led by Principal Investigators Chris German, WHOI; Chip Breier, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV); and Kristie Dick, Texas A&M (TAMU). The science party included: Teagan Bellitto (TAMU), Andrew Branch (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Mary Burkitt-Gray (WHOI),
Mary-Kate Dinneen (University of Southern California [USC]), Jess Fitzsimmons (TAMU), Martha Gledhill (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research), Shelby Gunnells (TAMU), Haley Holcomb (University of South Carolina Beaufort), Yerim Kim (TAMU), Rudi Lien (University of Oregon), Sarick Matzen (University of Minnesota), Jim Moffett (USC), Natalia Moore (UTRGV), Pete Morton (TAMU), Janelle Steffen (TAMU), Katherine Thomas (USC), and Guangyu Xu (Applied Physics Laboratory). The Sentry Team was led by Expedition Leader Matt Silvia and included Zac Berkowitz, Justin Fujii, Renee Gruner-Mitchell, Matt Silvia, and Isaac Van Door. Photo courtesy of Chris German, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution](https://ndsf.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/96/2023/11/Plume-Team_2258-ChrisGerman.jpg)
The Hydrothermal Estuaries expedition was led by Principal Investigators Chris German, WHOI; Chip Breier, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV); and Kristie Dick, Texas A&M (TAMU). The science party included: Teagan Bellitto (TAMU), Andrew Branch (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Mary Burkitt-Gray (WHOI),
Mary-Kate Dinneen (University of Southern California [USC]), Jess Fitzsimmons (TAMU), Martha Gledhill (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research), Shelby Gunnells (TAMU), Haley Holcomb (University of South Carolina Beaufort), Yerim Kim (TAMU), Rudi Lien (University of Oregon), Sarick Matzen (University of Minnesota), Jim Moffett (USC), Natalia Moore (UTRGV), Pete Morton (TAMU), Janelle Steffen (TAMU), Katherine Thomas (USC), and Guangyu Xu (Applied Physics Laboratory). The Sentry Team was led by Expedition Leader Matt Silvia and included Zac Berkowitz, Justin Fujii, Renee Gruner-Mitchell, Matt Silvia, and Isaac Van Door. Photo courtesy of Chris German, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Deep collaboration
“This expedition worked so well because of the level of collaboration between the science party and the Sentry Team,” said Matt Silvia, the Sentry expedition leader on the cruise. “The scientists requested a non-standard way of operating Sentry during cruise planning, but all their requests fell within the constraints of what the vehicle can do.”
“Sentry can do missions like this because of the foresight of the people who designed it,” Silvia added. “It’s a hydrostatically stable platform, it has a lot of payload flexibility, and the number of ways people can use it have only increased with its successful track record.”
On the science side, German could not be more pleased with the results of the expedition. “The Sentry Team went above and beyond what the vehicle is advertised to do,” he said. “Victoria was updating her program daily, watching how we were using it and then making it better. She was leading a bunch of hackers, with an incredible intellectual group.”
“Sentry has provided rock-solid reliability within the National Deep Submergence Facility for more than a decade,” German added. “It’s rewarding to see that science users haven’t yet tapped into the full capabilities of this extraordinarily versatile vehicle. There is a lot more still to come.”
-Hannah Piecuch
Thomas Drake, Head, Ocean Battlespace Sensing Department, ONR; Paul Salem, Chair of the Board of Trustees, WHOI; Peter de Menocal, President and Director, WHOI; Aurora Elmore, Cooperative Institute Manager, NOAA Ocean Exploration; Janis Coughlin-Piester; Chief Financial Officer and Office Head for Budget, Finance and Award Management, NSF; Jason Stack, Director for the Ocean, Atmosphere, and Space Research Division, ONR; Kelly Taylor, Ocean Battlespace Sensing Military Deputy, ONR; Linnea Avallone, Chief Officer for Research Facilities, NSF; Liuyi Pei, Program Examiner, Office of Management and Budget; Lisa Radocha, Executive Director, Program Executive Office, Attack Submarines, NAVSEA; Rhonda Davis, Head of the Office of Equity & Civil Rights, NSF. Photo by Danielle Fino, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Summer engineering dives give funding agency representatives an immersion in Alvin operations
In August, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsored three days of engineering dives with human-occupied vehicle Alvin off the coast of San Diego, California. The vehicle team and crew of R/V Atlantis took federal agency representatives from the National Science Foundation, ONR, NAVSEA, Office of Management and Budget, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and WHOI leadership on a short expedition to demonstrate the intricate operations and rigorous protocols that enable safe scientific submersible operations.
