Mountains in the Sea Expedition 2004. Pink Paragorgia collected from one of the Manning Seamounts.

Mountains in the Sea Expedition 2004. Red Paragorgia coral collected from one of the Manning Seamounts.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. A close-up view of the polyps of the bamboo coral Keratoisis. You can see the white skeleton running through the transparent tissue. The pink spots are the oral end (mouth end) of the polyp, and in this photo the tentacles are retracted.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. Hercules recovers a larval settlement block from one of the experimental sites on Manning Seamount. Two large Paragorgia bushes are visible in the background.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. Blue Antimora.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. Oreo dory or false boarfish at Corner Rise.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. A grenadier drifts by a black coral.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. Halosaur.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. The Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Hercules searches for deep sea fauna.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. Bushy black coral (Leiopathes sp.) collected from 1643m depth on Bear Seamount. This particular black coral expels a large amount of mucus when agitated. Within the New England Seamount chain, very few associates have been found living on the bushy black coral.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. Though this is most abundant deep-water hard coral in the world's oceans (Lophelia pertusa), this tiny piece on an overhang is the first sighting we have had on this cruise.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. Colony of Metallogorgia melanotrichos on New England Seamount Chain.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. The branched bottlebrush black coral (Parantipathes sp.) collected from Lyman Seamount (part of the Corner Rise Seamount chain). Unbranched forms of the bottlebrush also occur, oftentimes with two or more chirostyliead crabs living on the colony.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. Tall, whip-like Lepidisis bamboo corals with pigtail coils and a rust-colored black coral leave the impression of an otherworldly forest on Manning Seamount.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. A juvenile groomed poodle coral (Metallogorgia melanotrichos) collected from 1491m depth on Bear Seamount.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. A red crab at 2020 meters depth.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. Bottlebrush white coral (Thouarella sp.) collected from 1458m depth on Manning Seamount. The bottlebrush white corals are often branched, with each branch containing hundreds of individual mouths, or polyps.

North Atlantic Stepping Stones Expedition 2005. Several sponges cling to the vertical face of a wall.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. The CTD is deployed over the side of the ship to search for evidence of hydrothermal activity. Instruments on the CTD look for changes in temperature, salinity, particulates in the water column, as well as trace metals and gases common in hydrothermal discharge.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. A cross-section of a hydrothermal plume over Magic Mountain, which is at the shallowest point of the Southern Explorer Ridge. The plume was mapped using the CTD. Red NTU values indicate high values of particulates in the water column, which are a signature of hydrothermal plumes. The black lines are the CTD tow yo track going up and down in the water.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. These animals at the top of the chimney are deep- sea octocorals or soft corals (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea), and sometimes go by the common name "mushroom coral." As with other cnidarians, the mushroom coral has stinging cells or nematocysts within its flashy tentacles that are used to capture minute prey.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. The ROPOS manipulator arm prepares to sample an inactive chimney. The yellow color is caused by the alteration of iron-rich minerals, and the black outer crust is primarily manganese. This image was taken by the new underwater high-resolution digital camera on ROPOS.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. The ROPOS claw positions a bacteria trap along the side of Einstein vent at the Mystic vent field of the Magic Mountain area. These traps provide a habitat for bacteria and archea, which will be studied in Dr. Craig Moyer's laboratory at Western Washington University.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. These spectacular tubeworms cover Zooarium, a lower-temperature sulfide chimney, which was given its name because of all of the lush vent biota which inhabits it.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. Zooarium chimney, with diffuse flow (lower temperature and not as focused as the anhydrite structures), provides an ideal habitat for vent biota.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. This octopus was spotted on the side of a fault scarp during a geologic traverse.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. The ROPOS manipulator arm holds a sample of an inactive chimney in which "fossilized" tubeworms are embedded, an extremely rare find.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. This huge chimney structure (~15 meters tall - a small portion of which is shown in this image) is venting fluid at 312 degrees C, the highest temperature to date in the Magic Mountain area. Marker 72 was placed by ROPOS to make it easier to find on subsequent visits.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. ROPOS is in position for hot fluid sampling at this black smoker vent.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. Buccionid whelks (the large ivory-colored gastropods) are probably using their siphons to deposit feed. Snails, limpets and polychaete worms are also visible, as well as a blue/purple mat which is yet to be identified.

Ring of Fire 2002 Expedition. Barnacles.

Gulf of Alaska 2004 Expedition. Deep-sea spider crabs, like this one, have long, spider-like legs and are a brilliant red. The crabs we collected had an average carapace length of about 62 mm and an average width of about 53 mm. We only caught three crabs that we think were mature adults; they were around 85mm in length and 73mm in width.

Estuary to the Abyss 2004 Expedition. A brittle star (Opheiolepis elegans) brought up from the sea-floor sediment.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. The top of a black smoker chimney on the southeastern edge of the iguanas vent field. More than a dozen smoking chimneys in this field were imaged by the Medea cameras.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. The DLS120 tow-sled gathered sidescan and bathymetric sonar during the cruise.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. The inside of the DSL van where DSL pilots and technicians control remotely operated vehicles being towed over the seafloor, and scientists analyze and interpret incoming data. Lots of decision making and collaboration occurs between the science team and DSL technicians inside the van to conduct successful operations.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. An inactive chimney covered with gorgonian corals, sea pens and other non-vent associated biota imaged on the Eastern segment of the GSC.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. An inactive hydrothermal vent chimney from the Galapagos Spreading Center.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. The EM-300 multibeam data collected during the cruise revealed these two back-to-back calderas. The calderas were initially discovered in 2003 by K. Hoernle,(PI, IFM- Geomar, Kiel), R. Werner (Chief Scientist, IFM- Geomar, Kiel), D. Christie (OSU) and colleagues. In a contest for school children the calderas were named 'los huellos' - the footprints.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. This Miniature Autonomous Plume Recorder (MAPR) is a self-contained instrument for recording temperature, pressure and optical data. 10 MAPRs were strung at various points on the wire above and the line below , the DSL120 clump weight, for the purpose of collecting data and detecting anomalies that may indicate the presence of hydrothermal plumes.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. The Medea camera sled is deployed off the stern of the RV Thompson.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. The Medea camera sled was deployed during the cruise to visually show us the seafloor. Although black smoker vents had been found during the cruise with previous chemical analysis, their existence was not confirmed until the camera sled was deployed and sent us live video of the vents .

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. Hydrothermal vent fluids contain much dissolved chemical material that flows out of the vent, rapidly cools and reacts with the surrounding seawater, and then precipitates out minerals that form sediments on the surrounding seafloor.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. Hydrothermal vents expel large amounts of energy and chemicals that provide nourishments for chemosynthetic communities. A higher density of crabs, worms, anemones, microbes and fish can be seen on this patch of seafloor near a vent site than on the seafloor farther away.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. A fissure along the Galapagos Spreading Center. Much of the hydrothermal activity discovered during the cruise was found near fissures.

Galapagos 2005 Expedition. Sheet flows are formed when huge lava flows erupting from the seafloor are unable to be rapidly quenched by the seawater, and flow across the seafloor.

Ring of Fire 2006 Expedition.

Ring of Fire 2006 Expedition.

Ring of Fire 2006 Expedition.

Ring of Fire 2006 Expedition.