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Meet the Team: Dr. Deborah Kelley
Dr. Deborah Kelley is an Assistant Professor in the School of
Oceanography at the University of Washington. On this
expedition, she will be the chief scientist aboard the John P.
Tully, the research ship that will lift the targeted black
smokers off the seafloor. She talked to us about life in a
submersible and aboard ship, and the challenges of trying to
bring up a smoker.
NOVA: What was the most dramatic submersible dive
you've ever had?
Kelley: The most dramatic for me was the first dive.
You're nervous, you don't know what to expect, and you're
afraid of doing something wrong. And there's always so much
build-up—two years of writing proposals and stuff to get
the project going.
I was nervous, but I was never worried. When they closed the
hatch for the first time, I thought, well, I'm stuck in here.
The water was an incredibly iridescent blue color. The sub
sinks about 25 meters a
minute, and it starts getting darker and darker, and then it
looks like you're floating through the stars: these iridescent
or phosphorescent critters float by the window. Then it's
dark, and you just keep floating down. It takes about an hour
and a half. Right before you hit the bottom, they turn the
lights on, and you see a completely different environment.
The startling thing for me was that, on a first dive into a
new area, no one's ever seen it before. If you're not near a
vent area, it looks like a desert. There are hardly any life
forms at all. It looks almost like a moonscape, only
underwater. There are big pillow flows and some sediment,
depending on where you are. Then as you start traversing
towards the venting area, the biology increases, and you see
things like crabs and tubeworms. The first time I saw a black
smoker, it was pretty incredible. They just come out of the
middle of nowhere, and all of a sudden there's just this huge
effusion of biology, a little oasis compared to the area
around it.
NOVA: What's it like inside the submersible during a
dive?
Kelley: It's not a very comfortable environment. It's
very small. I usually dive with people who are tall, so their
feet are in my face for most of the dive. It's cold. They keep
the oxygen low, for safety reasons. There are constant pinging
sounds and little odd noises. The windows are very close to
the floor, so you're always kind of curled up in a fetal
position, looking out the window. And it's tiring. The very
first time I dove, I was completely amazed that I fell asleep
on the ride up. I was so excited, and then we just all knocked
out.
But it's really peaceful. There's always good music in the
sub. People are in a good mood, and everyone's chattering
away. So it's just a fun environment to work in.
NOVA: Is it frightening not knowing where you are, or
is it exhilarating?
Kelley: No, I love just wandering around. You just
don't know what you're going to come up on. Especially if
you're looking for an area of potential venting. It must have
been like when they explored the West and were going across
mountain passes, never knowing what was on the other side.
NOVA: Is descending to the depths similar to traveling
into space?
Kelley: Yes. You're in a very small, enclosed capsule
in an environment that's difficult to get to, on a mission
that takes several years to plan. It involves working with a
lot of people very closely. It's very similar to what happens
on the space shuttle: The night before you dive, a whole
sequence of plans and goals are laid out. It's not just your
science; it involves a whole bunch of other scientists who
have also worked very hard to have that project come to
fruition.
And you know that outside of your capsule you're not going to
survive very long. You're dependent on that equipment to get
you through. So you have a lot of faith in the people that
have worked on that—on the sub or space
shuttle—that they've done whatever they can to make sure
that it's safe.
NOVA: Why do you think that the first fields discovered
were given these very colorful names of Rose Garden and Garden
of Eden?
Kelley: Hydrothermal vent systems are remarkably
colorful. The sulfide materials, when they're fresh, are this
nice orange yellow color. You'll see mats of microorganisms
coating the chimneys that are bright orange and, at times,
bright blue. The tubeworms, if they're active, have white,
almost plastic-like shells or tubes, and inside are bright red
worms. The colors are really vibrant, once you get up close to
the structure.