With six dives in fifty hours, the expedition was an unusual one, in contrast to Alvin’s science dives which often span daylight hours. Most dives explored a sunken WWII plane that rests on the seafloor at 520 meters deep.
HOV Alvin rests on the port wing of a WWII Avenger off Solana Beach, California. Photo by Bruce Strickrott, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
One of the first-time divers was WHOI president and director Peter de Menocal. “Diving in Alvin was such an amazing experience,” he said after the research submersible returned safely. “Two big takeaways for me: there is no substitute for ‘being there’ in person, and this is only possible due to the commitment and professionalism of the Alvin Team.”
Lisa M. Radocha, NAVSEA’s executive director in the program executive office, attack submarines, was another first-time diver. “It was inspirational to witness the deep knowledge, tremendous enthusiasm, and steadfast commitment of these teams as they operate in the most austere and challenging of environments,” Radocha said referencing the partnership of WHOI, the Navy, NSF, and NOAA. “They are advancing our knowledge of the oceans across a spectrum of important efforts and their work continues to be invaluable to our understanding of undersea domain that is critical for our submarine forces.”
“Bringing members of our funding agencies on board Atlantis during actual Alvin operations was an opportunity to demonstrate how the team works,” said Anna Michel, WHOI chief scientist for deep submergence and chief scientist for this expedition. “The whole ship crew and vehicle team are involved. Every person who dives receives in depth safety training. And I think it really demonstrated the importance of sending humans into the deep ocean.”
ROV Jason assists in the recovery of three autonomous research platforms-two of which were unplanned-during the Visions 23 expedition to the Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Cabled Array.
The PROTATAX23 Science Team and members of the Jason Team on deck of R/V Thomas Thompson. (Photo by Thompson AB Elena Wisecarver, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
The numbers and teamwork that made PROTATAX23 a success
The dives are over, samples are stowed in freezers, Jason is strapped to the deck, and R/V Thomas Thompson is steaming towards port in Newport, Oregon. Just like that, PROTATAX23 is wrapping up. In the ship’s main lab, the science team is starting to disassemble their temporary workspace.
The cruise was a success-with more dives than anticipated, working instruments, and a team that weathered around-the-clock watches and learned new roles with grace. Here are some of the numbers that demonstrate that success.
- 8 dives
- 19 hydrothermal vent sites visited
- 144 total samples taken with Jason
- 1,539.7 meters deepest sample taken
- 25 samples taken from vent fluids over 220°C
- 320°C hottest sample taken
- 1,154 liters vent fluid and seawater collected
- 132 liters filtered on the seafloor by SUPR
- 174 liters vent fluid collected by the Universal Fluid Obtainer and SUPR
- 16 shipboard grazing experiments
- 18 in situ experiments performed by the miniSID
- 109 times people have requested for their on-ship data limit to be reset
- 2 pounds M&Ms consumed by the science party (plain, dark, peanut, and peanut butter, if you must know)
“Our biggest goal was to deploy the miniSID successfully three times and do three shipboard grazing experiments for comparison,” said Chief Scientist and WHOI scientist Julie Huber. “We have exceeded that several times over.”
“It went so well,” said co-PI and Texas A&M professor Sarah Hu. “We have so many water samples that we are using up all the supplies we brought with us.”
“Our instruments working was a huge success,” added co-PI and WHOI scientist Maria Pachiadaki. “And we learned a lot.” Pachiadaki has deployed miniSID in the midwater, but this was the first time it was used for in situ grazing experiments at the seafloor.
The majority of the water samples are going back to Huber’s lab at WHOI, where Hu, along with Texas A&M graduate students Alexis Adams and Kayla Nedd will start processing this summer, and will continue to work on the data from this expedition for years to come.
The science party came from different institutions, experience levels, and points in their careers, and formed a cadence of work at sea. For the Hu Lab, which assembled an on-ship lab from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, it worked seamlessly.
