Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vents: The Hidden World Beneath the Pacific That Shapes Life on Earth

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Far beneath the surface of the Pacific
Ocean, nearly two kilometers down,

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there is a place where the earth
is actively tearing itself apart.

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Molten rock rises, superheated fluids
burst from the sea floor, and entire

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ecosystems thrive without sunlight.

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This hidden world does not just
shape life in the deep ocean.

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It also influences chemistry,
biology, and circulation across

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the entire Pacific Basin.

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Today we are taking you to that
place on this episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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Let's start the show.

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Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to another exciting episode
of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host, and/or Lewin, Marine
biologist and science communicator

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here to tell you what's happening with
the ocean, how you could speak up for

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the ocean, and what you can do to live
for a better ocean by taking action.

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On today's episode, we are continuing
our monthly episode of Surfacing Secrets,

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explore the Ocean and Know the Planet, a
series created with Ocean Networks Canada

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to bring the deep ocean to the surface
through science story and discovery.

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In this episode, we're gonna
be diving into the endeavor.

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One of the most active and intensely
studied hyperthermic vent fields on

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earth endeavor sits along the Wanda Fuca
Ridge off the coast of British Columbia,

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where new ocean crust is continuously
being formed and where seawater is heated

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to hundreds of degrees before erupting
back into the ocean as black smokers.

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To help us understand why endeavor
matters, how it works, and why

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scientists around the world
are so focused on this site.

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I'm joined by two experts
who know it intimately.

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Steve Mahaley is a senior scientist
with Ocean Networks Canada and has

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spent more than a decade working
directly with Endeavor through one of

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the world's only cable observatories.

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Lawrence Coogan, who's the professor
at the University of Victoria, and

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a geologist who studies mid ocean
ridges, volcanic systems, and the

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geochemical processes that connects
Earth's interior to the ocean above.

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Together we explore what makes endeavors
so special, how life survives in

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extreme conditions, and why this site
influences the entire Pacific Ocean and

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what it can teach us about the origins
of life on Earth and possibly beyond.

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I can't wait for you to
listen to this interview.

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So here's the interview with
Steve and Lawrence in Joy,

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and I will talk to you after.

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Hey Steve.

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Hey Lawrence.

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Welcome to the How to
Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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Are you ready to talk about the endeavor?

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Absolutely.

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Certainly.

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Awesome.

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I am looking forward to this.

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This is gonna be, uh, so much fun
'cause this is, uh, something that

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uh, you know, it's such a big part
of the Ocean's, ocean Networks,

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Canada, and, you know, we haven't
had a chance to really explore this.

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So we're gonna take this time to explore
endeavor, the significance of it,

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what is so special about it, and why
we love talking about it so much and,

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and why we like studying it so much.

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And I think it's gonna be a, a lot of fun.

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So what we'll do first is we'll just
start off just by introducing yourself.

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So Steve, why don't you just let
us know, you start, let us know

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who you are and what you do.

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Uh, Steve Mahaley, uh, basically senior
staff scientist at Ocean Networks Canada.

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And, uh, and my responsibilities
are, are in for Endeavor are

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the work we do at Endeavor.

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So that's, that's the connection.

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Love it.

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Love it.

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And, and Lawrence, how about yourself?

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Yeah, I'm, uh, I'm Lawrence Cogan.

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I'm a professor in the school of o
Earth and Ocean Sciences at eVic,

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and I've spent my career working on
various aspects of Midian bitches.

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So that's my link to Endeavor.

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Awesome.

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So why don't we just start
off, um, you, Lawrence, you can

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start off what is Endeavor like?

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What is it so that people can kind
of get an idea and get a picture

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of what it is in their head?

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Yeah, so Endeavors a, a Midian village.

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So around the bottom of the world's
oceans, there's like 65,000 kilometers

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of, uh, mid ocean villages, which are
submarine volcanoes and endeavors.

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Um, one of these, um, in the north
northeast Pacific, the, um, where new

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ocean crust is continually created,
um, where seawater circulates down into

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that ocean crust and gets heated to four
or 500 degrees Celsius before venting

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at black smokers on the sea floor.

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So.

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So this, like for you as someone like,
like someone who studies rocks and

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volcanoes and everything, this is like,
this is, this is your special, this is,

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this is like the thing for you, right?

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This is where, this is your,
your, this is the endeavor.

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This is your thing to study.

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Yeah.

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I mean, endeavor's one of the greatest
places on the planet to look at

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these because, uh, there's so much
access through things like the ocean

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networks and, uh, observatory and
previous studies that people have

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been doing since the eighties there.

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Yeah.

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So it's really well understood
area and yeah, it's, these are the

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most active volcanoes on the planet
even though we don't see them.

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'cause they're covered by the ocean, so.

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Right.

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It's an incredible place to study.

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Now there are a lot of areas around the
endeavor, you know, that have hydrothermal

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vent and everything like that.

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And even just around the world,
what sets the endeavor, Steve, why

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don't you just answer this one.

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What sets the endeavor apart from
other hydrothermal vent fields that

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are, that are around the world?

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That's a, you know, actually that's
a, a pretty important question.

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Um, but basically it's just the
sheer magnitude of hydrothermal

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venting that's occurring there.

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That's, you know, a lot of
people say, well, there's, this

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one's a medium spreading perfect
example of a medium spreading.

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Uh, you know, speed is spreading
is, is, is in the middle.

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So you actually have time to, to have life
forms, uh, make use of the hydrothermal

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venting and, and actually have a
succession of, of, uh, of ecologies there.

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Uh, but the sheer magnitude, there's,
there's an incredible amount.

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There's five major vent fields there.

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Um, if you go down south on the
Wanda Fuca Ridge, you get to other

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areas where you have a, you're in a
Caldera and, and it's far less active

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in, in the hydro, uh, the actual
movement of water through the cross.

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And, and it's unclear.

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Lawrence probably has pretty
good idea why it's so active.

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Uh uh, but.

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I, I don't know.

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It is a very, uh, very
special, uh, venting site.

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It could strictly, you know, if you
wanna just go to the, the brass tacks

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or the whole thing strictly because the
sheer magnitude of venting that's going

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there and to, and they're different
from, you know, two kilometers away.

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Uh, vent sites will have a totally
different look to them because of

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the different, uh, uh, GE geological,
uh, water interactions that occur.

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And, and you can, you know, we're just.

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We're just scratching the
surface of trying to understand

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what's going on there.

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Unreal.

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And it's been, it's been studied for
quite some time as Lawrence said.

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Like that's, that's pretty cool.

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You know, Steve kind of opened
up the question, Lawrence,

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I'm gonna have you answer it.

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Why is there so much volcanic
activity in the, in the endeavor?

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Yeah, I mean, I guess I'd answer
this question a little differently

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and, you know, um, we've studied such
a small fraction of the sea floor.

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We don't actually know what most of the
Mid Ocean Bridge network looks like.

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So there's very few places we've studied
and, and like as much detail as endeavor.

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There's just not the resources to study
everywhere like this Um, So there may,

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well, in fact there are other places
that are just as active as Endeavor And

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then there are other places that aren't.

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And it's really, um, a combination like
Steve says, of, uh, the crystal structure

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Um, So how the faults allow fluid to
get into the sea floor, um, and just

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temporal variations or changes in the
amount of volcanic activity over time.

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But I. I think there are other
places that are similarly active.

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It's just mm-hmm.

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That we, we don't have enough areas
we've studied in detail to know, um,

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know how unique endeavor really is.

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Right.

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But there are plenty of other places
that are just as active for sure.

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Yeah.

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Interesting.

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Now a, apart from the volcanic activity,
why is the endeavor considered like such

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a valuable location for ocean science?

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Steve, do you want to answer that part?

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Well, basically it's, it's close by.

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It's in our, that's what
I go very fundamental.

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Uh, you know, lots of things
are pretty fundamental.

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Like, it's, it's within our EEZ, our
exclusive, exclusive economic zone.

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We can get to it.

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Uh, and, uh, and we basically, uh,
I think the, these, these kind of,

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the, these websites like endeavors
only, uh, discovered in 1984.

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So this is a very new kind of thing
happen, you know, that, that we didn't

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know about before that, uh, it was.

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Postulated speculated, but we,
we actually didn't, you know, the

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first event, I can't remember, early
eighties Endeavor 84, they finally

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actually, uh, got Alvin down there.

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And so, oh yeah, there's a whole bunch
of stuff and, and there's a whole

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bunch of life associated with it.

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I mean this, so, so it's basically,
we realized pretty, the scientific

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community realized pretty soon
that something had to hap this is

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very special area, easy to access.

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So it was made into a Marine protected
area quite, you know, in the 2000 or so.

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So it was very quickly, um, uh,
protected because also what vent sites

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are basically ways of aggregating
or concentrating minerals and, uh,

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some minerals concentrate there, you
know, there's gold, there's, you know,

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copper, there's all kinds of stuff.

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So it's an ideal, uh, place to mine.

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In fact, like, uh, mines on.

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On the actual, you know, uh, sub aerial
or terrestrial mines are often, were

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old, uh, hydro hydrothermal vent sites.

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So the, the Rio Tinto.

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Oh, interesting.

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Yeah.

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Rio Tinto mine, the Red River or, um, in,
in Spain, one of the first places where

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they, you know, they move out of the Stone
Age was, uh, basically a hydrothermal

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venting site prior to being a mine.

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I did not realize that and
being my land, that's it.

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Yeah.

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So yeah, you're move, you're move,
you're concentrating, uh, minerals

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in an area and obviously, you know,
once you con do that, people wanna

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come by and mine it, so we rich.

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Yeah.

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You know, we, it's two kilometers
down, so it's not that easy to mine.

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So we, uh, the community realized that,
and the fact that this had so much

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attention and basically, uh, even the
scientific, uh, you know, exploration

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could be damaging to the actual
environment itself, uh, just right.

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There's quite a, if you go down there,
there's quite a, we have quite a few

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things on the sea floor there, so you have
to, we have to be quite careful on, on, on

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recovering our stuff and, and keeping the
place, uh, yeah, as pristine as we can.

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You know, with all this, like these vent
fluids, they go all over the place, you

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know, they go out, they shoot up into the
water column, but I've heard that they

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can like, be traced across the Pacific.

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Like how does that, how can you trace
that and like, what does it tell us

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about these vent fluids, you know, just
in general in terms of their, their,

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their patterns of how they spread out?

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Uh, Lawrence, can you
answer that for that?

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Sure.

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So I mean, we trace a, um, mainly
by collecting samples, fluid

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samples from, uh, the ocean.

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And so you go out on a ship and you
lower, um, what's called a CTD rosette

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instrument allows us to collect water
samples And then, uh, we bring them

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back to the lab and you analyze the
composition of them and you can see, uh.

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Key element in isotope, uh, tracers
that tell you that fluid has interacted

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with those hydrothermal fluids.

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And it's always at the
same depth as a ridge.

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So it's about two kilometers
depth in the Pacific.

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Right across the Pacific, there's
a region and it's enriched in

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elements like iron, uh mm-hmm.

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So that's the iron that's coming
out with the hydrothermal vents.

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It's building the chimneys.

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Um, but it's also been spread right
across the Pacific and people are

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really excited about that because
s uh, limiting micronutrient in

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the ocean and parts of the ocean.

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Mm-hmm.

226
00:11:55,860 --> 00:11:59,250
So everything needs it, uh,
for primary productivity.

227
00:11:59,610 --> 00:12:03,450
And so knowing we have this
source, um, of iron and to Deep

228
00:12:03,450 --> 00:12:07,740
Pacific is really interesting
to, uh, biologic oceanographers

229
00:12:07,740 --> 00:12:09,630
as well as geologists like me.

230
00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:10,020
Yeah.

231
00:12:10,590 --> 00:12:13,830
So the, these, so these fluids
go around like the, the bottom of

232
00:12:13,830 --> 00:12:15,180
the ocean, they kind of travel.

233
00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:17,910
There's just, is it just 'cause
there's like these deep sea

234
00:12:17,910 --> 00:12:19,020
currents that take 'em around.

235
00:12:19,020 --> 00:12:19,740
How far?

236
00:12:20,115 --> 00:12:22,064
Off the, the hydrothermal events.

237
00:12:22,064 --> 00:12:26,985
Will you get traces of that,
that vent fluid, you can trace

238
00:12:26,985 --> 00:12:28,185
it right across the Pacific.

239
00:12:28,185 --> 00:12:32,714
So 4,000 kilometers across the
Pacific, these fluids have been traced.

240
00:12:33,314 --> 00:12:34,365
Uh, yep.

241
00:12:34,485 --> 00:12:38,295
And you can see that the, sorry, I didn't
mean to, that's through isotope analysis.

242
00:12:38,295 --> 00:12:41,745
Like looking at the, the specific
aspect of that vent fluid that

243
00:12:41,745 --> 00:12:43,064
comes from, from endeavor.

244
00:12:43,365 --> 00:12:43,605
Yeah.

245
00:12:43,605 --> 00:12:47,714
Isotopes and even just the abundance
of elements like ion Gotcha.

246
00:12:47,714 --> 00:12:52,155
Or even very small particles of,
uh, the minerals that lack smoke.

247
00:12:52,214 --> 00:12:53,355
That gets very diluted.

248
00:12:53,355 --> 00:12:56,385
But you can still trace those
particles right across the Pacific too.

249
00:12:56,865 --> 00:12:57,525
It's incredible.

250
00:12:57,885 --> 00:12:58,785
That is incredible.

251
00:12:58,785 --> 00:12:59,505
That is incredible.

252
00:12:59,505 --> 00:13:03,285
Now with all that happening, you
know, you get, you know, these, the

253
00:13:03,285 --> 00:13:06,735
areas can be hotter in temperature
in these, around these vents.

254
00:13:06,735 --> 00:13:10,214
And, um, there's a lot of, uh,
stuff that's coming out that, you

255
00:13:10,214 --> 00:13:11,925
know, we wouldn't be able to handle.

256
00:13:11,925 --> 00:13:13,665
Like if we were out there,
obviously with pressure.

