TODAY'S WEATHER
Sunny
76°F (24.4°C)
Latitude:
23 deg 52.69S
Longitude: 69 deg 35.85E
Wind Direction: Light Airs
Wind Speed: 0-4 Knots
Sea State 1-2
Swell(s) Height: 3-7 Foot
Sea Temperature: 78°F (25.9°C)
Barometric Pressure: 1014.0 MB
Visibility: 8-12 Nautical Miles
The recently discovered Central Indian Ridge hydrothermal vent site is named
for Geochemist John Edmond.
Sampling
a Chimney
Daily Update: The Edmond Site
April 22,
2001
By Amy Nevala
Since
all newly discovered places deserve an honorable title, we
have named the Central Indian Ridge hydrothermal vent site
we discovered for geochemist John Marmion Edmond, one of
the first scientists to identify and explore hydrothermal
vents on the globe-encircling chain of underwater mountains
known as the mid-ocean ridge.
The
1977 discovery near the Galapagos Island pioneered hydrothermal
vent expeditions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and now,
the Indian Ocean.
Central Indian Ridge expedition member Bob Collier, one of Johns
former graduate students, describes his professor as a
fiery-haired man with matching energy. John moved from
Scotland to the United States in the late 1960s to study
at Scripps Institution of Oceanography before becoming a professor
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
John was 57 years old when he died earlier this month
in Massachusetts.
Imaginative and intelligent, the winner of several
geochemistry awards and the father of two sons, he approached everything in life with a real passion.
I really looked up to him, said Bob, who began his chemistry studies under
Johns guidance in 1971 as a freshman at MIT.
Bob was with John that February 1977 evening when
John surfaced in Alvin after
his discovery dive at the hydrothermal vent site, located between the Galapagos
Islands and Ecuador.
He was pumped, so excited, said Bob. Johns geochemical expertise
and enthusiasm for ocean chemistry also influenced chemist Karen Von Damm, who
is studying the Central Indian Ridge site located near 23°52S.
One of her favorite memories of John is eating sandwiches
and cookies while seated in Alvin at a black smoker chimney
on the East Pacific Rise, just before they were to begin their
research. We had this smoker booming outside the
window and we were inside eating peanut butter sandwiches like we were at a Victorian
picnic, said Karen.
Scientists discovered the Edmond site on Friday night.
We spent the weekend exploring this remarkable environment, mapping
the seafloor around the vents, studying the gushing black smoker
chimneys and identifying vent organisms.
The Edmond site is only the second active hydrothermal
vent site explored on the Central Indian Ridge.
It just seemed natural, Bob said to name this place for John.
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