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I am interested in marine mammals. Can you tell me about anything concerning marine mammals you have discovered on your voyages?

Thank You Joanna Grillo

Dear Joanna:
The Pacific Ocean is home to many different species of marine mammal, including the largest animal in the world, the Blue Whale. Unfortunately, we have not been lucky enough to see one of these rare creatures, but we have seen groups, or pods, of pilot whales and porpoises. These animals seem to enjoy being around the ship where they can play in our bow wave and feed on the hundreds of fish which seem to follow us wherever we go.
As we get closer to the Galapagos Islands, we can expect to see the many sea lions which live on the islands. The islands are home to other great marine animals, including Penguins and the famous Marine Iguanas. The Iguanas are big lizards which dive underwater to feed on the algae growing on the rocks.
Keep checking the website and when we see more marine mammals and the animals of the Galapagos we’ll post it for everyone to read, hopefully we’ll get some good pictures too.
Best Regards,
Ben Wigham

Dear Sir/Madam:
I would like to know the location of the following ocean trenches:
1. Kurile-Kamchatka trench
2. Mariana trench
Ina Pranoto
Secretariat of Convention on Biological Diversity

Dear Ina:
I hope this answers your questions. Thank you for viewing the website, I hope you enjoy the rest of our voyage.

1. The Kurile-Kamchatka trench is located in the Western Pacific Ocean. It runs northeast off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan, to the Kamchatka Peninsula on the coast of eastern Russia. Here it joins the Aleutian Trench which runs east across the northern Pacific to Alaska. At its deepest point, the Kurile-Kamchatke trench is approximately 9,750m deep.

2. The Marianas trench is also located in the Western Pacific, it runs south from the Japanese coast, near Tokyo, towards the Pacific island of Guam. It is famous for being the location of the world’s greatest ocean depth. This point of the trench is called Challenger Deep and is approximately 10,915m deep.
Best Regards,
Ben Wigham

I’m a mining engineer. Based on minerals present, what are potential ore materials? And is the amount of minerals deposited enough for future exploration and subsequent extraction? Or looking at the larger picture, being the ocean as the next frontier, is mining at that depth and condition possible?
Thanks and best regards,
Adrian CV Manlagñit, Philippines

Dear Mr. Manlagñit:
There are certainly mineral deposits on the seafloor, in fact some of the world’s best copper ore deposits were formed at seafloor hydrothermal settings. An example is the large copper ore deposit in Cyprus. There are also other types of mineral deposits which form in the deep ocean basins, like manganese nodules. At this point, however, it appears that the economics of deep ocean mining do not justify extensive efforts at exploiting seafloor mineral deposits. There are also environmental concerns that must be taken into consideration.

I hope this is information is helpful to you. Thanks for your participation in Dive and Discover.

Best Regards,
Dan Fornari

Hello to all of you. I actually have 2 questions, I hope you don’t mind. You have analyzed previous data and are now gathering your own data. Will you come back to this particular area on the ridge to see how things have changed or to do further research? Also, looking at past data and the present data, how far apart has the crust spread at this ridge?
Cat Dayton
Reilly School

Hi Cat:
Thanks for your questions. We have collected data from two areas of the East Pacific Rise so far on this cruise. One area, near 9-10°N latitude, we have studied extensively for the past decade and we are comparing how the seafloor and hydrothermal vents look each time we go there. The second area we have surveyed so far, near 3°20’N, has never been visited before so what we found during this cruise is the baseline, or the first data set that will give us the ability to see how the ridge crest topography changes over the coming decades and beyond. In the future, other scientists will be able to use our data to make these types of comparisons. The mid-ocean ridge in this area of the eastern Pacific Ocean is spreading apart the Pacific and Cocos Plates at a rate of about 11-13 centimeters per year; that is the full spreading rate or how fast the separation between the two plates is occurring, each side is moving at half that rate.

Hope these answers are helpful. Thanks for Diving and Discovering with us.
Best Regards,
Dan Fornari

I was wondering how much does water temperature vary from surface to ocean floor at active margins of the East-Pacific Rise, I know temps. stay fairly constant at the tropics but It would seem logical that the surface would be warm then as you increased in depth it would grow considerably cooler, but closer to the spreading center would the temperature increase due to the volcanic activity? And I was also wondering if intense volcanic activity along the East Pacific Rise could play a role in the El Nino’s in the that region?

Thank You,
Terry Covey
Geology Undergrad. at Western Illinois University

Hi Terry:
Great question! As you can see from the sea surface temperatures posted in the daily weather of Dive and Discover, the ocean water temperature is quite warm, about 85°F. At the bottom, the water is near freezing. But when there are volcanic eruptions on the mid ocean ridge crest, the water near the seafloor gets a little warmer, by usually less than a degree. However, it is significant because of how constant in temperature bottom water is at the depth of the ridge crest; which is around 2500 meters. Scientists have used small, discrete increases in temperature associated with recent seafloor eruptions and vigorous hydrothermal venting to actually find new lava flows on the seafloor. As to whether intense hydrothermal and volcanic activity could propagate upwards in the ocean and influence El Ninos, I suspect that would be difficult, but there have been times in the geologic past where seafloor volcanism has been intense, and perhaps it could have then. It is an idea that oceanographers have considered but do not think likely at this point.
Thanks for your questions and keep Diving and Discovering with us.

Best Regards,
Dan Fornari