‘This Is the Frontier’
One of the primary aims of the expedition was to check out what’s known as hydrothermal vents—fissures on the ocean’s floor that expel warm, mineral-filled water and provide a home to all sorts of fascinating creatures and lifeforms. Hydrothermal vents were only first documented in the late 1970s, so we’re still learning a lot about how they work and the life inside them, as well as discovering new vent locations around the world.
The hydrothermal vents in the Gulf of California are unique from others observed elsewhere in the world, thanks in part to the heavy sediment levels that help change the chemical makeup of the water.
“The deep ocean is still one of the least explored frontiers in the solar system,” said Robert Zierenberg, one of the expedition’s lead researchers and an emeritus professor of geology in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Davis. “Maps of our planet are not as detailed as those of Mercury, Venus, Mars, or the moon, because it is hard to map underwater. This is the frontier.”