“They had to learn how to prepare for the fluid coming up and adapt to changes at the last minute,” said Hu. “Everyone dived right in. They also made sure their teammates were eating, sleeping, and tracked each other’s seasickness. They have honestly all taken ownership of their work, and it’s been great.”
In addition to assembling a team to accomplish the main science goals, Huber invited scientists and students who also study the vents at Axial Seamount to join the expedition to capture high-temperature vent fluids for geochemical sampling, cultivate heat-loving bacteria and archaea from venting fluids, collect sulfide chimneys for spectroscopic analysis, run a CTD program, and pick up previously deployed microbe bait traps.
“It speaks to Axial Seamount being such a well-studied, community effort,” said Hu, noting how well these different science goals worked in parallel. “We know who needs something here. We picked up other group’s temperature loggers when we were at certain vents and if we had deployed something this cruise, we know someone else would be able to pick it up for us.”
“I am so excited that after years of anticipation and COVID delays, we finally pulled this expedition off successfully,” said Huber. “I have been studying Axial since I was a first-year graduate student and every trip is unique. Everyone here-from the thoughtful ship’s crew to the amazing Jason Team to our wonderful science party-helped accomplish the science goals at Axial Seamount that will deepen our understanding of this fascinating corner of our blue planet.”
– Hannah Piecuch
Jason uses an isobaric gas-tight (IGT) sampler to collect fluids flowing from a hydrothermal vent in the Pacific that supplies chemicals supporting lush, vibrant ecosystems. (hoto courtesy of Stefan Sievert, WHOI/NSF/ROV Jason, 2014)
The ROV Jason Teams’s most memorable dives
The Jason Team knows regions of the ocean floor like other people might know paths in their favorite mountain ranges. They’ve spent hundreds of hours in the ROV’s control van where a bank of screens displays the deep sea from all angles. They’ve driven the vehicle over live volcanos, navigated to new hydrothermal vent fields, and encountered animals of all sizes. We’ve seen our share of breathtaking underwater landscapes during the PROTATAX23 dives, and we’ve heard adventure stories from other Jason expeditions. Here is a selection.
When diving, Jason encounters sea life at every depth. On the descent, especially after dark, the surface ocean teems with gelatinous and soft-bodied animals: squid and jellyfish undulating in and out of view as the vehicle glides towards the bottom. The seafloor has a cast of characters: silvery rattail fish trailing the vehicle, spider crabs climbing into the basket, Dumbo octopuses making appearances. And of course, the worms, mollusks, and bacterial mats that thrive near vent systems.
“In New Zealand, just a few weeks ago, I saw a red squid maybe ten feet long,” said Jason Team member Hugh Popenoe. “It was on our ascent, so the van was empty and no one saw it but Akel [Kevis-Sterling] and me. It approached one of the lights and grabbed it, realized it wasn’t edible and took off. We didn’t get a second look at it. I had to go back into our video recordings to make sure I’d really seen it.”
“I’ve seen it all, glamorous Dumbo octopuses, angler fish with their light and big old teeth,” said Kevis Sterling. “We’ve had sharks aggressively try to intimidate Jason. They come right up to the vehicle and bump into it.”
But perhaps the most memorable sight of deep-sea life that many members of the Jason Team remember involves both seismic activity and creatures. If you’ve followed this team for any amount of time, you might have guessed it: Shrimpquake at Mid-Cayman rise.
Popenoe was in the Jason control van when it happened. “We were on the bottom at a vent that was covered in shrimp and then all the sudden all the shrimp pop up, and a few seconds later there was a sound like the thrusters of the ship being turned on. The geological wave from an earthquake hit the shrimp and then the water wave hit the ship.”
Entering the deep sea at all is a perilous endeavor. Jason must be capable of operating under crushing pressure and any sensor and instrument that dives with it must be too. Anytime the vehicle encounters an erupting volcano, a vent system full of incomprehensibly hot water and tall pillars, or any sea life, the team must take extra care. Any of these things could damage the vehicle.
“[Diving during the West Mata eruption] was one of the scariest moments,” Tito said. “We had a couple events where the vehicle got covered in tetra and rock. We had to use the slurp to vacuum it off for hours before it was light enough to return to the surface.”