257
00:13:13,665 --> 00:13:16,935
But even if it was at the surface, uh,
it wouldn't, it wouldn't be good for us.

258
00:13:18,105 --> 00:13:22,845
But biodiversity is pretty, like,
is is pretty high around endeavor.

259
00:13:23,145 --> 00:13:24,495
Steve, why is it so high?

260
00:13:24,500 --> 00:13:28,035
And, and, and why is that such like
an impressive thing to, to under,

261
00:13:28,095 --> 00:13:30,225
like, to, to see around the endeavor?

262
00:13:31,545 --> 00:13:35,895
Well, probably it, it, it's, it,
you know, its, it's hard to, you

263
00:13:35,895 --> 00:13:41,175
know, compare biodiversity as
for, uh, terrestrial biodiversity.

264
00:13:41,175 --> 00:13:45,105
This, the whole ecology there
is based on a totally different,

265
00:13:45,405 --> 00:13:47,415
uh, you know, uh, function.

266
00:13:47,415 --> 00:13:50,115
Basically it's, it's chemosynthetic base.

267
00:13:50,115 --> 00:13:53,325
So basically it's, uh,
the, the bottom layer.

268
00:13:53,385 --> 00:13:58,995
Instead of being green plants, there is
this sort of, uh, uh, uh, uh, utilizing,

269
00:13:59,145 --> 00:14:04,335
uh, the chemicals that are coming outta
the actual, uh, vent fluids, uh, to make

270
00:14:04,335 --> 00:14:08,025
a, a, a, a entire ecological system.

271
00:14:08,025 --> 00:14:08,385
So the.

272
00:14:08,985 --> 00:14:10,515
The diversity is different.

273
00:14:10,605 --> 00:14:11,205
It's totally different.

274
00:14:11,205 --> 00:14:12,465
It's, it's nothing at all.

275
00:14:12,465 --> 00:14:17,205
Like what we have on, you know, there's,
there's animals that have adapted to it.

276
00:14:17,205 --> 00:14:20,115
There's, you know, all these,
there's skates there, there's giant,

277
00:14:20,475 --> 00:14:23,455
uh, crabs that are white there
and, and things like that mm-hmm.

278
00:14:23,505 --> 00:14:28,365
That are living off these guys that
are only endemic or only found in

279
00:14:28,365 --> 00:14:34,095
that, that specific area based on, on
this chemosynthesis uh, uh, process.

280
00:14:34,485 --> 00:14:35,685
So it's hard.

281
00:14:35,865 --> 00:14:37,695
Why, why is it biodiverse?

282
00:14:37,695 --> 00:14:44,385
Well, um, it's basically, it, it, we,
you know, it's been around, we figure

283
00:14:44,385 --> 00:14:47,295
for at least a thousand years there
that this venting is, is, is happening.

284
00:14:47,295 --> 00:14:50,835
That's a rough guess of what,
but it changes quite a bit.

285
00:14:50,835 --> 00:14:55,665
So right now we're going through
a, a, uh, cycle that we believe for

286
00:14:56,655 --> 00:15:00,465
pretty simplistic reasons, uh, it is
a 20 year cycle that, uh, you have

287
00:15:00,465 --> 00:15:05,175
increased sort of activity and that's
gonna change the ecology of one area.

288
00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:09,210
Too hot for the animals that happen
to be there, and some of them are not.

289
00:15:09,210 --> 00:15:09,330
Right.

290
00:15:09,540 --> 00:15:11,250
Some of it is, is platonics.

291
00:15:11,250 --> 00:15:12,390
So float around.

292
00:15:12,540 --> 00:15:15,690
Other guys are attached to something
and if it gets too hot, they, they die.

293
00:15:15,690 --> 00:15:17,100
If it gets too cold, they die.

294
00:15:17,400 --> 00:15:21,660
So there, there's, so you have
a, a succession of, of, uh,

295
00:15:21,660 --> 00:15:23,340
of biology that can occur.

296
00:15:23,340 --> 00:15:29,460
And, and you, uh, you know, uh,
adaptation processes that have been

297
00:15:29,460 --> 00:15:32,115
going on for, you know, thousands
of years have, have mm-hmm.

298
00:15:32,195 --> 00:15:34,620
Built a whole different diverse community.

299
00:15:34,650 --> 00:15:38,310
And the inter, the more interesting
thing about it is the fact, even though

300
00:15:38,310 --> 00:15:42,000
these are localized into certain areas,
like the endeavor segments sits, you

301
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:45,780
know, 300 kilometers offshore and
the next section is, is well down

302
00:15:45,780 --> 00:15:47,370
the ridge where there's other Yeah.

303
00:15:47,460 --> 00:15:50,280
Uh, there, there's
interconnectivity between.

304
00:15:50,805 --> 00:15:51,195
The ridge.

305
00:15:51,285 --> 00:15:54,105
So they, they're showing that
there's certain, you know, certain

306
00:15:54,255 --> 00:15:58,725
why, why is there, why are the same
creatures living at, at Endeavor

307
00:15:58,725 --> 00:16:00,225
that are living somewhere else?

308
00:16:00,225 --> 00:16:04,245
If, if they're, they're not, they're not
isolated because the ocean itself, right.

309
00:16:04,245 --> 00:16:09,675
As, as we're, as, uh, Lawrence was
saying, basically it is interconnected all

310
00:16:09,675 --> 00:16:13,245
along really long timescales, so mm-hmm.

311
00:16:13,245 --> 00:16:18,945
The, basically the oxygen oxygenated,
uh, water's ventilated in the, in the

312
00:16:18,945 --> 00:16:23,235
Arctic and the Antarctic, and it sinks
down, it gets cold, sinks down, and it

313
00:16:23,235 --> 00:16:25,605
ends up at Endeavor in a thousand years.

314
00:16:25,755 --> 00:16:25,815
Yeah.

315
00:16:25,815 --> 00:16:29,985
It's about a thousand year cycle, so it's
gonna go, it's all connected somehow.

316
00:16:29,985 --> 00:16:30,045
Yeah.

317
00:16:30,495 --> 00:16:35,025
Generally when it's in the ocean, you
are, you're stuck with, uh, mixing

318
00:16:35,025 --> 00:16:39,435
processes that slow, you know, slow
down the, uh, the, the vertical,

319
00:16:39,495 --> 00:16:41,475
uh, sort of, uh, travel times.

320
00:16:41,925 --> 00:16:45,915
And that's why you can pick up, uh,
the, these signals at the depth of

321
00:16:45,915 --> 00:16:49,935
event many, you know, hundreds of
kilometers away from national event site.

322
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:52,290
Because it's not gonna go up and down.

323
00:16:52,290 --> 00:16:54,750
It's, but it, it has no
problem going side to side.

324
00:16:54,750 --> 00:16:57,689
It's, uh, it's once it's got
its neutral density, it's, it's,

325
00:16:57,750 --> 00:16:59,010
that's, yeah, that's where it goes.

326
00:16:59,010 --> 00:17:03,720
And these currents that we don't fully
understand, because models aren't that

327
00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:07,889
concerned about the, the bottom of the
ocean, the models are there basically

328
00:17:07,889 --> 00:17:11,460
to make sure that the atmosphere
models are doing the right job.

329
00:17:11,460 --> 00:17:12,660
Because that's the big reason.

330
00:17:12,660 --> 00:17:15,389
We, we wanna know where we live, what,
what the weather's gonna be, for sure.

331
00:17:15,389 --> 00:17:17,069
Not necessarily at the
bottom of the ocean.

332
00:17:17,460 --> 00:17:21,599
So we often have a very confused view of
what's happening in the, in the deep sea.

333
00:17:22,170 --> 00:17:25,980
And that's a major area of,
of scientific research that.

334
00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:30,390
Hopefully we're helping out by this
observatory that we have there.

335
00:17:30,510 --> 00:17:31,200
Yeah, absolutely.

336
00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:34,170
When I, I also think too, like the
biodiversity, like with the amount of

337
00:17:34,170 --> 00:17:38,130
different species you get there and,
and such a unique set of species because

338
00:17:38,130 --> 00:17:42,030
of the, the, the harsh conditions for,
you know, for the, your quote unquote

339
00:17:42,030 --> 00:17:45,990
regular species that we know and find
around, I would imagine it, it offer a

340
00:17:45,990 --> 00:17:50,220
bit of protection from other predators
around that because those predators

341
00:17:50,220 --> 00:17:54,690
probably wouldn't be able to go into
those areas to eat those crabs or, or

342
00:17:54,690 --> 00:17:56,580
eat those skates or, or things like that.

343
00:17:56,580 --> 00:17:57,840
Would that be a fair assessment?

344
00:17:58,380 --> 00:17:59,100
It seems to be.

345
00:17:59,100 --> 00:18:03,090
I've never actually read any, uh,
particular sort of thing, but tho

346
00:18:03,090 --> 00:18:07,050
those, those giant crabs, those white
crabs that you might've seen, yeah.

347
00:18:07,140 --> 00:18:10,890
Um, if you pull a bunch of two berms,
for instance, which are full of mm-hmm.

348
00:18:11,130 --> 00:18:14,610
Blood basically, and they're
very tasty for crabs.

349
00:18:15,105 --> 00:18:16,725
They're not on the actual venting sites.

350
00:18:16,725 --> 00:18:17,565
They're not, they're not.

351
00:18:17,625 --> 00:18:18,975
They're, they don't go there.

352
00:18:19,215 --> 00:18:23,145
But when you go to sample it, you can't
get back to the, uh, you know, back

353
00:18:23,145 --> 00:18:26,295
to your little trailer that you're
gonna bring it up to without these

354
00:18:26,745 --> 00:18:29,745
crabs chasing you down and ripping it
outta your hands and trying to eat it.

355
00:18:30,315 --> 00:18:31,815
It's, it's serious.

356
00:18:31,815 --> 00:18:35,115
They're, they don't look like they're
moving very fast, but they get there.

357
00:18:35,115 --> 00:18:35,235
Right.

358
00:18:36,225 --> 00:18:38,625
Once they see that, oh, there's
one, it's just like, there, it's,

359
00:18:38,625 --> 00:18:41,955
And then they've got, they're,
I dunno why I, I, I can't see.

360
00:18:42,010 --> 00:18:44,175
They're, they're just, I That smells good.

361
00:18:44,175 --> 00:18:44,235
Yeah.

362
00:18:44,865 --> 00:18:46,065
So they do avoid it.

363
00:18:46,305 --> 00:18:50,055
Uh, probably, probably, uh,
heat, probably chemicals.

364
00:18:50,055 --> 00:18:51,014
There's lots of chemicals.

365
00:18:51,135 --> 00:18:53,895
I, but I, I'm, I'm not a biologist.

366
00:18:53,899 --> 00:18:55,004
To, to, yeah.

367
00:18:55,004 --> 00:18:57,014
And I don't know, Lawrence,
you don't know how to, Ian.

368
00:18:57,720 --> 00:18:59,985
I, I, I just know they're
never on the actual events.

369
00:19:00,195 --> 00:19:00,375
Yeah.

370
00:19:00,375 --> 00:19:04,665
No, I'm not a biologist either, so I,
uh, you can't really, I didn't know that

371
00:19:04,665 --> 00:19:08,145
about the crabs coming in to get their
tube worms, so, oh, they love them.

372
00:19:08,145 --> 00:19:09,645
They gotta get, they love
those tasty tube verbs.

373
00:19:09,645 --> 00:19:09,855
Yeah.

374
00:19:10,785 --> 00:19:14,655
Uh, well, I mean, you know, we're looking
at just sort of what you mentioned, how

375
00:19:14,655 --> 00:19:17,955
things move and like they, they kind
of like, you can see things happening

376
00:19:17,955 --> 00:19:21,705
over thousands of years and, and how
they move from ridge to ridge and stuff.

377
00:19:22,455 --> 00:19:27,045
Can you see, like, like, can you answer
questions about just not only evolution

378
00:19:27,045 --> 00:19:30,405
of, of some of the species that are down
there, but also just the evolution of

379
00:19:30,405 --> 00:19:32,325
the vents and the ridges that happen.

380
00:19:32,865 --> 00:19:38,355
You know, like what questions about, you
know, life and evolution can, you can

381
00:19:38,355 --> 00:19:43,335
be raised through research at Endeavor
Lawrence, do you, have you done any kind

382
00:19:43,335 --> 00:19:47,325
of like, thought on that, especially
when it comes to like how dynamic it can

383
00:19:47,325 --> 00:19:49,215
be with all these volcanic eruptions?

384
00:19:49,965 --> 00:19:53,115
Yeah, I'm certainly no expert
on this and I don't work on it,

385
00:19:53,115 --> 00:19:54,405
but I know of people who do.

386
00:19:54,405 --> 00:19:56,715
So, yeah, you can certainly, um.

387
00:19:57,615 --> 00:20:04,335
Uh, trace that there are different, um,
different things live at different vents

388
00:20:04,335 --> 00:20:06,765
and how interconnected the species are.

389
00:20:06,765 --> 00:20:11,715
Depend on how long it is since there
was a straightforward geological pathway

390
00:20:11,715 --> 00:20:13,905
between one set of vents and the next.

391
00:20:13,935 --> 00:20:19,395
So for example, if the tectonics changes
so that one ridge gets separated from

392
00:20:19,395 --> 00:20:24,465
another ridge and there's not a direct
transport per larvae between them, right?

393
00:20:24,465 --> 00:20:26,025
And then they start to evolve separately.

394
00:20:26,025 --> 00:20:29,865
So kinda like, uh, the islands
at Darwin looked at the fins

395
00:20:30,045 --> 00:20:32,595
with different, um, features on.

396
00:20:32,715 --> 00:20:32,865
Yeah.

397
00:20:32,925 --> 00:20:36,495
So as soon as the ridges get
separated, then things can evolve

398
00:20:36,495 --> 00:20:38,115
separately in those locations.

399
00:20:38,115 --> 00:20:43,395
And um, and people have traced that
out and tried to help reconstruct

400
00:20:43,455 --> 00:20:45,825
when tectonic boundaries.

