The People
Fire + Ice:
Exploring for Volcanoes Beneath the Arctic
The Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge Expedition
July 31 - October 3, 2001
Scientists
Michele Adams
http://tea.rice.edu/tea_adamsfrontpage.html
Science Teacher
Musselman Middle School/
Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic
As a seventh-grade science teacher, I was selected through Teachers Experiencing the Antarctic and Arctic (TEA) to join the scientific research team to the top of the world, to Gakkel Ridge. My research will involve looking at the abundance, size, and structure of the crystals in lavas. I want to see how these aspects of the crystals change with distance from a volcanic center. This will give us insight into what happened when the magma was under the surface.
Thanks to Teachers Experiencing the Antarctic and Arctic, an NSF program, students, teachers, and my community can communicate with me by E-mail. They may also follow my research and progress through the journals and images that I will be posting daily, both here and through the TEA Web site. I am most excited to be taking part in this mission to explore the last unsampled ridge of the ocean. I hope to inspire and inform you as I travel north to Earth’s unique Gakkel Ridge.
James Broda
http://www.npolar.no/
Research Technician
Norwegian Polar Institute
I have been at Woods Hole ever since starting as a research assistant back in 1971. Those 30 years have left me time to participate on 76 research cruises now. Since 1974 I have supervised cruise preparation and deck operations for seafloor sampling.
As core curator for the Woods Hole Sea Floor Samples Laboratory, I am helping to engineer better systems for acquiring samples. My research includes the study of marine sediments and microscopic fossils, or micropaleontology. I also work on techniques for seismic refraction, which looks at seismic waves that have traveled through the Earth. We can create these waves artificially, from explosives that we have towed deep underwater.
Henry Dick
http://www.whoi.edu/science/GG/dept/cv/hjbd.html
Senior Scientist
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
You see me here on my last cruise to the Southwest Indian Ridge. I was dredging an ultra-slow-spreading ridge section - in fact, very much like the Gakkel Ridge. It took me seven years to get there. That makes it pretty remote, but not quite as remote as the Gakkel.
I have spent my entire career working on ridges like these, including the Indian and American Antarctic. I am best known for my work on abyssal peridotites, rock (partly serpentine) from the Earth's mantle that lies exposed on the seafloor at ocean ridges. Ridges show a lot about plate tectonics, the process shaping the continents. The Atlantis Bank, which I have helped map, offers a window into the lower ocean crust and exposed mantle. At 32 S 57 E, along the Southwest Indian Ridge, a hole extends nearly a mile deep.
I have been at Woods Hole for 26 years now, but in that time I have spent close to three years at sea. This coming Christmas I shall be joining Japanese researchers on the RV Yokosuka. There I will serve as co-chief scientist of a deep submersible mapping expedition at the Atlantis Bank.
Henrietta (Hedy) Edmonds
http://wwwutmsi.zo.utexas.edu/
Assistant Professor
University of Texas at Austin
Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Texas
I am a marine geochemist with two major interests: hydrothermal vents and plumes, and chemical tracers of Arctic and North Atlantic circulation. No hydrothermal vents have been discovered yet in the Arctic, and everyone is very interested to know if they occur on this slowest-spreading mid-ocean ridge and if so what the biology is like, given that there is no direct connection (e.g. for migration) between the Gakkel Ridge and known vent sites on the rest of the mid-ocean ridge system.
I will be deploying MAPRs (Miniature Autonomous Plume Recorders, built by Ed Baker at NOAA/PMEL) on the dredge wire to look for signs of hydrothermal plumes, in the form of temperature anomalies or high concentrations of particles in the water. If we find any, we will then use the CTD/Rosette to collect water samples to measure the "Big 3" chemical tracers of hydrothermal plumes: helium-3 (which will be measured by Dave Graham), manganese, and methane. If not, I hope to do at least one CTD cast to get water samples for my other tracer work.
I spent May 22 to June 29 sampling hydrothermal plumes in the Indian Ocean with British scientists on the RRS Charles Darwin. I don’t know what my husband and two cats will think when I come home in October. I am happy to be missing most of the South Texas summer, but wonder if this might be a little extreme.
Steven L. Goldstein
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/dees/faculty/goldstein.html
Associate Professor
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Our dynamic Earth is reflected in two kinds of processes — those that fractionate elements, or separate them from each other, and those that mix them together. Throughout Earth’s history, continental and oceanic crust have been created by just those geochemical processes. As magma forms deep within the Earth, it is then mixed into the mantle. The secret is subduction at the ocean trenches, a process in which one plate of the Earth’s mantle sinks beneath another. But how do these processes happen, and what is the timing of events?