Working in the taller vent systems requires careful piloting, added Tito. “Everything is so ethereal, the diffuse flow, the shimmering in front of the worms and such, the hot black smoke coming out and making visibility awful in some directions, but there is a sense of danger because you could melt the tether.”
A lone deep-sea coral keeps a tenuous hold on the volcanically active West Mata seafloor. (Courtesy of Joe Resing, Univ. of Washington/NOAA, NSF/AIVL/ROV Jason 2009 © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Dangerous or not, some of these environments offer a thrill that team members can only compare to science fiction. At one of Jason’s most frequent dive sites, 9°50′ North on the East Pacific Rise, there is a small valley that is about 100 feet wide, or less.
“We were flying Jason through that valley,” said Popenoe, “And the walls and bottom are all black basalt, and it’s so narrow that it feels like we’re flying quickly. It’s like cruising in those channels in Star Wars, when they go to blow up the Death Star.”
Even with all these adventure stories, for many members of the Jason Team, it’s an encounter unrelated to science that encapsulates their work at sea. Several members of the Jason Team on PROTATAX23 were also on an expedition to the Mediterranean in 2011. They were studying hypersaline areas in the Mediterranean Sea that behave like independent bodies of water, with their own shorelines and waves.
“Jason would descend and reach the brine pool and we couldn’t go any deeper,” said Kevis Sterling. “It was like hitting the floor. We couldn’t get Jason through.”
Hypersaline fluids form dense lakes on the Mediterranean seafloor and harbor unique bacteria capable of surviving the high-salt, low-oxygen environment. (ROV Jason Team, National Deep Submergence Facility © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Early in that voyage, WHOI ship R/V Atlantis, responded to a distress symbol from a disabled fishing boat and took 93 Egyptian refugees aboard.
“Some of the people had cell phones and some didn’t have shoes,” recalls Popenoe. “They were on a journey, trying to find a better life for themselves, and it’s one of my strongest memories of doing Jason work, although it’s not science related.”
– Hannah Piecuch
In 2015, Jason explored the inside of the Havre volcano on the seafloor near New Zealand. (Photo courtesy of Dan Fornari and S. Adam Soule, WHOI, and Rebecca Carey, Univ. of Tasmania/NSF/WHOI-MISO)
The ROV Jason Teams’s most memorable dives
The Jason Team knows regions of the ocean floor like other people might know paths in their favorite mountain ranges. They’ve spent hundreds of hours in the ROV’s control van where a bank of screens displays the deep sea from all angles. They’ve driven the vehicle over live volcanos, navigated to new hydrothermal vent fields, and encountered animals of all sizes. We’ve seen our share of breathtaking underwater landscapes during the PROTATAX23 dives, and we’ve heard adventure stories from other Jason expeditions. Here is a selection.
It was 2009. The science team was using Jason to explore the West Mata Volcano near Samoa because there had been a recent eruption detected in the water column. They were looking for seafloor activity, but with no disturbance on the ocean surface and no discoloration of the water, they weren’t prepared for what they found when Jason dove.
“I was in the van when we made our first approach,” Tito said. “And we could see hydrogen explosions happening thousands of meters deep. They looked like balls of flame combusting underwater.”
The lava flow was so fresh they could see features forming on the seafloor they recognized from cooled basalt seen on other dives. “We could see the pillow lava forming,” said Kevis-Sterling. “It was still red and glowing.”
The science team began to improvise ways to collect the fresh lava, recalls Huber. Dating cooled lava is notoriously difficult, and having a sample with a known origin date would be invaluable. “We tried a ladle, a coffee can, and finally settled on spinning one of Jason’s T-handles in the flow.”
The same year, on another expedition, Jason’s cameras captured an erupting undersea volcano near the Island of Guam, NW Rota-1. Kevis-Sterling piloted the vehicle around the eruption.
“It was very active and gaseous, with lava shooting out,” he said. “It is shallow there and was hard to navigate the ROV and the ship. At one point Jason was working near the volcano and it started going bonkers and spewed ash all over it.”
Erupting volcanos are hard to top, but Jason has also explored sites after an eruption and found once-familiar landscapes shockingly altered. A science team that returned to previously explored vents in Lau Basin in 2022 hoping to study deep-sea snails found some of their sampling sites buried deep in volcanic ash from the recent nearby eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai.