401
00:20:46,665 --> 00:20:49,695
Between these ridges
first, uh, were created.

402
00:20:49,695 --> 00:20:52,965
And that can be on a small scale,
or it can be on a much bigger scale.

403
00:20:52,965 --> 00:20:55,485
Like you find very different things
in the Atlantic Ocean than you

404
00:20:55,485 --> 00:20:57,255
find in the Pacific Ocean, right?

405
00:20:57,255 --> 00:20:59,955
So it, that'd be a very big scale.

406
00:21:00,075 --> 00:21:04,065
Um, but yeah, even much more locally,
you get those kinds of variations too.

407
00:21:04,245 --> 00:21:09,315
One thing that's not often, uh, understood
or or known is, is the fact that there's

408
00:21:09,315 --> 00:21:11,055
a lot of stuff that lives in the crust.

409
00:21:11,415 --> 00:21:15,705
There's, uh, microbial, uh, uh, so
what happens, even though, you know,

410
00:21:16,065 --> 00:21:20,115
it may not be the pathway, may not be
in the ocean oceanic occurrence, it's

411
00:21:20,115 --> 00:21:22,485
through the actual, uh, crust it itself.

412
00:21:22,485 --> 00:21:26,205
So you have microbes in there, you have
a new vent shows up, it spits out a

413
00:21:26,205 --> 00:21:31,305
whole bunch of mi microbial stuff, basis
of, uh, that, uh, uh, and that's the

414
00:21:31,305 --> 00:21:33,405
basis of the, the basically food chain.

415
00:21:33,615 --> 00:21:37,905
Uh, you know, we, we've gone to,
uh, eruptions that just occurred,

416
00:21:37,965 --> 00:21:39,795
uh, with a, a rapid response.

417
00:21:40,679 --> 00:21:43,620
And basically as soon as we got
there, which is a month, you know,

418
00:21:43,620 --> 00:21:48,870
after things happened, these newer
places were occupied by, by Lifeform.

419
00:21:48,870 --> 00:21:52,379
So we don't know whether that was
through, through the water column

420
00:21:52,620 --> 00:21:54,870
or through the actual crust itself.

421
00:21:55,139 --> 00:21:59,429
It seems like the crust has, you
know, there's, it, we, we don't often

422
00:21:59,580 --> 00:22:04,050
appreciate the fact that there could
be, you know, uh, uh, similar amounts

423
00:22:04,050 --> 00:22:07,470
of species that live in the crust that
we have on the actual planet itself.

424
00:22:07,470 --> 00:22:10,409
That their numbers keep on going up
and down all over the place, I guess.

425
00:22:10,409 --> 00:22:12,659
And how many, how many
things live in the crust?

426
00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:13,740
And they do.

427
00:22:13,740 --> 00:22:15,149
And they have a geological role.

428
00:22:15,149 --> 00:22:20,100
They actually change, uh, they, they use,
it's, it's basically microbial activity.

429
00:22:20,100 --> 00:22:23,264
They, they grab a bit of this
mineral and that mineral and mm-hmm.

430
00:22:23,445 --> 00:22:26,850
Get energy out of it and make
a third, uh, you know, mineral

431
00:22:26,850 --> 00:22:28,199
like serpentine or something.

432
00:22:28,965 --> 00:22:31,665
Um, Yeah, Lawrence probably knows
more about this than I do, so I'm

433
00:22:31,665 --> 00:22:33,105
probably sticking my neck out here.

434
00:22:33,345 --> 00:22:38,085
But I'm a, I'm a physical
oceanographer and generalist

435
00:22:38,715 --> 00:22:41,415
salesman for salesman for Endeavor.

436
00:22:42,165 --> 00:22:43,245
Yeah, no worries.

437
00:22:43,245 --> 00:22:44,265
Well, you guys are selling it.

438
00:22:44,355 --> 00:22:46,185
You guys are selling it well now.

439
00:22:46,575 --> 00:22:49,455
Uh, but what did it, like, you know,
you're thinking, I'm thinking about

440
00:22:49,455 --> 00:22:52,335
the endeavor and it's like a number
of ridges, but, you know, a couple

441
00:22:52,335 --> 00:22:54,495
kilometers down below the sea surface.

442
00:22:55,605 --> 00:22:59,565
What's it like when you start
to, you know, work on there?

443
00:22:59,565 --> 00:23:03,255
So you're going out on a ship, like
what's it like to visit the endeavor?

444
00:23:03,255 --> 00:23:04,185
Like what, what's that?

445
00:23:05,115 --> 00:23:08,625
Like, what, what, what, how's that work
like in terms of a research cruise?

446
00:23:08,625 --> 00:23:10,845
Can you just kinda just give the,
the, for the audience, like a

447
00:23:10,845 --> 00:23:13,125
picture of, of how you go visit.

448
00:23:13,155 --> 00:23:16,575
I mean, we all can't go in an ROV and
I know that's been ha that's happened

449
00:23:16,575 --> 00:23:21,345
before, but like, what's a typical
research cruise, um, that happens,

450
00:23:21,405 --> 00:23:22,875
like to do research on the endeavor?

451
00:23:24,105 --> 00:23:25,185
Lawrence, why don't you start with this?

452
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:26,880
Okay.

453
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:30,750
Steve's better to speak to this than
me because he's actually been there.

454
00:23:30,900 --> 00:23:35,310
Uh, but I mean, you know, one thing
that's great with Owen, Steven and

455
00:23:35,310 --> 00:23:39,210
the cruises out there now is that
all of it's, uh, fully available.

456
00:23:39,210 --> 00:23:40,980
They stream all of this live, right?

457
00:23:40,980 --> 00:23:42,660
So anyone in the world can be watching it.

458
00:23:42,660 --> 00:23:48,210
So, you know, he had bought a ship
and, um, with an ROV and the crew,

459
00:23:48,210 --> 00:23:52,800
And then you'd head out, uh, just over
a day's steaming to get to Endeavor.

460
00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:56,310
When you get there, then you
locate yourself And then, you know,

461
00:23:56,310 --> 00:23:58,920
you drop the ROV into the water.

462
00:23:59,190 --> 00:24:03,000
So using the A-frame on the back
of the ship and it takes, you know,

463
00:24:03,510 --> 00:24:05,370
some hours to get down to the bottom.

464
00:24:05,460 --> 00:24:11,910
Um, And then you'd have a, um, a van,
basically like a shipping container with.

465
00:24:12,405 --> 00:24:17,055
Um, typically, um, a whole wall of TV
screens looking at all the different

466
00:24:17,055 --> 00:24:19,335
cameras that the RV's projecting back.

467
00:24:19,335 --> 00:24:23,175
And you have the pilots for the
RV who are really skilled at

468
00:24:23,175 --> 00:24:27,495
manipulating both the arms on the
RV and finding where you want to go.

469
00:24:28,095 --> 00:24:30,375
And, you know, that's a big
challenge, is tracking where

470
00:24:30,375 --> 00:24:31,905
you are and where you wanna go.

471
00:24:32,115 --> 00:24:37,605
Um, And then, you know, you'd have,
uh, typically one to three scientists

472
00:24:37,605 --> 00:24:42,975
in there, or engineers telling the
pilots of the RV what they wanna do,

473
00:24:42,975 --> 00:24:45,075
where to go next, what the aims are.

474
00:24:45,465 --> 00:24:47,805
Navigation's a big thing down there, so.

475
00:24:48,780 --> 00:24:53,550
Um, and you know, you go about doing
whatever you want to do, just looking

476
00:24:53,550 --> 00:24:57,030
at these TV screens and just playing
back what's happening in the sea floor.

477
00:24:57,030 --> 00:25:00,060
And like I say, anyone in the
world can watch these either

478
00:25:00,060 --> 00:25:03,870
using the Ocean Networks, Canada
playback facilities mm-hmm.

479
00:25:04,169 --> 00:25:09,419
To look at ancient or past cruises
or watch it in realtime next

480
00:25:09,419 --> 00:25:10,260
time that they're out there.

481
00:25:10,260 --> 00:25:13,139
So yeah, that's pretty,
that's pretty cool.

482
00:25:13,139 --> 00:25:15,540
Now Steve, you've been
down there before, right?

483
00:25:16,709 --> 00:25:21,090
Y yeah, so basically, you know, and
in general if it was a real science,

484
00:25:21,149 --> 00:25:24,120
science crews, so we were basically
going there, we're doing operations

485
00:25:24,120 --> 00:25:26,969
and maintenance and sciences almost.

486
00:25:27,495 --> 00:25:31,305
We have to do a certain amount
of science to be able to, uh, uh,

487
00:25:31,335 --> 00:25:34,755
properly, uh, characterize what
we're seeing with the sensor.

488
00:25:34,755 --> 00:25:37,575
So there is a, there,
but it's a limited role.

489
00:25:37,785 --> 00:25:42,975
Like in other cases, um, the, uh, I
guess Alvin was out there this summer

490
00:25:43,155 --> 00:25:46,845
on the Atlantis, that's a human,
uh, occupied vehicle, and they, they

491
00:25:46,845 --> 00:25:51,075
would have a, a, you know, two week
plan based on a scientific question.

492
00:25:51,405 --> 00:25:51,555
Mm-hmm.

493
00:25:51,555 --> 00:25:54,795
And, uh, and, and, And then it would,
they would gather up the science

494
00:25:54,795 --> 00:25:56,415
people that were gonna go on it.

495
00:25:56,655 --> 00:26:00,645
They get the funding from, in this
case, national Science Foundation.

496
00:26:00,855 --> 00:26:03,225
And then the whole thing is
concentrated on the science

497
00:26:03,555 --> 00:26:06,495
it, it, with, with, uh, ONC.

498
00:26:06,825 --> 00:26:10,125
We're going out there, we're gonna
go to, uh, places on the slope.

499
00:26:10,335 --> 00:26:13,515
We're gonna go to places,
uh, uh, near shore.

500
00:26:13,725 --> 00:26:16,695
We're gonna have all kinds of
different depths to, to go and, And

501
00:26:16,695 --> 00:26:20,385
then we'll squeeze in, in a four
or five day thing, uh, at Endeavor.

502
00:26:20,385 --> 00:26:22,215
Somewhere in that whole, uh, uh.

503
00:26:22,875 --> 00:26:23,535
Sequence.

504
00:26:23,805 --> 00:26:29,055
So it's not, and that is based on,
you know, a number of predetermined,

505
00:26:29,115 --> 00:26:30,945
uh, dive plans that we make up.

506
00:26:30,945 --> 00:26:32,205
So this is exactly what we're gonna do.

507
00:26:32,205 --> 00:26:34,125
We're gonna replace this, we're
gonna move this over there.

508
00:26:34,125 --> 00:26:34,875
We're gonna do this.

509
00:26:35,190 --> 00:26:37,350
We're gonna sample this in
here to characterize that.

510
00:26:37,350 --> 00:26:39,420
So it's very, it's quite structured.

511
00:26:39,690 --> 00:26:44,910
Um, it's, uh, it, it can be, uh,
because science is always good that way.

512
00:26:44,910 --> 00:26:47,550
Research, you basically wanna be
able to, uh, change anything in

513
00:26:47,550 --> 00:26:50,130
the last minute because suddenly
you see something unbelievable.

514
00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:52,320
Certainly you're not gonna not look at it.

515
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:52,380
Yeah.

516
00:26:52,830 --> 00:26:55,890
And that's right because oh, we
have, we have to, we have to now,

517
00:26:55,890 --> 00:26:57,180
you know, plug this thing over here.

518
00:26:57,180 --> 00:27:02,460
No, we're, we're, so it, but it's still,
it's the, the, uh, our funding is based

519
00:27:02,460 --> 00:27:07,440
on, based on operating and maintaining
a observatory at Endeavor and all

520
00:27:07,470 --> 00:27:09,600
through the, uh, Northeast Pacific.

521
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:12,660
So it's not, not the
classic science thing.

522
00:27:12,660 --> 00:27:16,680
So you'll have like me or two
scientists on board doing 12 hour

523
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:20,310
shifts and, and we try to, you
know, cover all the different bases.

524
00:27:20,310 --> 00:27:22,950
So we won't have a, a geological expert.

525
00:27:22,950 --> 00:27:26,040
We won't have a a
necessarily a, a biologist.

526
00:27:26,045 --> 00:27:27,270
It, it, it's all over.

527
00:27:27,300 --> 00:27:27,630
It's.

528
00:27:28,245 --> 00:27:31,365
You have to, you have to
rely on your email contacts,

529
00:27:31,365 --> 00:27:32,655
Lawrence, what, what should I do?

530
00:27:34,004 --> 00:27:35,145
You know, that sort of thing.

531
00:27:35,150 --> 00:27:36,885
You, you do, you try to keep Yeah.

532
00:27:36,915 --> 00:27:40,815
Communications with the shore scientists
that are experts and, And then you

533
00:27:40,815 --> 00:27:45,285
learn, you learn rudimentary sort of,
uh, parts of many different fields.

534
00:27:45,975 --> 00:27:51,825
Uh, at least that, that's has been my role
anyway, is just not so jack of all trades.

535
00:27:51,975 --> 00:27:52,035
Yeah.

536
00:27:52,065 --> 00:27:53,175
Uh, master of none.

537
00:27:55,035 --> 00:27:55,605
Well, currents.

538
00:27:56,325 --> 00:27:59,685
I deal with the currents and stuff
like that, but that, that's only one

539
00:27:59,685 --> 00:28:02,235
small little, uh, factor in what we do.

540
00:28:02,475 --> 00:28:02,895
Yeah.

541
00:28:03,344 --> 00:28:06,375
So there's a lot of, there's a
lot of prep that goes into before

542
00:28:06,375 --> 00:28:07,485
these cruises are going out.

543
00:28:07,485 --> 00:28:10,604
You're, you're looking at collaborating
with partners like with Lawrence and,

544
00:28:10,784 --> 00:28:15,254
and other, other, uh, scientists that,
that want to ask certain questions.