Fortunately, the decay of radioactive elements in rocks leaves its marks. At Lamont, we are using these as fingerprints to study the early evolution of the Earth. We are finding these fingerprints at ocean ridges, oceanic islands, and island arcs. We can trace the growth of continents and key chemical changes in the mantle. By dating sediments, some only thousands of years old, we can watch changes through time in the oceans and in climate. Our studies range from the oldest rocks on the Earth to freshly erupted lava.
David Graham
http://www.oce.orst.edu/faculty/graham.html
Associate Professor
Oregon State University
My research looks at the chemistry of underwater volcanic rocks. We can find them in mid-ocean ridges, on oceanic islands, and within continental rifts. Magmas, or molten rocks, and fluids from the Earth's interior all have unique chemical signatures. In particular, the ratios of helium isotopes are very different from the helium ratios in the Earth’s atmosphere. The "excess" of one isotope has profound implications. It means that the Earth is still outgassing, or releasing, materials that were trapped long ago.
My main research looks at the Southeast Indian Ridge, the Galapagos Spreading Center in the Pacific Ocean, and the Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean. I am also studying young volcanic rocks from ocean islands, particularly the Canary and Galapagos Islands. We can compare these with ancient lava from Mt. Vesuvius and Mt. Etna in Italy, as well as from the East African Rift. The comparison helps us gain insights into a volcano’s "plumbing." Last, I am studying rare gases from West Greenland. These erupted during the continental breakup of the North Atlantic, and they offer a window into the early geochemistry of the Iceland mantle.
Deborah
Hassler
http://www-eps.harvard.edu/
Postdoctoral Investigator
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
I am an igneous petrologist and geochemist, studying the earth's mantle and lower crust. I am especially interested in rocks from the ocean basins. At Woods Hole I work with Henry Dick, one the leaders of this expedition.
My interest in geology started as an undergraduate at the University of Kansas. My graduate degree is from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, where I first learned about marine geology. After two years of postdoc work at Harvard, I am back at WHOI to finish up my previous work and to help out on the Arctic cruise.
This is my second oceanographic research cruise. I am very excited to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We are traveling to the Arctic Ocean, exploring a part of our planet for which very little of the geology is known. We have had only two rock samples from here—until now. Everything that we find will help to advance our understanding of the ocean basins and how they work.
Linda Kuhnz
http://www.mlml.calstate.edu/groups/benthic/benthic.htm
Benthic Ecologist
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
Ecosystems in and around Monterey Bay are exceptional. I can study coastal dunes, estuaries, nearshore underwater habitats, and the deep sea– all in the same area. My work focuses on infauna, or small animals that live in the top few inches of marine sediments. I also look at larger invertebrates and fishes, called megafauna, that live on the seafloor or just above it. I characterize their habitats using underwater video, computer imaging, and field samples.
As the biologist aboard the Healy, my primary
interests lie with the hydrothermal vents we may encounter. These are gaps in
the seafloor, from which hot plumes rise as in a chimney. Because sunlight does
not reach extreme depths in the ocean, organisms have to rely on chemical energy
(or chemosynthesis) instead of photosynthesis. It’s a unique and interesting
way for organisms to make a living! Because this area is unexplored, we may
find new species of animals.
Gregory J. Kurras My current research involves mid-ocean ridges —mountainous chains
rising up from the seafloor. Data from a 1999 Arctic cruise and elsewhere has
helped us define the structure and make-up of these ridges.
With bathymetry, our equipment has descended into the oceans. With computers
and the Web, we can collect, compare, and design many different data sets from
different disciplines of science. With high-resolution images from close to
the ocean bottom, we are looking at volcanoes and other processes along the
fast-spreading East Pacific Rise. The result is to gain a fresh picture of plate
tectonics, our unifying model of the great motions that have shaped the
Earth’s surface.
Charles H. Langmuir Plate tectonics is our unifying model of geology today. The Earth’s
great plates form at ocean ridges. They are modified by interaction with seawater,
are subducted or fall again at trenches, and finally are mixed back into
the mantle by convection. Our group studies this massive circulation of the
solid Earth, with a look at young volcanoes, sediments, plutonic or crystalline
rocks, and the ancient crust. The solid Earth system is as dynamic and complex
as the more familiar climate system, but it works on a much longer time frame.
The added challenge is that much of the action is hidden beneath the surface.
To study ocean ridges, we’ll be collecting and analyzing rocks at sea,
working closely with data from other scientists. We’ll be mapping and sampling
individual volcanoes, as well as sediments that have formed in deep slabs under
immense pressure. The results should help us to understand metamorphism
— the chemical and structural changes in solid rock.
Kerstin Lehnert I am a geologist working at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory as a senior
staff associate with Charles Langmuir. I received my Ph.D. in Geology in Germany
at the University of Freiburg. At LDEO I do analytical work (ICP-MS, DCP, electron
microprobe) on basaltic rocks from mid-ocean ridges and subduction zones. My
main project over the last years has been a <a href="http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/RidgePetDB">database</a>
that serves chemical data of rocks from the oceanic crust over the web.