“We were expecting diffuse flows, microbial mats, and snails, and instead it was smooth like the surface of the moon,” said a member of the Jason team. “We brought a meter-long measuring stick down and couldn’t find the bottom.” Eventually they did find unaffected areas, but only after navigating down slopes of fine, diffuse ash.
After the last eruption here at Axial Seamount in 2015, the science team returned to a familiar location in the caldera and asked Kevis-Sterling to check the coordinates again. “It was so unrecognizable that they thought we were in the wrong place,” he said. “Everything we’d seen before was paved with lava.”
The discovery of hydrothermal vents was one of the most surprising of the past century, revealing volcanically powered, deep-sea plumbing systems that enable vibrant islands of life that exist without sunlight. In its current second-generation configuration, Jason has often been the first vehicle to explore these sites as they are being discovered, offering video and sampling capabilities as scientists pioneer this field of study.
Even after diving on hundreds of vent sites, it never gets old for members of the Jason Team.
One system that made an impression on Tito is at Lau Basin. Here, some of the vent’s sulfide towers reach 30 meters (100 feet) tall.
“It’s like being in a redwood forest,” he said. “You’re working at the base of one of these towers, and the visibility in the ocean is only about 20 meters (65 feet) at best, but all around you can see the bases of other towers. It’s like being in a forest only with hot smoke pouring out at the top.”
Huber was part of a WHOI team that first explored vents at the Mid-Cayman Rise in the Caribbean Sea in 2012. The rise is home to two very different vent fields, a deep one at a depth of 4950 meters (16,240 feet), and a shallow one at 3,000 meters (9,842 feet).
he slender snorkel of an Isobaric Gas-Tight sampler (IGT) draws a sample of hydrothermal fluids spewing out of a hydrothermal vent chimney on the Cayman Rise as the mechanical arm of remotely operated vehicle Jason holds it steady. (Photo courtesy of Chris German, WHOI/NSF, NASA/ROV Jason 2012, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
“And the deep site has these very tall skinny chimneys, with 398°C (750°F) fluid gushing out the top of them,” Huber said. “I remember there were five of them in a row-very well organized for random geology. They are really breathtaking.”
And then, just 30 kilometers (18 miles) away, the shallow site offers a very different manifestation of hydrothermal activity at a place called the Von Damm vent field.
“There’s no black smoke, all the fluids are clear, and at its summit there is a giant gaping hole so big you could fit Jason inside of it,” Huber said. “You wouldn’t do that of course, because the fluid coming out is about 220°C (430°F) and it is completely surrounded by shrimp. You approach it with the ROV and you feel like you’re just peering over the edge.”
Check back tomorrow, when we’ll focus on some of the spectacular creatures Jason has encountered over the years.
– Hannah Piecuch
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Postdoctoral Fellow Bonnie Teece working with a major water sampler after a Jason dive. These samplers, invented after the discovery of hydrothermal vents, are capable of sampling vent fluid are places where water temperatures in exceed 400°C. (Photo by Hannah Piecuch, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Q&A with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Postdoctoral Fellow Bonnie Teece on her first expedition with ROV Jason
I study fossilized hydrothermal systems, some that were on land and some that were originally under the sea that we estimate to be up to 3.5 billion years old. I study active vents too, and this is the first time I’ve studied them at sea.
Where I work in the Outback-which is what we call the remote desert-like environments where I’m from in Australia-the place where we find these preserved vent systems is called the Pilbara. It’s this incredibly beautiful, dry, red, dusty place that’s a two-hour drive to the nearest town. And it’s hard when you’re out there to imagine that, billions of years ago, this was a system under the sea, like the ones we’re exploring with remotely operated vehicle Jason right now.
I knew it was something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. On my first watch in the Jason control van, I was thinking that it must be very similar to how people watch a rover being operated on Mars. The deep ocean is a difficult place to explore, and we know so little about it. Being able to have this insight into a place so few people get to experience is really special.
I was amazed by how the Jason Team worked together to solve problems. There was a tube wrapped around an instrument and they had to loosen it to get it out. It’s something I’d barely be able to do on land and they are doing it under the ocean. I was also thinking a lot about the organisms that live in the deep sea and the adaptations these tiny little limpets and need to exist, even though it is our same world. It’s mind-boggling.