545
00:28:15,524 --> 00:28:19,635
And then you go down there with
a, a, a plan ready to be adaptable

546
00:28:19,635 --> 00:28:21,195
depending on what you see down there.

547
00:28:21,195 --> 00:28:24,314
And then you go down and you
try and, you know, do some

548
00:28:24,314 --> 00:28:26,084
maintenance on, on some equipment.

549
00:28:26,415 --> 00:28:30,284
Um, check out some cool things that
are, that are around there at that time.

550
00:28:30,645 --> 00:28:34,185
Um, have you had any, can you
tell us like a, a time where you

551
00:28:34,185 --> 00:28:36,465
at really saw some really cool
stuff while you were down there?

552
00:28:37,155 --> 00:28:40,514
Well, every time you go down
there, um, uh, so it's kind of

553
00:28:40,514 --> 00:28:43,665
a, what's your most memorable,
what's your most memorable moment?

554
00:28:44,625 --> 00:28:46,665
Most memorable, most memorable moment?

555
00:28:46,665 --> 00:28:54,375
I, it's, I, you know, basically these
things are, are so, um, uh, fascinating.

556
00:28:54,554 --> 00:28:58,844
It's, you know, the first time we
laid the cable, going in there and,

557
00:28:59,264 --> 00:29:02,715
and, and you've got that five meter
kind of area where you've got.

558
00:29:03,495 --> 00:29:06,345
Really high intensity lights, uh mm-hmm.

559
00:29:06,615 --> 00:29:07,695
But you can't see any farther.

560
00:29:07,695 --> 00:29:11,025
And so you're, you're coming along
bumbling along there with a clear view

561
00:29:11,025 --> 00:29:16,905
of something very close up, and suddenly
you walk right into a, well walk the ROV

562
00:29:17,055 --> 00:29:22,755
flies into this field of these massive,
uh, uh, pillars, and you're going, wow.

563
00:29:22,815 --> 00:29:28,725
And they just come into view fairly
quickly and you're just, it's, it's,

564
00:29:28,725 --> 00:29:33,195
uh, it, it raises, you know, goosebumps
on the back of your neck, right?

565
00:29:33,195 --> 00:29:34,275
It's, it's, it's, yeah.

566
00:29:34,335 --> 00:29:37,515
So that whole thing, And then finding,
you know, accidentally finding

567
00:29:37,515 --> 00:29:41,685
another one, oh, there's, there, this
guy's here, and you, and, and Right.

568
00:29:41,685 --> 00:29:47,085
Again, because of the viewing, uh, you're,
you're, you can't really see that far.

569
00:29:47,090 --> 00:29:48,915
You, you don't get a
picture of the whole story.

570
00:29:48,915 --> 00:29:51,285
So you're completely lost in
this, of course, little maze.

571
00:29:51,705 --> 00:29:52,875
And you know, the pilots.

572
00:29:53,460 --> 00:29:59,670
Who have been there a lot often know
that stuff or you, or to un to give,

573
00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:04,080
you know, they actually put in a
life size cardboard, not cardboard,

574
00:30:04,290 --> 00:30:09,060
uh, plywood cut out of one of the,
uh, Alvin Alvin, uh, uh, pilots.

575
00:30:09,330 --> 00:30:11,700
And it, it, we, we got to see it too.

576
00:30:11,700 --> 00:30:13,410
It was, it was hung
around for quite a while.

577
00:30:13,410 --> 00:30:15,240
And actually what happened
though, it floated around.

578
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:21,570
So you come across this life-sized band
pointing at a, he was point, he was meant

579
00:30:21,570 --> 00:30:26,640
to point, to give a size estimate of a,
a, a edifice, and it's floating around.

580
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:28,920
And so you run into that,
that's pretty spooky down there.

581
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:29,970
Or you see something.

582
00:30:31,410 --> 00:30:33,690
So it's, it's kind of like that.

583
00:30:33,690 --> 00:30:36,750
I, it's not, you know, what's
specific, unbelievable thing.

584
00:30:36,750 --> 00:30:42,540
We, the sometimes, uh, a piece of,
uh, a vent will fall off and break

585
00:30:42,540 --> 00:30:46,950
and they're basically, they grow all
these, uh, they're, they're like OIDs

586
00:30:46,950 --> 00:30:50,490
where there's all bunch of crystals
grown on the inside and you don't.

587
00:30:51,975 --> 00:30:54,525
It come from an area where it
looks like it's completely like a

588
00:30:54,525 --> 00:30:56,475
muddy, not that interesting thing.

589
00:30:56,475 --> 00:30:56,535
Yeah.

590
00:30:56,535 --> 00:31:01,035
And you crack it open and it's this,
this unbelievable, you know, it's full

591
00:31:01,035 --> 00:31:06,465
of lots of fell spiral down, lots of
really shiny, uh, things that, the,

592
00:31:06,675 --> 00:31:10,515
that it's so dark in the background
and your lights are so strong.

593
00:31:10,575 --> 00:31:12,465
It, it's a fascinating kind of, uh, thing.

594
00:31:12,465 --> 00:31:13,245
There's a yeah.

595
00:31:13,245 --> 00:31:15,165
Contrast in that occurs anyways.

596
00:31:15,165 --> 00:31:15,945
That's, yeah.

597
00:31:16,020 --> 00:31:20,355
It's not, not a, not, it's not an
example, but it's just, it's every day.

598
00:31:20,355 --> 00:31:21,975
It's, yeah.

599
00:31:22,605 --> 00:31:26,445
That's a, it's, it's kind of a, I think
it's, it's a, it's a difficult thing

600
00:31:26,445 --> 00:31:28,905
to picture for people who haven't been
down there, because I think a lot of

601
00:31:28,905 --> 00:31:31,965
times when we think of the deep sea,
we just think of just, you know, the

602
00:31:31,965 --> 00:31:36,345
thought that process goes like a flat
land, you know, a flat, a flat bottom,

603
00:31:36,405 --> 00:31:39,825
not land, I guess, or bottom in this
sea, and you're just like, oh my gosh.

604
00:31:39,825 --> 00:31:42,675
Like what is is happening with all this?

605
00:31:42,915 --> 00:31:48,615
And, um, I think it's, uh, it's,
it's really interesting to.

606
00:31:49,334 --> 00:31:52,425
Here that it's like, there's these
pillars and there's this like complexity

607
00:31:52,485 --> 00:31:57,225
of the, the, the, the bottom of the
ocean when we're like two kilometers

608
00:31:57,225 --> 00:32:01,395
down and, you know, you can't really
see where you're going other than how

609
00:32:01,395 --> 00:32:03,435
far the, the, the lights are shining.

610
00:32:03,554 --> 00:32:05,294
How far of a distance
do you think they go?

611
00:32:05,385 --> 00:32:08,084
Like approximately the five meters
where you can actually see it?

612
00:32:08,290 --> 00:32:10,290
I, I always use five meters Yeah.

613
00:32:10,725 --> 00:32:10,875
Yeah.

614
00:32:10,875 --> 00:32:14,385
You know, it, it's, it's, you
know, an R cube kind of, it

615
00:32:14,385 --> 00:32:15,645
drops down really quickly.

616
00:32:15,675 --> 00:32:17,955
Um, but yeah, it's, it's not far.

617
00:32:18,375 --> 00:32:22,185
It's the, yeah, it's just slightly
bigger than the actual ROV itself.

618
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:23,110
Yeah.

619
00:32:23,175 --> 00:32:23,294
Yeah.

620
00:32:23,294 --> 00:32:23,504
That's cool.

621
00:32:23,504 --> 00:32:24,975
They got more lights now.

622
00:32:25,034 --> 00:32:30,135
You can look in the back and if they've,
you know, we have, if often we, uh, use

623
00:32:30,135 --> 00:32:36,014
a two body system where it has a, uh, a
clump weight, but it has some control,

624
00:32:36,014 --> 00:32:40,004
it has some lights on it, And then you
have your ROV, so that'll be above you.

625
00:32:40,004 --> 00:32:43,245
And you try to, you, you'll be able to
see the lights from a great distance.

626
00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:44,540
Yes.

627
00:32:44,540 --> 00:32:44,550
Okay.

628
00:32:44,865 --> 00:32:45,675
More than five meters.

629
00:32:45,675 --> 00:32:48,945
So, but all you see is a bunch of lights
down there, And then you might be able

630
00:32:48,945 --> 00:32:52,995
to see what that light, what that, uh,
light of the ROV is actually doing.

631
00:32:52,995 --> 00:32:54,135
So that's pretty fascinating.

632
00:32:54,315 --> 00:32:57,855
That's like Titanic, uh, stuff,
you know, you can actually Yeah.

633
00:32:57,945 --> 00:33:02,325
Similar to there, you can, they have
to re reconstruct the whole thing in a

634
00:33:02,325 --> 00:33:06,645
number of, uh, photograph parametric,
uh, techniques to show you of them,

635
00:33:06,645 --> 00:33:07,665
because you only see this one.

636
00:33:07,665 --> 00:33:10,365
Oh, there's the front end of
the Titanic, and that's the

637
00:33:10,365 --> 00:33:11,415
same thing we have in there.

638
00:33:11,415 --> 00:33:14,565
It's where we, we got the, this guy
here, that guy there, And then you have

639
00:33:14,565 --> 00:33:18,555
to piece that together in your head
and, uh, and try to make the picture.

640
00:33:18,795 --> 00:33:22,005
And so we're, that's one of the big, big
research things that we're doing is trying

641
00:33:22,005 --> 00:33:27,675
to put, put together an actual, uh, map
of, of the area, because it's not, yeah.

642
00:33:27,705 --> 00:33:32,265
And this is a hard, hard thing for a lot
of the cartography people, or GIS people,

643
00:33:32,505 --> 00:33:34,040
is that they don't realize it's, there's.

644
00:33:34,814 --> 00:33:38,085
The, the third dimension is
just as important as the,

645
00:33:38,085 --> 00:33:39,735
the, the x and Y dimensions.

646
00:33:39,735 --> 00:33:42,705
In this case, it's just as
vertical as it is horizontal.

647
00:33:42,885 --> 00:33:44,715
And there's often, there's two Z points.

648
00:33:44,865 --> 00:33:47,475
So you have an overhang and you
have, you know, so what's the bot?

649
00:33:47,475 --> 00:33:52,034
You know, it's, they can't, it's not
mapped, not easily mapped by flying over

650
00:33:52,034 --> 00:33:53,534
with the multi-beam and stuff like that.

651
00:33:53,534 --> 00:33:56,054
So you have to actually go in
there and build these structures.

652
00:33:56,955 --> 00:34:01,635
I don't know where on, on Land Lawrence
might know, but where there's that kind of

653
00:34:01,635 --> 00:34:03,885
structures on, you know, maybe in caves.

654
00:34:03,975 --> 00:34:04,215
Yeah.

655
00:34:04,215 --> 00:34:07,485
You know, there's tights
and you know, something.

656
00:34:07,574 --> 00:34:08,534
It's kind of like that.

657
00:34:08,534 --> 00:34:14,864
There's a lot of, it's not a flat,
the flatter theory doesn't work there.

658
00:34:15,344 --> 00:34:18,824
Yeah, no, absolutely not.

659
00:34:19,125 --> 00:34:19,965
Absolutely not.

660
00:34:20,264 --> 00:34:22,755
Um, one of the, the unique things about.

661
00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:27,449
About endeavor is, is the amount of
data that we have on it and the amount

662
00:34:27,449 --> 00:34:31,469
of science that we have, and that's
because of this, this cabled observatory.

663
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:36,810
So Lawrence, like for you as a scientist,
why is having this cabled observatory

664
00:34:36,900 --> 00:34:40,739
at endeavors such a breakthrough for the
work that that you do and that you've seen

665
00:34:40,739 --> 00:34:43,199
your colleagues, uh, go through as well?

666
00:34:43,710 --> 00:34:49,320
Yeah, I mean it's um, if you think about
trying to study, um, a volcano on land,

667
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:55,739
let's say you wouldn't do it by going
there, uh, once every few years, um,

668
00:34:56,429 --> 00:35:02,790
in a looking only five meters in front
of you at any one time and going down

669
00:35:02,790 --> 00:35:07,140
and maybe having like, I don't know,
four hours to study the volcano And

670
00:35:07,140 --> 00:35:08,640
then you come back in three years time.

671
00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:11,310
So actually being able to
do things in real time.

672
00:35:11,460 --> 00:35:13,259
Yeah, you know, I can look up right now.

673
00:35:13,605 --> 00:35:15,495
What's the change in the
temperature of the vents?

674
00:35:15,495 --> 00:35:17,265
How has that changed in the last 24 hours?

675
00:35:17,265 --> 00:35:18,555
How has it changed in the last week?

676
00:35:18,555 --> 00:35:23,024
I can look at the camera footage and
say, oh look, that microbial mat that

677
00:35:23,024 --> 00:35:27,105
was growing like that has been eaten by
something 'cause it's got much smaller

678
00:35:27,105 --> 00:35:28,964
or it's shed into the water column.

679
00:35:29,085 --> 00:35:33,435
And, and those are the kinds of things
you can never do if you're just going out

680
00:35:33,464 --> 00:35:35,924
intermittently collecting one-off data.

681
00:35:35,924 --> 00:35:40,634
So, you know, we've got some really,
uh, unique instruments now too.

682
00:35:40,634 --> 00:35:46,515
So we can, uh, for example, sample that
black smoker fluid 350 degrees c, fluid

683
00:35:46,725 --> 00:35:49,605
on demand from just through the internet.

684
00:35:49,605 --> 00:35:53,415
So, um, if something happens, if there's
an earthquake, Yeah, we know there's

685
00:35:53,415 --> 00:35:56,835
been an earthquake because we've got
the seismometers that are keyboard.

686
00:35:56,835 --> 00:35:59,504
They tell us, oh, the
ground just started shaking.

687
00:35:59,654 --> 00:36:00,075
Okay.

688
00:36:00,855 --> 00:36:03,524
Oh yeah, this is a big
earthquake compared to normal.

689
00:36:03,674 --> 00:36:07,214
Let's sample the fluid coming out the vent
and see if that changed at the same time.