It's also a contrast thing. Ten meters away, it's black. You
don't see anything. So, you're driving along in a sub in a
dim, ghostly environment, and you see little wisps of things
out of the sub window, but if you're not close to them, none
of those colors really come out. Then, all of a sudden, you
get up close to something that's pumping out 400°C
(752°F) fluid, and there are bright red animals, and
white crabs and limpets and snails. The contrast is pretty
startling. I never get tired of it.
NOVA: You discovered the Mothra field, the one from
which you'll try to pull up black smokers. What was that
like?
Kelley: It was during a cruise in 1996. We spent a lot
of time exploring with a tool that looks at the water column
and can tell if there's some kind of hydrothermal signature.
We were able to pinpoint a place within about 50 meters that
we were pretty confident was an active area of black
smokers.
We took the sub down, started wandering around, and came upon
some structures that were about 18 meters (60 feet) tall. They
were all aligned with one another and looked like picket
fences. They were much different than sulfide structures to
the north, which are large mounds and have very large flanges.
These structures were very tall pinnacles, some of them fairly
active black smokers that are covered in animals. You can't
even see the minerals underneath the structures, because
there's so much biology covering them.
NOVA: Is it exciting to be taking part is something
that has never been attempted before?
Kelley: There's a lot of excitement in the recovery
project. It's exciting, but it's also scary. People have put a
lot of energy into this. We're all waking up at three in the
morning. We decided we might as well have meetings at three in
the morning now, because Le, John, and I wake up then, and as
soon as we wake up our brains click in, thinking about the
project.
NOVA: What will it be like being the chief scientist
aboard the Tully?
Kelley: I've looked forward to being a chief scientist
for a long time, but it's hard to get a feeling for what that
kind of responsibility feels like. It's one thing to go out
there as a scientist: you know your job and you just do it.
But it's another thing to make sure that everybody is getting
the kind of science they need to get. Especially on the Tully,
it's going to be complicated, because there will be a lot of
scientists. Everybody wants a piece of the rock, and you want
to make sure that happens.
NOVA: How hard will this recovery attempt be?
Kelley: It's a very hard environment to work in. You've
got a mile of water above you. You're using a joystick to
manipulate a remotely operated vehicle. We hope we know the
sizes of the structures and how hard they are. Nobody's ever
cut into these things with a chainsaw. We don't want to cut
into one of these structures and have it fall over. We want to
cut into it, but have it pinned to its stump, and then have
tension so that we can haul this thing under the water under
semi-controlled conditions.
If it falls over on the seafloor, it's not a disaster, we can
still pick up the cage, but what if we cut into it, we don't
cut enough, and we end up anchoring the ship to the seafloor?
We have contingencies for that, but those are the kinds of
problems you have to think about.
The other thing is, you have to haul this thing up through a
mile of water, it weighs 15,000 pounds out of the air, and you
have to physically transfer it from the sea's surface when it
could be quite wavy. How do you lift this thing up onto the
deck? We have special winches to do that with, but you have to
make sure it's good weather.
NOVA: You always have to be prepared for stormy seas,
right?
Kelley: The lucky scientists get to go in warm weather
conditions, where it's nice and flat and the seas look like
mirrors. But in the northeast Pacific, we are hardly ever that
lucky, and weather's just a thing you have to deal with. You
always plan for a couple of weather days, and if you're lucky
it's only a couple. During a storm, even things that are tied
down can move. When you see 30-foot waves hitting a ship and
the whole ship stops and shudders, it gives you a new view on
safety.
NOVA: What is it about heading out to the wide, open
sea that inspires people?
Kelley: I love going to sea. I like being away from
lots of people and being able to look out on the horizon. You
see birds, waves, clouds. You can see forever, and it can be
very peaceful. It can also be tense at times, when there are
storms. But it's just so different than anything you
experience on land. Things are well-defined. You have a very
specific purpose, you're away from telephones, and it's a
really directed part of your life. I like being with a bunch
of people working towards the same thing. For three weeks,
everybody has the same goal, everybody's working long hours,
and then if you're lucky, you have success. And you can't ask
for much better.
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Kelley |
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