We are collecting microbial traps that we left near hydrothermal vents. We sent down four different kinds of minerals to see what kinds of microorganisms grew on them:
- Basalt, which is an igneous rock produced from lava.
- Pyrite, which is a sulfur-rich mineral often found at hydrothermal vents, but also associated with the oldest generally accepted evidence for life on Earth.
- Serpentinite, which is an alteration mineral that is produced in hydrothermal vent areas when olivine is altered by water-places like the vents at Lost City are fueled by that process.
- Chondrite, which is a mineral that some meteorites are made from. It’s also what we think the core of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, is made of. Enceladus was recently found to have a big plume that came out of its “tiger stripe region,” scientists think hydrothermal vents on Enceladus might be in that area.
We also sent some glass beads down as controls to see what would grow on just glass without the nutrients found in the minerals. The idea is to see what microbes colonized the traps. I’ll also test some instruments on them using several kinds of spectroscopy to find out how the microbes might have altered the rocks.
This cutaway view of Saturn’s moon Enceladus is an artist’s rendering that depicts possible hydrothermal activity that may take place on and under the seafloor of the moon’s subsurface ocean and that, like Earth, could support life. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via NPR)
Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about how sad it is that the U.S. drill ship JOIDES Resolution is being discontinued as part of the International Ocean Drilling Program. It means less access to a lot of the hard-to-reach areas of the seafloor, which holds a lot of the geological history of Earth. Unless we can get there, we’re missing so much of our own history, as well as the analogs to other planets and moons.
Vehicles like Jason and Alvin have enabled us to see a side of life we wouldn’t otherwise see. The discovery of hydrothermal vents changed scientific fields and resulted in a multi-disciplinary paradigm shift. It’s caused us to rethink the early Earth and where we might look for life on other planets. It’s so important to have vehicles like this to access the deep sea.
-Hannah Piecuch
WHOI Associate Scientist Maria Pachiadaki with her instrument miniSID, which can perform experiments at hydrothermal vents while on the seafloor. (Photo by Hannah Piecuch ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Q&A with WHOI marine microbiologist Maria Pachiadaki on sampling the deep ocean with Jason
What has fascinated me for years are oxygen-minimal zones in the midwater-or mesopelagic zone 200 to 1000 meters (656 to 3,280 feet) deep. In some parts of the mesopelagic, there are areas that are practically anoxic (almost entirely lacking oxygen). Most of the organisms on Earth breathe, but there are some that don’t. Due to the logistics of getting to this part of the ocean, the carbon cycling and nitrogen cycling haven’t been studied well in situ-or in place, without transporting them back to the ship, depressurizing them, and contaminating them with oxygen. I’m very interested in the functions of these species, how they contribute to biogeochemical cycling, and how the communities interact and disperse. Most of this takes place in the midwater, so not near the bottom. In my collaborations with WHOI scientist Julie Huber and Texas A&M professor Sarah Hu, and on past expeditions with my former postdoctoral advisor WHOI senior scientist Virginia “Ginny” Edgcomb, I also study sites on the seafloor, and that is when I work with Jason.
On an expedition like this we rely on Jason for the majority of our sampling: It’s doing fluid sampling, collecting sulfites and ciliate mats-everything we want for biology and chemistry. For me, Jason is placing the mini Submersible Incubation Device (miniSID) on the seafloor, so it can draw water from the source that I want and conduct experiments at hydrothermal vents. The miniSID actually does an experiment similar to the one that Sarah Hu and her team are doing in the lab, but it does it right at the vent and then the instrument comes up with the samples stabilized. After the expedition, we will filter them and use a fluorescent microscope to count cells and compare the results we get from experiments done on the seafloor with the ones that were brought to the surface and the experiments done in the lab.
WHOI Associate Scientist Maria Pachiadaki watching the first deployment of miniSID during PROTATAX23. (Photo by Hannah Piecuch ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
My first expedition in 2011 was WHOI Mediterranean Deep Brines with Jason. I was involved because I was local PhD student from Crete. We were investigating the deep, hypersaline, anoxic basins-underwater “lakes” of extremely salty water with no oxygen. They have so much salt that they won’t take any more, and they are so dense that they cannot mix with seawater above it. Jason was coring the seafloor, and taking samples where you transition from normal salinity into moderate and hypersalinity.