690
00:36:07,575 --> 00:36:11,130
That's the kind of thing that you
could never do with a. You know,

691
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:13,830
even if we had the money to send
a ship out after that, right.

692
00:36:13,830 --> 00:36:16,560
It takes like a month or
something to be ready to do it.

693
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:17,250
So, yeah.

694
00:36:17,310 --> 00:36:21,000
And in terms of understanding, you
know, how does the geology relate to

695
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:23,730
the fluid chemistry and to the biology?

696
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:28,740
You know, you need to know how things,
uh, the time scale of those processes.

697
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:30,810
Does everything change within an hour?

698
00:36:30,810 --> 00:36:32,070
Does it change within a month?

699
00:36:32,070 --> 00:36:33,240
Does it change in a year?

700
00:36:33,810 --> 00:36:37,140
And you can't do that if you just
go out once in a while to do things.

701
00:36:37,140 --> 00:36:39,360
So you need the real time data.

702
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:39,720
So it's.

703
00:36:40,020 --> 00:36:45,570
Being quite revolutionary to have these,
uh, cabled observatories, um, oh yeah.

704
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:46,620
So they don't solve everything.

705
00:36:46,620 --> 00:36:47,490
There's certainly Right.

706
00:36:47,490 --> 00:36:48,060
Plenty of things.

707
00:36:48,060 --> 00:36:52,110
You still need to go there and do the
one-off, uh, sampling and, you know,

708
00:36:52,110 --> 00:36:56,340
it's finding the good balance between,
you know, having the cable data in real

709
00:36:56,340 --> 00:37:01,470
time and the Yeah, collecting enough
one-off samples, you know, Um, so.

710
00:37:01,695 --> 00:37:01,875
Yeah.

711
00:37:02,175 --> 00:37:03,525
Well, that was gonna be my next question.

712
00:37:03,525 --> 00:37:08,205
You know, when you, when we talk about
gathering data, there's always like, this

713
00:37:08,205 --> 00:37:09,765
is, this is the information that I want.

714
00:37:09,765 --> 00:37:11,235
I want all these different things.

715
00:37:11,235 --> 00:37:15,195
We have all these different instruments
that we know can, can sample sometimes

716
00:37:15,195 --> 00:37:17,115
in real time, sometimes not in real time.

717
00:37:17,475 --> 00:37:22,305
Uh, Lawrence are, are there things that
you would love to see that, that are

718
00:37:22,305 --> 00:37:25,755
not on the endeavor right now that you
would love to have measured and keep

719
00:37:25,755 --> 00:37:29,355
it like to like, you know, couple,
not, not the, the big list, because I

720
00:37:29,355 --> 00:37:30,795
know there's always a big list, right?

721
00:37:30,795 --> 00:37:31,935
There's always a big list, but Yeah.

722
00:37:31,935 --> 00:37:32,670
Like, how long have you got?

723
00:37:33,075 --> 00:37:33,525
Yeah.

724
00:37:33,705 --> 00:37:36,435
So like, I know there's lots of stuff
that, that we can, you mentioned a, a

725
00:37:36,435 --> 00:37:39,765
number of things like measuring the,
measuring the, the plume and, and, and

726
00:37:39,765 --> 00:37:43,125
all these things real time and seeing
what happens after earthquakes and stuff.

727
00:37:43,125 --> 00:37:47,115
What would you love, like on your dream
list, like the biggest item on your

728
00:37:47,115 --> 00:37:48,345
dream list that you would love to see?

729
00:37:48,345 --> 00:37:48,375
Uhhuh?

730
00:37:48,915 --> 00:37:52,875
Yeah, that's a really tough question
because my dream list is too long

731
00:37:52,875 --> 00:37:55,350
and I'm not sure what's on the
top of it, but, you know, um.

732
00:37:57,015 --> 00:37:58,964
I guess I'll give two answers if I can.

733
00:37:58,964 --> 00:37:59,145
Yeah.

734
00:37:59,145 --> 00:37:59,685
Yeah, for sure.

735
00:38:00,225 --> 00:38:03,404
One is for everything to be working
all of the time 'cause it's just

736
00:38:03,404 --> 00:38:05,115
really difficult to do for sure.

737
00:38:05,444 --> 00:38:06,795
Uh, stuff on the sea floor.

738
00:38:06,795 --> 00:38:11,115
So instruments, however well
engineered they are, don't necessarily

739
00:38:11,115 --> 00:38:13,065
last that long on the sea floor.

740
00:38:13,065 --> 00:38:15,165
And then you're not just on the
sea floor, but you're trying to put

741
00:38:15,165 --> 00:38:17,174
things in these hydrothermal vents.

742
00:38:17,325 --> 00:38:17,415
Mm-hmm.

743
00:38:17,654 --> 00:38:20,984
So it's incredible that
anything works ever Yeah.

744
00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:21,450
Yeah.

745
00:38:21,615 --> 00:38:25,665
And then you have to go to sea to maintain
this and if the weather's not good or your

746
00:38:25,665 --> 00:38:29,895
ship's not good for the weather state,
then then you can't do the maintenance.

747
00:38:29,895 --> 00:38:31,725
So it can be another year before.

748
00:38:31,785 --> 00:38:31,845
Yeah.

749
00:38:31,845 --> 00:38:35,055
So even with instruments out there
in real time, you can still have

750
00:38:35,055 --> 00:38:39,645
big gaps in the data if there's any
problems with weather for the cruisers

751
00:38:39,705 --> 00:38:42,015
or for just instruments not working.

752
00:38:42,015 --> 00:38:46,665
So one would be to really, that'd be
a big dream, is to have everything

753
00:38:46,665 --> 00:38:48,915
working all of the time rather than like.

754
00:38:49,830 --> 00:38:51,900
X percent of things
working all of the time.

755
00:38:51,900 --> 00:38:52,170
Yeah.

756
00:38:52,174 --> 00:38:52,195
Yeah.

757
00:38:52,230 --> 00:38:56,610
You know, the other would be, um,
having some kind of tracer to tell

758
00:38:56,610 --> 00:39:00,810
us, um, about what's happening
with the magma beneath the surface.

759
00:39:00,810 --> 00:39:05,310
So there are, there are chemicals that
we can look at, like carbon dioxide

760
00:39:05,310 --> 00:39:09,690
that's released by volcanoes and being
able to tell, like, measure how much

761
00:39:09,690 --> 00:39:13,920
carbon dioxide is coming outta the
fluids in those hydrothermal events.

762
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:17,009
That could be a real great
way to tell us about magma.

763
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:17,670
Yeah.

764
00:39:17,670 --> 00:39:18,509
Under the surface.

765
00:39:18,540 --> 00:39:21,690
'cause it's gonna be, if we do have
an eruption there, it's gonna be

766
00:39:21,690 --> 00:39:26,549
really exciting to see how that
impacts the entire system from

767
00:39:26,910 --> 00:39:29,070
the rocks through to the biology.

768
00:39:29,310 --> 00:39:33,029
Uh, and one of the key tracers
for seeing that would be, yeah,

769
00:39:33,420 --> 00:39:36,150
a geochemical tracer for, uh.

770
00:39:36,585 --> 00:39:37,214
Magma.

771
00:39:37,275 --> 00:39:38,535
So like carbon dioxide.

772
00:39:38,595 --> 00:39:39,045
Yeah.

773
00:39:39,555 --> 00:39:43,904
But, but I could list another,
you know, another 20 things too.

774
00:39:44,115 --> 00:39:44,295
So.

775
00:39:44,325 --> 00:39:46,005
Well, I think you brought up
a really interesting point.

776
00:39:46,005 --> 00:39:49,575
I've worked at sea a number of times
and I was, I was a Marine technician

777
00:39:49,575 --> 00:39:51,015
on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico.

778
00:39:51,315 --> 00:39:55,154
And even when we're at the surface, you
know, having like a surface like, you

779
00:39:55,154 --> 00:39:57,944
know, sampler that sampled all the time.

780
00:39:58,240 --> 00:40:02,230
Things would break, just like just being
in a dry area, just with having like,

781
00:40:02,410 --> 00:40:03,879
you know, water circulating through it.

782
00:40:04,299 --> 00:40:05,649
I can't even imagine what it is.

783
00:40:05,649 --> 00:40:07,750
It's like in the deep sea
with all the problems.

784
00:40:07,750 --> 00:40:10,120
You're in a hydrothermal event for
God's sakes, and you're, you know,

785
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:11,410
you're sampling all these things.

786
00:40:11,529 --> 00:40:14,799
It's like you said, uh, Lawrence, it's
amazing that it, it works in the first

787
00:40:14,799 --> 00:40:19,270
place, but it's a true testament to like
the, the, the engineering and, and the

788
00:40:19,270 --> 00:40:23,589
placement and, and understanding the, the
life that's down there and how it's gonna

789
00:40:23,589 --> 00:40:26,439
interact with, with the instrumentation.

790
00:40:26,799 --> 00:40:31,450
Um, Steve, you know, working at ONC
and, and being out in the field quite a

791
00:40:31,450 --> 00:40:39,160
bit, um, how does the staff sort of, you
know, adapt to putting these instruments

792
00:40:39,250 --> 00:40:45,250
into a place like the endeavor to try
their best to make sure that it, you

793
00:40:45,250 --> 00:40:47,980
know, it works all the time, or it
works just like it does right now and

794
00:40:48,100 --> 00:40:51,069
providing information for people as
earthquakes, as earthquakes are going

795
00:40:51,069 --> 00:40:53,169
on and being able to see it, uh, live.

796
00:40:53,169 --> 00:40:56,500
How does that, how does
that whole like system work?

797
00:40:57,075 --> 00:40:57,944
In five minutes or less.

798
00:40:59,955 --> 00:41:05,984
Well, you know, if you take Yeah, you,
you learn, you, you slowly learn it.

799
00:41:05,984 --> 00:41:09,975
It's, uh, it, but, you know, we have
been going to these places since

800
00:41:10,214 --> 00:41:14,504
early eighties, and, and we, you, you
learn simple things like, okay, lots

801
00:41:14,504 --> 00:41:18,645
of people think stainless steel, for
instance, is a, is a mighty good, uh,

802
00:41:18,649 --> 00:41:22,815
uh, material, but at mm-hmm hydrothermal
fence, it immediately disappears.

803
00:41:22,875 --> 00:41:25,395
It, it's like unbelievable vanishing.

804
00:41:25,575 --> 00:41:29,024
So I say, oh, let's make a mooring
normally be galvanized steel

805
00:41:29,024 --> 00:41:30,555
or something cheaper like that.

806
00:41:30,855 --> 00:41:33,165
Uh, And then well we're,
this is really important.

807
00:41:33,194 --> 00:41:35,565
So we're gonna use stainless
steel, we're gonna use alium,

808
00:41:35,714 --> 00:41:36,884
we're gonna use all this stuff.

809
00:41:37,274 --> 00:41:39,524
And then it doesn't last for the year.

810
00:41:39,524 --> 00:41:41,805
The mornings are all on
the shore and we learn.

811
00:41:41,805 --> 00:41:43,424
And then you tell other
people they don't believe you.

812
00:41:44,145 --> 00:41:47,985
They make the same mistake,
but so so you, you eventually

813
00:41:48,165 --> 00:41:49,755
Yeah, it's, it's interesting.

814
00:41:49,755 --> 00:41:55,365
They, they, so, so we put the
first one out there in 1985, I

815
00:41:55,365 --> 00:41:57,165
believe, and lost all of 'em.

816
00:41:57,225 --> 00:42:00,765
And then basically, uh, I was actually
part of the act, uh, I looked at

817
00:42:00,765 --> 00:42:04,815
the data, but so you, it's built up.

818
00:42:04,815 --> 00:42:08,085
So we know titanium works,
we know plastics works.

819
00:42:08,265 --> 00:42:11,654
We know iron will like, like this
is the craziest, you know, because

820
00:42:12,435 --> 00:42:15,855
it, yeah, it's such an, it's
a big iron reactor down there.

821
00:42:16,125 --> 00:42:19,845
You put a, you put a, a piece of
galvanized steel that you paint.

822
00:42:19,904 --> 00:42:22,005
Let's say you paint it red or
something like that, and you got

823
00:42:22,005 --> 00:42:24,944
it sitting on the, you go back
next year or maybe the year after.

824
00:42:25,455 --> 00:42:27,194
All that's there is the paint.

825
00:42:27,765 --> 00:42:30,015
You just touch it And then
the whole thing crumbles.

826
00:42:30,015 --> 00:42:34,005
All the iron is now this powder,
so this this red powder everywhere.

827
00:42:34,245 --> 00:42:36,705
So these things, you
know, become very clear.

828
00:42:36,795 --> 00:42:39,194
Everybody knows, but it's.

829
00:42:39,810 --> 00:42:41,190
It wasn't really predicted.

830
00:42:41,250 --> 00:42:44,580
I mean, it should have been predicted,
but it's more of an experience thing.

831
00:42:44,580 --> 00:42:48,360
So you wanna be able to have this, I, you
know, long-term kind of, uh, knowledge.

832
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:53,670
So now that there's no engineer at our,
our engineering area that know, knows

833
00:42:53,670 --> 00:42:56,940
that we were not gonna put in, you
know, stainless steel anywhere near the

834
00:42:56,940 --> 00:43:02,820
ocean, basically our first actual first
platform, we put it designed, it's, we

835
00:43:02,820 --> 00:43:06,270
still have the same design was made outta
stainless steel and we put it in ACH

836
00:43:06,780 --> 00:43:09,450
inlet, which is anoxic at a certain level.

837
00:43:09,750 --> 00:43:13,740
And it last, it it, six months later,
we pulled it back up and whenever

838
00:43:13,740 --> 00:43:16,920
we had the stickers on, this is like
you're trying to sell your operation.

839
00:43:16,925 --> 00:43:19,560
So you go down with our ov take
pictures of this thing, wherever

840
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:21,000
the stickers were, it was all cake.

841
00:43:21,150 --> 00:43:24,030
It all, the fact that you
had another sticker on there.