Last year I was in the control van when they were taking a person from total newbie to make them part of the team, and it was really fascinating the care that goes into training. I was like, “Can I be a half-time scientist and half-time Jason Team? Can you train me to be one of you?” It’s pretty cool to see the Jason Team work together. They are on top of things. As a team, they are isolated from the rest of the world for weeks, so they have to do all the troubleshooting on their own. Of course, they have the scientists and the ship’s crew, but it’s a self-sustaining ecosystem. I have been impressed with the care and interest they show with the scientific instruments. I would think a vehicle group would just take care of their own instruments. But they care about the science, as well, and they understand the success of their entire team is associated with the success of the science. They provide amazing support.
It’s so important to everyone who does work in the deep ocean. Jason can operate almost 24/7, its pilots are safe and well rested, and incredibly skilled with driving and setting up experiments. A vehicle like Jason can map things, find new features we’re interested in sampling, and make discoveries. It is our eyes and hands on the seafloor.
– Hannah Piecuch
Jason Expedition Leader Chris Judge (left) acting as deck boss for a Jason deployment. Also pictured (left to right): R/V Thompson AB Kate Varberg and Jason Team members Hugh Poponoe, Akel Kevis-Sterling, and Antonella Wilby. (Photo by Hannah Piecuch, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
An interview with Jason Expedition Leader Chris Judge
I took an atypical path to get here. I went to Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School to study electronics and my first job was soldering circuit boards at a small company. When it was time to look for a new job, I almost didn’t apply to work at WHOI because a four-year degree was written in the [job] description. But I had the technical experience that was needed to do the work and they decided to hire me. After my first project at WHOI wrapped up, I joined the Jason Team. Until that point, my career had unfolded as different opportunities were presented to me, but once I joined the team I wanted to know everything about how the vehicle worked and eventually be an expedition leader.
The expedition leader is the point person for the remotely operated vehicle team, makes the watch schedule, assigns rooms, is the liaison to the science team, and oversees every launch and recovery-regardless of time of day. When I am expedition leader the biggest thing I take into consideration is my team. Nothing is going to happen without them out here. Before an expeditionI meet with the chief scientist, and we go over their objectives. I also let them know that, while we’ll push ourselves to accomplish the science goals, my team’s well-being in all capacities is paramount to me.
One of my most memorable moments in the Jason control van was on a cruise to Lost City, a hydrothermal vent system on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. We came to this perfectly shaped white mound with water bursting out of it. It looked like a flame of water. It was so beautiful. Instead of a yule log at Christmas, that is what needs to be on TV.
Chris Judge (far right) and NDSF Lead Jason Data Engineer Scott McCue in the vehicle control van during a night deployment. (Photo by Hannah Piecuch, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Everyone out here has a home, something they are leaving to be at sea. For myself, it’s a partner, three kids, a dog, a house. At sea, you’re in a confined space with nine other people on a ship of 40 more. We all have the same goal in mind-to support the science-but things happen. We work long days, we get frustrated or upset, and what helps with being away from home is the family that is out here. There are people in this group who have gone through similar life experiences as I have and I’ve cried with people, I’ve laughed with people. You form bonds out here that don’t compare to “land friends.”
When things slow down, we hang a disco ball in the control van and play Mario Kart. We get super competitive and trash talk each other while laughing the whole time. We have coloring books, puzzles, games, origami, and movie nights. There is a guitar in the ship’s Hydro Lab, where our group sits, and people take turns playing. Instead of getting stuck, it’s nice to come together.
I get a lot of sass for my music choices in the control van, but I’ll take it because it puts smiles on people’s faces: Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Ke$sha. But you can’t always have the same playlist-you need to adapt it to the dive, otherwise it won’t hit right.