842
00:43:24,420 --> 00:43:27,150
Lower the oxygen level so
that that stainless steel

843
00:43:27,150 --> 00:43:28,259
was eaten away underneath it.

844
00:43:28,380 --> 00:43:29,700
And then we, oh yeah.

845
00:43:29,730 --> 00:43:34,470
We can't use stainless steel, but we,
we generally don't put things, the

846
00:43:34,470 --> 00:43:39,150
people who designed it are, were ROV
pilots and stainless steel and aluminum.

847
00:43:39,210 --> 00:43:42,299
That works great for ROVs 'cause it
goes in the water, you clean it off

848
00:43:42,299 --> 00:43:43,620
when it comes back up and it's fine.

849
00:43:43,770 --> 00:43:46,589
But if you put something in there
for like, you know, a year or six

850
00:43:46,589 --> 00:43:48,060
months, it, it, it can't work.

851
00:43:48,060 --> 00:43:52,319
So it's all a, a sequence
of uh, trial and error.

852
00:43:52,319 --> 00:43:52,740
Learn.

853
00:43:53,819 --> 00:43:56,880
There's some engineering involved
in there, but, uh, ahead of time.

854
00:43:56,880 --> 00:44:00,299
But often it's, you know, you'll
say, don't, don't do that.

855
00:44:00,420 --> 00:44:01,380
That's not a good idea.

856
00:44:01,380 --> 00:44:01,440
Yeah.

857
00:44:01,694 --> 00:44:06,180
And there's lots of MacGyvering
that goes on at actual, on the ship

858
00:44:06,180 --> 00:44:07,500
to figure out how to do things.

859
00:44:07,529 --> 00:44:10,980
I mean, that's the big thing is
to be able to adapt right away.

860
00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:12,000
A as we are there.

861
00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:13,049
'cause you, that's nothing.

862
00:44:13,755 --> 00:44:17,025
That focuses you, you're out there,
it's, I can't remember what the numbers

863
00:44:17,025 --> 00:44:21,795
are, you know, a, a, a dollar, you
know, a a dollar a second, whatever.

864
00:44:21,795 --> 00:44:22,155
Yeah.

865
00:44:22,350 --> 00:44:22,640
Yeah.

866
00:44:23,805 --> 00:44:27,795
That's your, you, you realize you
gotta get all this done or you, you're

867
00:44:27,795 --> 00:44:30,405
not gonna get funded to do it again
because you're just going out there.

868
00:44:30,405 --> 00:44:30,415
Yeah.

869
00:44:30,645 --> 00:44:33,675
It's hard to explain to people that
it's a really difficult thing to do too.

870
00:44:33,915 --> 00:44:34,575
So you wanna have success.

871
00:44:34,575 --> 00:44:34,725
Yeah.

872
00:44:34,725 --> 00:44:37,785
No, for, and you have to be
adaptable, as you mentioned.

873
00:44:37,785 --> 00:44:41,175
Like it, I think that's the unique part
of the staff that, that worked for ONC

874
00:44:41,175 --> 00:44:44,835
that goes out on these cruises is you
have to be able to adapt to any type of

875
00:44:44,835 --> 00:44:47,385
condition, any type of whatever happens.

876
00:44:47,505 --> 00:44:49,905
And you have to be able to put stuff
together, like you said, MacGyvering

877
00:44:49,905 --> 00:44:53,085
it together, um, and be able to,
you know, put it in the, in the

878
00:44:53,085 --> 00:44:54,705
water so that it works properly.

879
00:44:54,735 --> 00:44:56,805
You can't just put it in the
water and hope, hope for the best.

880
00:44:56,805 --> 00:45:00,315
So, so, uh, I think that's, that's a
true testament to the staff, right.

881
00:45:01,285 --> 00:45:01,635
Yeah.

882
00:45:01,710 --> 00:45:01,860
Yeah.

883
00:45:01,860 --> 00:45:02,760
It's not prescriptive.

884
00:45:02,760 --> 00:45:04,710
You can't, you wanna have the dollar plan.

885
00:45:04,710 --> 00:45:07,410
You wanna know your plan is
all there, ready to go, but

886
00:45:07,410 --> 00:45:08,310
it's not gonna go to plan.

887
00:45:09,750 --> 00:45:10,500
No, exactly.

888
00:45:10,980 --> 00:45:11,760
Exactly.

889
00:45:12,030 --> 00:45:15,540
Now one thing you, you both have mentioned
over this, over this interview is,

890
00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:18,330
you know, you both come from different
professional backgrounds, right?

891
00:45:18,660 --> 00:45:22,770
And, and that, you know, we see
that a lot with people who are using

892
00:45:22,770 --> 00:45:27,330
the data within, like this, this
whole context of, of the data that's

893
00:45:27,330 --> 00:45:29,010
coming up from, from the endeavor.

894
00:45:29,370 --> 00:45:33,180
Um, there's a lot of
collaboration that goes on.

895
00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:36,180
Is there a lot of collaboration
that goes on in the final studies?

896
00:45:36,180 --> 00:45:39,930
So, Lawrence, do you collaborate with
Steve to put a study together or,

897
00:45:39,930 --> 00:45:44,160
or other people at ONC or even other
people within the scientific community

898
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:45,450
that are, that are studying this?

899
00:45:46,410 --> 00:45:48,150
Yeah, there's a lot of collaboration.

900
00:45:48,150 --> 00:45:51,210
I mean, Steve and I have certainly
been involved in a whole bunch

901
00:45:51,210 --> 00:45:52,680
of different studies together.

902
00:45:52,950 --> 00:45:56,670
Uh, published a bunch of papers
on different aspects together.

903
00:45:56,760 --> 00:45:57,180
Um.

904
00:45:58,379 --> 00:46:02,460
And yeah, lots of people collaborate
and those collaborations range from, you

905
00:46:02,460 --> 00:46:07,770
know, detailed collaborations that lead
to publications with, with multiple people

906
00:46:07,770 --> 00:46:12,990
who've collaborated, all been authors
like Steve and I through to much more, um,

907
00:46:13,290 --> 00:46:17,940
helping each other, but without actually
being involved in detail in the sounds.

908
00:46:17,940 --> 00:46:23,040
So, for example, the biologists might be
going out there and, and not know where

909
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:24,509
things have changed recently, right?

910
00:46:24,509 --> 00:46:29,100
So Steve's been out there recently, maybe
can tell them, oh, go look at this area.

911
00:46:29,129 --> 00:46:30,390
'cause things have changed a lot there.

912
00:46:30,540 --> 00:46:31,770
That area hasn't changed.

913
00:46:31,770 --> 00:46:34,410
So there's a lot of collaboration
like that, that's much more

914
00:46:34,410 --> 00:46:36,660
informal as opposed to being.

915
00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:42,359
Co coworkers on a publication or coworkers
on a grant Prosple and things like that.

916
00:46:42,359 --> 00:46:46,470
But yeah, I mean, it's hugely
interdisciplinary, you know?

917
00:46:46,529 --> 00:46:46,649
Yeah.

918
00:46:46,649 --> 00:46:50,730
Everything we're doing, um, it
involves people working right from

919
00:46:50,730 --> 00:46:54,779
the seismologists through the Georgia,
the fluid chemists, through to the

920
00:46:54,779 --> 00:46:57,089
biologists, the physical oceanographers.

921
00:46:57,690 --> 00:46:58,740
We all get together.

922
00:46:58,740 --> 00:47:02,609
We have workshops every few years,
uh, where everyone gets together

923
00:47:02,609 --> 00:47:07,230
and catches up on what the latest
is in every, uh, every discipline.

924
00:47:07,230 --> 00:47:07,319
Right.

925
00:47:07,319 --> 00:47:11,370
So there's a lot of, uh, feedback
between things that way too.

926
00:47:11,580 --> 00:47:11,819
Yeah.

927
00:47:12,299 --> 00:47:12,480
Yeah.

928
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:15,899
And that helps every like, you know, like
you said, like, you know, you're, you have

929
00:47:15,899 --> 00:47:19,470
an update on a study or an area that's
changed that helps biologists or other

930
00:47:19,470 --> 00:47:20,910
people to understand, oh, that's changed.

931
00:47:20,910 --> 00:47:24,240
Maybe I should, I have these
questions to, to ask and, and,

932
00:47:24,240 --> 00:47:25,620
and answer, uh, within that.

933
00:47:25,620 --> 00:47:28,470
But it, it's not, it hasn't,
only the endeavor hasn't only.

934
00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:31,650
Just been like a, a diversity
of professional background.

935
00:47:31,650 --> 00:47:34,470
It's been a diversity of, of
people from all over the world,

936
00:47:34,470 --> 00:47:36,450
Canada, us, Asia, Europe.

937
00:47:37,050 --> 00:47:41,400
Like how did the inve like the endeavor,
uh, Steve become such a global hub

938
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:43,590
for, for researchers from those places?

939
00:47:44,550 --> 00:47:46,830
It's, uh, well, it, it,
it got, it got lucky.

940
00:47:46,830 --> 00:47:51,690
It was, uh, picked as, uh, uh, as
one of the three study sites that

941
00:47:51,690 --> 00:47:55,680
they, uh, had for a very large,
uh, uh, American based program.

942
00:47:55,680 --> 00:48:00,540
Ridge Ridge, uh, uh, one was Ridge
2001 was just Ridge before that.

943
00:48:00,540 --> 00:48:02,040
And so they had three sites.

944
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:05,220
Uh, and that was one of 'em, so
three integrated study sites.

945
00:48:05,220 --> 00:48:06,450
I can't remember which one, the other one.

946
00:48:06,630 --> 00:48:10,740
So it really focused a lot of work
on, on these three different sites.

947
00:48:11,130 --> 00:48:15,930
And it, you know, still, you know,
like if, if you take, you know,

948
00:48:16,170 --> 00:48:20,430
like France works on, uh, on, they
have a, a observatory in, in the

949
00:48:20,430 --> 00:48:21,780
Lucky Strike region, but that's.

950
00:48:21,780 --> 00:48:23,310
In the middle of the Atlantic.

951
00:48:23,640 --> 00:48:24,420
So you have to go.

952
00:48:24,450 --> 00:48:24,750
Yeah.

953
00:48:24,750 --> 00:48:26,010
Take a ship way out there.

954
00:48:26,070 --> 00:48:29,430
This is an interesting
sort of side, side thing.

955
00:48:29,490 --> 00:48:33,960
This one's quite close to a very
major port Vancouver, Seattle,

956
00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:35,670
and, and major scientific area.

957
00:48:35,670 --> 00:48:36,720
So it's right there.

958
00:48:37,140 --> 00:48:41,010
People can fly into va, to Astoria
or wherever, and you go offshore

959
00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:45,300
only 200 kilometers, you know,
that's less than a day's, uh, travel.

960
00:48:45,570 --> 00:48:49,860
And you can actually get, so
these big international kind

961
00:48:49,860 --> 00:48:51,060
of groups can get together.

962
00:48:51,060 --> 00:48:54,510
Because the other problem is, I
mean, Canada's a small country,

963
00:48:54,510 --> 00:48:56,190
so how many, you know, I can't.

964
00:48:56,805 --> 00:49:00,375
I can count on one hand the
scientists working at endeavors.

965
00:49:00,404 --> 00:49:00,464
Yeah.

966
00:49:01,275 --> 00:49:04,634
And, uh, uh, we really
have to rely on Americans.

967
00:49:04,634 --> 00:49:08,745
We have to rely on the French, we
have to rely on, And then, you know,

968
00:49:08,750 --> 00:49:13,964
the, the whims of, uh, those countries
change, uh, uh, France wasn't gonna

969
00:49:13,964 --> 00:49:18,435
support any kind of research, uh,
in, basically in, uh, in the Pacific

970
00:49:18,435 --> 00:49:21,404
because they want to concentrate
on the Atlantic, so they do that.

971
00:49:21,435 --> 00:49:21,525
Mm-hmm.

972
00:49:21,765 --> 00:49:23,504
Now it's kind of, that's
changing a little bit.

973
00:49:23,504 --> 00:49:26,115
I just, so it moves around quite a bit.

974
00:49:26,265 --> 00:49:29,805
It's not, it's not, you know, Canada sunk
a bunch of money into making this happen.

975
00:49:29,835 --> 00:49:36,600
So we, we are, you know, we try to, uh,
uh, corral Canadian scientists mm-hmm.

976
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:40,004
Who are working at, at Endeavor and, and
of course American scientists as well.

977
00:49:40,335 --> 00:49:40,875
Of course.

978
00:49:40,875 --> 00:49:40,935
Yeah.

979
00:49:40,995 --> 00:49:42,839
But, but that's, you know, basically.

980
00:49:43,950 --> 00:49:48,030
You build it and, And
then you people will come.

981
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:50,910
Absolutely.

982
00:49:50,910 --> 00:49:52,920
Yeah, we've heard that,
we've heard that before.

983
00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:54,060
That, the line before.

984
00:49:55,175 --> 00:50:00,720
So just, yeah, it got, there was a,
a path then it just happened to, uh,

985
00:50:00,720 --> 00:50:04,440
a path that ended up, uh, you know,
uh, concentrate a lot of research and

986
00:50:04,440 --> 00:50:06,150
endeavor compared to other places.

987
00:50:06,510 --> 00:50:09,270
Now, you know, you have all these
collaborative and you and people

988
00:50:09,270 --> 00:50:12,360
have been working on the endeavor,
you know, since the early eighties

989
00:50:12,420 --> 00:50:15,540
and, and you know, there's been a
lot of scientists have come through.

990
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:17,430
Um, some have retired since.

991
00:50:17,430 --> 00:50:19,800
Some have gone to other,
you know, other places.

992
00:50:20,130 --> 00:50:24,300
What happens when, you know, a scientist
or an expert like works on the endeavor

993
00:50:24,450 --> 00:50:27,720
for like a, a long period of time
And then suddenly, you know, they.

994
00:50:28,335 --> 00:50:30,675
As as life is, they
retire or they move on.

995
00:50:30,975 --> 00:50:33,675
Um, Lawrence like, have you
seen that happen before?

996
00:50:33,675 --> 00:50:37,785
And like does, is there a gap in that
knowledge or is there like a succession

997
00:50:37,785 --> 00:50:39,855
plan with like other researchers?

998
00:50:39,855 --> 00:50:42,285
Like I know you probably have
students that you probably

999
00:50:42,285 --> 00:50:43,395
have as graduate students.

1000
00:50:43,395 --> 00:50:46,215
Hopefully they'll work on the
endeavor, you know, throughout their

1001
00:50:46,215 --> 00:50:50,085
lifetime, you know, how does that
work when someone leaves or retires?

1002
00:50:50,775 --> 00:50:56,235
Yeah, unfortunately it's pretty informal,
so Um, so yeah, it certainly happens and.

1003
00:50:57,075 --> 00:51:00,194
There's obviously some information
gets passed on because it's been

1004
00:51:00,194 --> 00:51:04,335
published or it's been written in
after every or after most cruises.

1005
00:51:04,365 --> 00:51:07,605
There's cruise reports come out
that document things in there.

1006
00:51:08,174 --> 00:51:11,654
But there definitely is a loss
to the community when someone's

1007
00:51:11,654 --> 00:51:13,754
been working in an area retires.

1008
00:51:14,174 --> 00:51:18,765
Um, and that corporate knowledge, um,
of these areas and especially 'cause

1009
00:51:18,765 --> 00:51:22,725
they're so dynamic, like Steve was talking
about earlier, chimneys fall over, new

1010
00:51:22,725 --> 00:51:27,585
chimneys grow, these things can grow
at like a meter per year, even so, so

1011
00:51:27,585 --> 00:51:31,575
you see a chimney and someone's saying,
I think that's, uh, that's X chimney.

1012
00:51:31,575 --> 00:51:34,424
And it's only if someone's been
there multiple times that they

1013
00:51:34,424 --> 00:51:37,245
can really say, no, that chimney
wasn't there three years ago.

1014
00:51:37,725 --> 00:51:40,845
Uh, or that chimney, no, that's
not that one because it used to be

1015
00:51:40,845 --> 00:51:43,725
bigger, so it must have collapsed
and a new one grown and stuff.

1016
00:51:43,725 --> 00:51:48,765
So, so there is definitely a loss to the
community and a big good moving forward.

1017
00:51:49,325 --> 00:51:53,285
The more of this that, like again, Steve
was talking about that we can digitize And

1018
00:51:53,285 --> 00:51:56,675
so that's readily available when people
were first going there in the eighties.

1019
00:51:56,675 --> 00:52:00,755
You know, we, the technology for doing
this was very different than is now Yeah.

1020
00:52:00,860 --> 00:52:00,980
Yeah.

1021
00:52:00,995 --> 00:52:04,265
So a lot of the early maps
were drawn by hand, you know?

1022
00:52:04,265 --> 00:52:04,655
Wow.

1023
00:52:04,715 --> 00:52:08,615
Because you know, you didn't have, well
you still have pretty poor navigation,

1024
00:52:08,615 --> 00:52:10,355
but you had even worse navigation.

1025
00:52:10,355 --> 00:52:14,795
And so, And then sketching what things
look like out the window of an, I mean,

1026
00:52:14,795 --> 00:52:19,685
you've got a six inch wide window to
look out from Alvin to see what's there.

1027
00:52:20,225 --> 00:52:24,485
So yeah, Um, So moving forward,
the technology's definitely

1028
00:52:24,485 --> 00:52:27,065
getting much better to try to, um.

1029
00:52:27,585 --> 00:52:31,455
Document things much more clearly and
have that available to future generations.

1030
00:52:31,455 --> 00:52:35,565
But we definitely have lost as a, as
some of the people who were there in

1031
00:52:35,565 --> 00:52:39,195
the early days have retired by now
and yeah, that corporate memory's

1032
00:52:39,195 --> 00:52:42,855
gone and even different chimneys get
given different names by different

1033
00:52:42,855 --> 00:52:44,475
groups from around the world and stuff.

1034
00:52:44,475 --> 00:52:47,265
So you're like trying to make
sure they really talking about

1035
00:52:47,265 --> 00:52:48,525
the same thing as we are.

1036
00:52:48,975 --> 00:52:49,965
Those kinds of things.

1037
00:52:49,965 --> 00:52:50,775
So, um, Yeah.

1038
00:52:51,435 --> 00:52:54,525
Yeah, it's, it's a problem and
yeah, it's a problem across all

1039
00:52:54,525 --> 00:52:56,565
of science, so For sure, for sure.

1040
00:52:56,565 --> 00:52:57,375
Yeah, no doubt.

1041
00:52:57,795 --> 00:53:01,395
Now one thing that's, that I want to
kind of talk a little bit about, and it

1042
00:53:01,395 --> 00:53:07,275
might be literally outta space, uh, but
you know, we, we, we always compare, you

1043
00:53:07,275 --> 00:53:11,745
know, a lot of times people compare like
working in the deep sea to to space, and

1044
00:53:11,745 --> 00:53:14,445
here we have these, these hydrothermal
events that are very different

1045
00:53:14,445 --> 00:53:15,945
from what we've ever seen before.

1046
00:53:16,005 --> 00:53:18,165
Uh, we're still discovering
a lot of new things.

1047
00:53:19,215 --> 00:53:21,855
How does studying the in endeavor.

1048
00:53:22,575 --> 00:53:25,755
Help us understand like the
potential for hydrothermal events

1049
00:53:25,755 --> 00:53:28,245
on other planets or, or moons?

1050
00:53:28,305 --> 00:53:32,685
Lawrence, I think that's a question,
uh, for you, uh, on this one.

1051
00:53:34,275 --> 00:53:34,365
Sure.

1052
00:53:34,365 --> 00:53:35,595
I mean, um.

1053
00:53:36,944 --> 00:53:40,185
There's another number of
different aspects to that question.

1054
00:53:40,214 --> 00:53:44,265
Partly, uh, just knowing about how
these work on your own planet can

1055
00:53:44,265 --> 00:53:47,475
give you ideas about what could
be going on in other planets.

1056
00:53:47,475 --> 00:53:48,645
What are the key controls?

1057
00:53:48,645 --> 00:53:49,245
What do you need?

1058
00:53:49,245 --> 00:53:50,504
You need to have a heat source.

1059
00:53:50,504 --> 00:53:51,915
You need to have hot rocks.

1060
00:53:51,915 --> 00:53:55,214
It can't just be cold rocks or else
there's no drive for the rocks and

1061
00:53:55,214 --> 00:53:57,044
the fluids to react with one another.

1062
00:53:57,044 --> 00:53:57,464
Right.

1063
00:53:57,645 --> 00:53:57,975
Um.

1064
00:53:58,790 --> 00:54:01,910
And then there's other things like,
okay, what pressure, temperature

1065
00:54:01,910 --> 00:54:05,900
conditions are actually conducive
to these systems working?

1066
00:54:06,110 --> 00:54:09,740
Um, how would they work differently
if you didn't have salt in the water?

1067
00:54:09,740 --> 00:54:13,340
The salt in seawater plays a huge
role in how these systems work.

1068
00:54:13,340 --> 00:54:17,060
So if we start thinking about what
could be happening on Europa, for

1069
00:54:17,060 --> 00:54:21,230
example, where people think there may
be hydrothermal systems under the ice,

1070
00:54:21,710 --> 00:54:23,360
you know, well, how would that work?

1071
00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:24,529
What do we need to know?

1072
00:54:24,529 --> 00:54:28,580
So there's gonna be a flyby mission
that NASA are running in, I forget,

1073
00:54:28,940 --> 00:54:30,470
six or eight years or something.

1074
00:54:30,590 --> 00:54:30,650
Yeah.

1075
00:54:31,009 --> 00:54:34,759
And a lot of the, a lot of the data that
they're going to try to collect from these

1076
00:54:34,759 --> 00:54:36,980
fluids that spurt up through the ice.

1077
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:41,310
Uh, those questions are driven by,
okay, this is how we think those

1078
00:54:41,310 --> 00:54:44,550
systems would work if they're
working like earth systems, right?

1079
00:54:44,550 --> 00:54:47,940
And if the ocean on Europe is
different, then these are the kinds

1080
00:54:47,940 --> 00:54:49,620
of observations we'd need to look for.

1081
00:54:49,620 --> 00:54:52,740
What, what organic molecules
would we have to look for in there

1082
00:54:52,740 --> 00:54:56,250
to tell us that the temperature
or pressure of the hydrothermal

1083
00:54:56,250 --> 00:54:57,810
system was different, for example.

1084
00:54:57,810 --> 00:54:57,930
Right.

1085
00:54:57,930 --> 00:55:02,040
So yeah, it's, uh, it's fascinating
to think how these things

1086
00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:03,270
could work on other planets.

1087
00:55:03,270 --> 00:55:07,680
It's also very unconstrained, so it
does allow you to have a, a lot of

1088
00:55:07,680 --> 00:55:12,060
your imagination can come in as well
as the shines, but for sure, for sure.

1089
00:55:12,390 --> 00:55:16,890
Now, uh, for, for Steve, you've worked
on, on Endeavor for, for a very long time.

1090
00:55:17,220 --> 00:55:21,900
Uh, why does the endeavor keep inspiring,
like new generations of scientists?

1091
00:55:22,200 --> 00:55:24,690
Why do you think like the
endeavor is sparking that?

1092
00:55:25,049 --> 00:55:29,609
Well now, basically because there's an
observatory there that has basically a

1093
00:55:29,609 --> 00:55:33,870
lot of footage, and right now we can go
pull up a camera looking at the side of

1094
00:55:33,870 --> 00:55:38,520
North Tower and it's looking at a whole
bunch of animals moving around there.

1095
00:55:38,520 --> 00:55:40,319
So it's very accessible.

1096
00:55:40,560 --> 00:55:47,520
Um, uh, and the, the concept, I mean,
a lot of scientists like the idea of,

1097
00:55:48,660 --> 00:55:50,490
well, there's, it, it breaks down.

1098
00:55:50,490 --> 00:55:54,299
And there's a lot of scientists that
are more like to be not going to see,

1099
00:55:54,299 --> 00:55:55,710
but a lot of people like to go to see.

1100
00:55:56,129 --> 00:55:56,879
And if you're Yeah.

1101
00:55:56,970 --> 00:56:01,319
Going to see guaranteed every, you know,
well, except for this last year, which

1102
00:56:01,319 --> 00:56:06,060
is really unfortunate, you basically
get out there once a year and that's a,

1103
00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:11,250
that's a very compelling sort of, uh, you
know, uh, thing if you, if your scientist

1104
00:56:11,250 --> 00:56:13,500
get out to your study zone once a year.

1105
00:56:13,875 --> 00:56:15,585
You can get a lot of stuff done.

1106
00:56:15,975 --> 00:56:20,475
Uh, so I, I think the, the regularity,
the fact that there's this observatory

1107
00:56:20,475 --> 00:56:24,975
there and, And then has the fascinating,
you know, the stuff that we, every,

1108
00:56:25,305 --> 00:56:28,815
you know, I I, I was just looking at
Oceano Oceanography magazine, you know,

1109
00:56:28,815 --> 00:56:33,165
we just published something in, in June
and it's had a big, uh, hydrothermal

1110
00:56:33,165 --> 00:56:34,425
vent picture on the front of it.

1111
00:56:34,515 --> 00:56:36,255
Now I just realized
the last one, which is.

1112
00:56:36,825 --> 00:56:37,815
Comes out every two months.

1113
00:56:37,815 --> 00:56:41,295
So three issues later, it's
gotta hide a thermal vent picture

1114
00:56:41,295 --> 00:56:42,255
right on the front of it too.

1115
00:56:42,405 --> 00:56:48,825
So these are topics that are very,
um, yeah, uh, magnetic to, to, uh,

1116
00:56:48,825 --> 00:56:52,755
uh, you know, you know, you start
science as, as a student, you're not.

1117
00:56:52,755 --> 00:56:52,815
Yeah.

1118
00:56:52,905 --> 00:56:54,855
You want to get something
that you can really drive.

1119
00:56:54,855 --> 00:56:59,565
You usually you'll find it, but this
one's very easy to capture onto It's,

1120
00:56:59,570 --> 00:57:02,445
yeah, probably it's, it's, it's like,
it's like studying whales, you know, Yeah.

1121
00:57:03,615 --> 00:57:03,915
Yeah.

1122
00:57:03,975 --> 00:57:05,475
Everybody wants to study a whale.

1123
00:57:06,015 --> 00:57:07,275
Um, they're, yeah, for sure.

1124
00:57:07,275 --> 00:57:09,285
They're big, they're charismatic.

1125
00:57:09,555 --> 00:57:13,305
Uh, this, this one is the
charismatic, uh, geo rocks.

1126
00:57:13,815 --> 00:57:15,585
It's the iconic habitat right now.

1127
00:57:15,585 --> 00:57:15,795
Right.

1128
00:57:15,795 --> 00:57:15,855
Yeah.

1129
00:57:15,855 --> 00:57:18,855
It's, it's, it's what it's like
the sea turtle and whale of, of, of

1130
00:57:18,855 --> 00:57:20,265
the deep, which is, which is great.

1131
00:57:20,415 --> 00:57:25,215
And with that said too is, you know,
deep sea has been a, a, a big topic

1132
00:57:25,275 --> 00:57:29,775
these days just sort of in the, in the
general media, you know, with, with

1133
00:57:29,775 --> 00:57:33,345
talks of exploring the bottom a little
bit more, trying to extract things.

1134
00:57:34,125 --> 00:57:35,655
But, you know, we don't know a lot.

1135
00:57:35,895 --> 00:57:38,835
Like, you know, if you ask most
people who, who are listening to

1136
00:57:38,835 --> 00:57:41,895
this or just most people like the,
the average person on the street,

1137
00:57:42,195 --> 00:57:43,995
what do you know about the deep Sea?

1138
00:57:44,175 --> 00:57:45,345
They might say some things.