Jason Expedition Leader Chris Judge (left) acting as deck boss for a Jason deployment. Also pictured (left to right) Jason Team members Antonella Wilby and Hugh Poponoe. (Photo by Hannah Piecuch, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Probably my favorite part of the job is the excitement and enthusiasm that the new science groups bring. We’re operating a vehicle, collecting data in various forms-whether it is video, rocks, biological samples, or anything else. We’re getting things for people who have maybe never seen the seafloor live or been on a ship like this. For them it’s their first time, even though it might be my fiftieth cruise, and that makes this a really satisfying position. As expedition leader I get credit for a lot of the work that we do. While I’m confident in my own abilities, it’s also easy to look good when you have a team that performs so well working with you.
– Hannah Piecuch
ROV Jason first impressions with early career scientists
(Left to right): Texas A&M graduate student Kayla Nedd, WHOI Guest student and Scripps Institution of Oceanography postdoc Emilie Skoog, and Texas A&M graduate student Alexis Adams processing fluid samples just procured in the deep ocean. (Photo by Hannah Piecuch ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
When Emilie Skoog got her first glimpse of the ocean floor, she was in the control van of ROV Jason. She had been there since launch, watching the sunlit blue of the surface ocean grow darker, watching marine snow drift up throughout descent, catching glimpses of jellyfish and squid.
“We started approaching Anemone Vent and there were these palm-like tubeworms swaying,” she recalled. “The water was shimmering. I don’t know what I had expected, but I didn’t know it would be so beautiful. It felt like it was part of a different planet. I cried.”
Skoog’s first Jason dive took place during PROTATAX 2022, when she was a WHOI guest student working with Julie Huber on a doctoral generals project at MIT. This year, Skoog is part of the expedition before she starts a postdoctoral position in microbial oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She is working with Texas A&M professor, and former WHOI postdoc, Sarah Hu, on microbial grazing experiments.
Kayla Nedd is starting her graduate studies on PROTOTAX23. In fact, this is her first week as a Texas A&M PhD student in Hu’s lab, and her first time working with an ROV. During the first Jason dive, Nedd went into the control van hours before her scheduled watch just to see what was happening-she was still there an hour and a half later.
“It was surreal seeing Jason work,” she said. “When you see how huge this vehicle is you wonder how it is going to maneuver around the seafloor. And then you see it in action. It is capable of a lot. I watched it collect gas samples, sulfide pillars, ciliate mats.”
The range of what Jason can do continues to make an impression on Skoog, as well. “It can lift heavy things and drive across the seafloor, but it is also agile. It can place probes in tiny vent holes and loop bungee cords on the scientific basket. With Jason, you can get samples of anything-even things as small as viruses.”
Scientists wait to unload sulfurous seafloor samples after a Jason dive. (left to right): Jason Expedition Leader Chris Judge; Texas A&M Professor Sarah Hu; WHOI Guest student and Scripps Institution of Oceanography postdoc Emilie Skoog; and Texas A&M graduate student Kayla Nedd. (Photo by Hannah Piecuch ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Alexis Adams is also in her first week as a Texas A&M graduate student. “When I think of a robot, I often think of something simpler than Jason,” she said. “I was impressed seeing the whole process: on the deck, in the water, the quality of the images in the van, and then it actually came up with the samples and I was all adrenaline. The smell of sulfur hit me. It was go-time.”
Processing water samples captured earlier in the same day was a unique experience for Adams. “I could actually see the particulate matter in the fluid and there was a shrimp on the filter. I like field science because you get stinky and dirty and work from base one.”
“It might be weird, but I liked the smell,” Nedd added. Being in the field to collect the samples that she’ll work on back at the university lab is a unique opportunity this early in her studies. “I am at sea before I’ve been in the lab. I’ll know exactly where these came from.”
A vehicle like Jason offers access to an environment where there is a lot of room for early career scientists to grow, Adams and Nedd agreed.
“Hydrothermal vents are essential to the health of the whole ocean, and we didn’t even know about them a few years ago, Adams said. “That is something that really interested me about this field: it is a new frontier. There is so much that no one has studied.”
“Sometimes, during my undergraduate, we’d ask why a bivalve was a certain color and my professor would say ‘we have no idea,'” Nedd said. “There is so much to discover, especially in the deep sea. I think the possibilities are endless using a vehicle like Jason.”
This is one way to start a PhD in Oceanography. At sea! From Texas A&M: Alexis Adams, Sarah Hu, and Kayla Nedd. (Photo by Hannah Piecuch ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
– Hannah Piecuch