1139
00:57:45,345 --> 00:57:49,695
And, and I wanna ask Lawrence, like
in your, uh, in your experience

1140
00:57:49,695 --> 00:57:53,775
working in the deep Sea, like what,
what do most people misunderstand

1141
00:57:54,255 --> 00:57:55,935
about these deep sea environments?

1142
00:57:56,115 --> 00:57:58,965
Oh, um, yeah, that's a good one.

1143
00:57:59,025 --> 00:58:02,895
Um, I mean, part of it is just how
little we understand about them.

1144
00:58:02,895 --> 00:58:07,995
You know, we know more about the surface
of, uh, Mars or the moon than we do about

1145
00:58:08,055 --> 00:58:09,360
the bottom of the ocean, so, mm-hmm.

1146
00:58:09,795 --> 00:58:13,995
I mean, we don't have decent maps
from most of the bottom of the ocean.

1147
00:58:13,995 --> 00:58:17,955
There are very few places that we
actually know where the hills are.

1148
00:58:18,015 --> 00:58:22,935
Like we know if there's like a, a
kilometer high, uh, mountain somewhere

1149
00:58:22,935 --> 00:58:25,485
on the bottom of the ocean, but we
don't know whether there's a five

1150
00:58:25,485 --> 00:58:28,605
meter, a scalp or something over
most of the bottom of the ocean.

1151
00:58:28,605 --> 00:58:33,525
And that leaves us, uh, yeah, just
with so much still to learn about.

1152
00:58:33,915 --> 00:58:36,795
Almost everything to do at
the bottom of the ocean.

1153
00:58:36,795 --> 00:58:42,135
So, you know, and, and people, I
mean, I don't know if it's that people

1154
00:58:42,135 --> 00:58:46,755
don't know it, but people don't really
appreciate, uh, just the vastness, you

1155
00:58:46,755 --> 00:58:49,485
know, like most of our planet is ocean.

1156
00:58:49,965 --> 00:58:50,265
Yeah.

1157
00:58:50,265 --> 00:58:52,845
The bottom of the ocean is way
more important to the planet

1158
00:58:52,935 --> 00:58:54,165
than the right continents.

1159
00:58:54,165 --> 00:58:57,345
But we're kind of parochial
species who think more about the

1160
00:58:57,345 --> 00:58:58,695
continents 'cause we live on them.

1161
00:58:58,695 --> 00:58:58,785
Right.

1162
00:58:58,785 --> 00:59:02,775
But, but they're not more important
for the, for how the whole planet is.

1163
00:59:02,775 --> 00:59:03,495
So, yeah.

1164
00:59:03,705 --> 00:59:05,565
Um, yeah.

1165
00:59:05,715 --> 00:59:10,515
Um, I think people also sometimes think
that anything that happens at the bottom

1166
00:59:10,515 --> 00:59:14,535
of the ocean doesn't really matter
'cause it's out of sight and out of mind.

1167
00:59:14,535 --> 00:59:19,155
And whether that is, it can be a
dumping ground for pollutants or whether

1168
00:59:19,425 --> 00:59:22,365
it's just that we don't have to worry
about what's happening down there

1169
00:59:22,605 --> 00:59:26,085
from the natural processes because
it seems like it's a long way away.

1170
00:59:26,175 --> 00:59:29,085
But everything we learn
says it's really not.

1171
00:59:29,775 --> 00:59:33,675
There's so much interaction between the
deep ocean and the shallow ocean and

1172
00:59:33,675 --> 00:59:38,384
the atmosphere that, you know, yeah, we
really have to care more and learn more.

1173
00:59:38,384 --> 00:59:44,565
And in some ways it, uh, it frustrates
me sometimes that, uh, the, the

1174
00:59:44,565 --> 00:59:49,005
space community can get these
massive projects funded to send out

1175
00:59:49,005 --> 00:59:51,465
a mission to wherever, um, yeah.

1176
00:59:51,795 --> 00:59:55,395
And getting trillions
of dollars, literally.

1177
00:59:55,425 --> 00:59:55,485
Yeah.

1178
00:59:55,485 --> 00:59:58,545
And you have to study the bottom
of the ocean on our own planet.

1179
00:59:58,725 --> 01:00:00,255
You'd never get that kind of funding.

1180
01:00:00,255 --> 01:00:00,345
Right.

1181
01:00:00,375 --> 01:00:03,105
I mean, with that kind of funding,
we could revolutionize how much

1182
01:00:03,105 --> 01:00:04,845
we understand our planet and Yeah.

1183
01:00:05,235 --> 01:00:10,725
Um, So it's, uh, we're not telling
things quite right, probably, but, yeah.

1184
01:00:10,725 --> 01:00:11,715
True, true.

1185
01:00:12,075 --> 01:00:13,545
And, uh, last question to you, Steve.

1186
01:00:13,605 --> 01:00:18,765
Uh, like what is the most single,
most surprising fact about Endeavor

1187
01:00:19,005 --> 01:00:20,655
that you wish that everybody knew?

1188
01:00:21,675 --> 01:00:23,725
Like everybody listening to
this, what, what would you say?

1189
01:00:25,725 --> 01:00:26,175
Wow.

1190
01:00:28,245 --> 01:00:32,865
Single fact that, well, it, it
sort of building, building on

1191
01:00:32,865 --> 01:00:36,465
what, what Lawrence was saying is,
is the fact that, you know, sure.

1192
01:00:36,465 --> 01:00:38,475
It's a geologic area.

1193
01:00:38,865 --> 01:00:43,575
Uh, it's interesting, it's beautiful
to look at, uh, there's ecology

1194
01:00:43,575 --> 01:00:49,725
there, but it, it's basically a
passage from the deep, the, the

1195
01:00:49,725 --> 01:00:52,065
crust into the, in, into the ocean.

1196
01:00:52,065 --> 01:00:56,955
And it, and as previous statements
by Lawrence, we, that affects that

1197
01:00:56,955 --> 01:00:58,905
at that level all across Pacific.

1198
01:00:59,175 --> 01:01:05,565
So this is a hugely, uh, formative
to the ocean environment.

1199
01:01:05,565 --> 01:01:09,315
So if things change there, the
ocean will, will, will change it.

1200
01:01:09,495 --> 01:01:10,515
And, and we don't Yeah.

1201
01:01:10,545 --> 01:01:14,715
Fully understand the, the
implications of all this.

1202
01:01:15,345 --> 01:01:16,395
It, it, it's.

1203
01:01:17,325 --> 01:01:20,865
Shooting a, a ton of iron into the
ocean, which iron does a whole bunch of

1204
01:01:20,865 --> 01:01:24,645
interesting things as it folds around in
the plume, but it's also, it's a ma, it's

1205
01:01:24,645 --> 01:01:27,615
this, this, uh, limiting macronutrient.

1206
01:01:27,615 --> 01:01:29,355
If you stop that, what, what difference?

1207
01:01:29,355 --> 01:01:34,365
So the connection between this sort of
geologic ar area and, and the deep ocean.

1208
01:01:34,365 --> 01:01:39,105
So if there's a, you know, if there's
a volcano that erupts on the, on, uh,

1209
01:01:39,165 --> 01:01:41,174
Mount St. Helms or what somewhere mm-hmm.

1210
01:01:41,475 --> 01:01:45,615
You know, it affects the, the
entire, um, you know, uh, the

1211
01:01:45,615 --> 01:01:47,265
atmosphere and the, the planet.

1212
01:01:47,384 --> 01:01:47,504
Yeah.

1213
01:01:47,595 --> 01:01:48,359
And this is Yeah.

1214
01:01:48,365 --> 01:01:48,584
Yeah.

1215
01:01:48,645 --> 01:01:52,754
We have this happening in a much more
regular controlled way in, in the,

1216
01:01:52,875 --> 01:01:56,564
in the deep sea, and we don't fully
understand that cycle, or, I, I, Lawrence

1217
01:01:56,564 --> 01:02:00,944
understands a little bit more than I do,
but I think that's probably the biggest

1218
01:02:00,944 --> 01:02:05,174
thing that you Sure it's a beautiful,
beautiful place, but it's, it's basically

1219
01:02:05,174 --> 01:02:09,855
pumping all this, uh, important,
uh, uh, chemistry into the ocean and

1220
01:02:09,855 --> 01:02:10,680
controlling the chemistry of the ocean.

1221
01:02:10,875 --> 01:02:13,634
Of course, you get it from
the land too, but it's this

1222
01:02:13,634 --> 01:02:16,064
huge cycle of, of, of that we.

1223
01:02:17,250 --> 01:02:21,270
If we, if we take it, if we mine it and
pull all that stuff outta there, what,

1224
01:02:21,330 --> 01:02:25,230
what will, what will, how will that
change, uh, the chemistry of the ocean?

1225
01:02:25,470 --> 01:02:29,100
Because that's, you know, that,
that's the big reason we're focused

1226
01:02:29,100 --> 01:02:30,720
on now is basically for mining.

1227
01:02:31,020 --> 01:02:31,830
So they're gonna mine it.

1228
01:02:32,160 --> 01:02:35,549
If they mine it, that'll spread a
whole bunch of that, uh, chemistry

1229
01:02:35,549 --> 01:02:36,810
around in much different way.

1230
01:02:36,810 --> 01:02:39,810
And if we don't have the fan study,
what, what it'll do, it'll be similar

1231
01:02:39,810 --> 01:02:44,640
to burning fossil fuels where you, it
was a good idea way back then, but you

1232
01:02:44,640 --> 01:02:52,355
implications were kind of pretty, uh,
planet ending if you'll Yeah, definitely.

1233
01:02:52,355 --> 01:02:53,355
Planet influencing.

1234
01:02:55,980 --> 01:02:57,035
So we, yeah, no, I mean, this is great.

1235
01:02:57,930 --> 01:02:58,290
Yeah.

1236
01:02:58,290 --> 01:02:58,560
Yeah.

1237
01:02:58,560 --> 01:03:03,480
No, I wanted, this has been a amazing
to, to, uh, learn more about the endeavor

1238
01:03:03,509 --> 01:03:07,560
through, through your eyes and, and,
and hear you guys, uh, speak about

1239
01:03:07,560 --> 01:03:10,950
the endeavor and all its different,
uh, unique aspects and, and I think

1240
01:03:10,950 --> 01:03:12,870
this is a lot of fun to listen to.

1241
01:03:12,870 --> 01:03:15,090
So I wanna thank both of you,
Steve and Lawrence, for, for

1242
01:03:15,090 --> 01:03:18,900
being on the show and sharing, uh,
your wisdom and your experiences

1243
01:03:18,900 --> 01:03:20,160
and, and everything we really do.

1244
01:03:20,160 --> 01:03:21,270
We really do appreciate it.

1245
01:03:21,660 --> 01:03:22,200
Thanks, and/or.

1246
01:03:22,830 --> 01:03:23,220
You bet.

1247
01:03:23,220 --> 01:03:23,910
Thank you.

1248
01:03:24,030 --> 01:03:26,820
Thank you Lawrence and Steve for
joining us on today's episode of the

1249
01:03:26,820 --> 01:03:28,050
How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

1250
01:03:28,050 --> 01:03:32,009
It was great to have you on and
really dive in almost physically

1251
01:03:32,040 --> 01:03:36,720
to the endeavor and finding out
what the endeavor is all about.

1252
01:03:36,720 --> 01:03:40,860
It's something that is very special
here in Canada, off the coast

1253
01:03:40,860 --> 01:03:42,120
of the British Columbia coast.

1254
01:03:42,330 --> 01:03:43,590
It is something that.

1255
01:03:44,180 --> 01:03:47,750
We don't really talk
about enough, I feel like.

1256
01:03:47,930 --> 01:03:50,990
And when you go over to the website,
ocean Networks Canada's website,

1257
01:03:51,055 --> 01:03:55,490
osha networks.ca, you can actually
take a look at live cameras deep

1258
01:03:55,490 --> 01:04:00,709
down in the ocean, near and around
Endeavor, looking at different slopes.

1259
01:04:00,709 --> 01:04:01,759
The Campbell River.

1260
01:04:02,145 --> 01:04:03,645
Cascadia Basin.

1261
01:04:03,645 --> 01:04:07,995
I highly recommend that you go and check
out all these different places 'cause

1262
01:04:07,995 --> 01:04:12,435
you can see these live cameras ready
to go and showing you the deep ocean.

1263
01:04:12,435 --> 01:04:16,095
This is something that is not offered
everywhere around the world and it's

1264
01:04:16,095 --> 01:04:19,845
something to give you a glimpse of what
it looks like to be in the deep sea.

1265
01:04:19,845 --> 01:04:21,525
So I wanted, again, thanks Lawrence.

1266
01:04:21,615 --> 01:04:23,535
Thanks Steve for joining us today.

1267
01:04:23,535 --> 01:04:24,015
Thank you.

1268
01:04:24,015 --> 01:04:27,915
Ocean Networks Canik for this
continuing series of surfacing secrets.

1269
01:04:28,005 --> 01:04:29,985
Explore the ocean, know the planet.

1270
01:04:29,985 --> 01:04:32,685
It is something that is very
special to me to be able to

1271
01:04:32,745 --> 01:04:36,195
collaborate with this organization
'cause they do such amazing work.

1272
01:04:36,195 --> 01:04:37,875
So thank you so much for that.

1273
01:04:37,905 --> 01:04:41,265
Looking forward to next month
when we're gonna dive into

1274
01:04:41,265 --> 01:04:42,765
more Ocean Networks Canada.

1275
01:04:42,765 --> 01:04:45,195
So I wanna thank Steve,
I wanna thank Lawrence.

1276
01:04:45,195 --> 01:04:46,155
I wanna thank Ocean Networks.

1277
01:04:46,155 --> 01:04:49,665
I wanna thank you for listening to this
episode of the How to Protect the Ocean.

1278
01:04:49,755 --> 01:04:50,955
I'm your host, and/or Lewin.

1279
01:04:51,015 --> 01:04:51,675
Have a great day.

1280
01:04:51,675 --> 01:04:53,805
We'll talk to you next time
and happy conservation.