This is the first time that I am involved in sampling the rocks that I have
been working with. It actually is my first cruise ever, and I am very excited
to go to this remote location. On the cruise, I will run an analytical instrument
to measure the chemical composition of the samples that we will collect.
Peter J. Michael When a volcano erupts, it marks the transfer of matter and energy from the
interior of our planet to the surface. This hidden process, called volcanism,
has helped over millions of years to create and mold the Earth's mantle, crust,
oceans, and rivers. Gases released and recycled into the mantle alter the atmosphere
and even the biosphere. In fact, most of the underlying process takes place
underwater, at mid-ocean ridges, and the igneous rocks we find there hold its
secrets.
In one study, we looked at the water content in basalts from all over the world.
We were able to show how movements of the Earth’s plates have shaped their
chemical composition. In another study, we used the chlorine in glasses to describe
the interaction between magma and the Earth’s crust. We are also looking
at how gases from magma affect the unique organisms that inhabit hydrothermal
vents.
We have charted particular locations as well, working with geophysicists, marine
geologists, and others in this multidisciplinary field. As the chief scientist
on USCGC Healy, I am thrilled to be working with an outstanding group of marine
scientists on the expedition to Gakkel Ridge.
Chief Boatswain’s
Mate Glenn Woodbury
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/HMRG/facstaff/gkurras/gjk-home.htm
Graduate Research Assistant
University of Hawaii
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/dees/faculty/langmuir.html
Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/RidgePetDB
Senior Staff Associate
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
http://www.geo.utulsa.edu/faculty/michael/michael.html
Professor
The University of Tulsa
Glenn D. Woodbury was born Wednesday 5 June 1957 to Lynn Hillary and Roger K. Woodbury in Santa Monica, California and is a 3rd generation Californian. His earliest memory is of his father building an 8 ft. Sabot dinghy, and he has been sailing ever since. His family moved north in 1960, and spent summers hiking in the Sierra Nevada, canoeing, sailing and fishing. Winter vacations were spent skiing in the Sierras. In 1974 he graduated early from Berkeley High School in order to spend a year cycling and Hosteling in Europe.
Upon his return in 1975 he enrolled in
the University of California at Berkeley majoring in Mechanical Engineering
with the intention of a postgraduate degree in Naval Architecture. He also went
into partnership with a High School friend in a cabinet shop. Predictably, neither
college nor business flourished, and spring of 1977 found him living in the
mountains of Southern Oregon.
After working in Josephine County Forestry
for a year he married Deborah Abramovitz of Berkeley, a fellow member of the
Mediaevalist organization, The Society for Creative Anachronism. They moved
to Ashland, and attended Southern Oregon State College for two years, supporting
themselves working in the College’s kitchen.
In 1980 they returned to the Bay Area
so that Deborah could attend Mills College in Oakland. In May of 1983, at the
suggestion of a friend who was a Captain in the Army Reserves, Glenn enlisted
in the Coast Guard.
After Basic Training, his first assignment
in August of 1983 was the 65 foot Harbour Tug, BOLLARD, in New Haven, Connecticut.
In a little over a year he had been promoted to Third Class Boatswain’s
Mate and was transferred back to the West Coast in October of 1984.
At the Life Saving Station at Cape Disappointment,
near Ilwaco, Washington he qualified as Coxswain in both the 41 foot Utility
Boat (UTB) and the 44 foot Motor Lifeboat (MLB), and was promoted to Second
Class Boatswain’s Mate. In June of 1987 Deborah bore their first child,
Nathaniel. In October Glenn was transferred and they move to Kodiak, Alaska.
In Kodiak Glenn served for 2 years on
the Medium Endurance Cutter (WMEC) YOCONA, an ex-Navy 213 foot salvage tug used
for fisheries patrol in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. In February of
1989 Deborah bore their second child, Linaea. In October Glenn was promoted
to First Class Boatswain’s Mate and transferred ashore to operate the 42
foot Aviation Training Boat (ATB) for Air Station Kodiak. After completing his
tour in 1992 Glenn and his family returned to Washington State, in Port Townsend.
At Port Townsend Glenn served as Executive
Petty Officer (XPO) on the 87 foot Patrol Boat (WPB) POINT BENNETT. The long
hours and high stress of the assignment took a toll on Deborah and Glenn’s
marriage, and upon completion of his tour in June of 1994, Glenn was transferred
to Guam as an unaccompanied "Geographical Bachelor". Deborah and the
children stayed in Port Townsend in order to keep the children in the schools
there.
On Guam Glenn served at the Marine Safety
Office (MSO) as the enlisted office manager and conducted Marine Safety examinations
on Foreign Fishing Vessels, Freighters, Tankers and Passenger Ships. As part
of the Port Operations division he also conducted pollution investigations and
assisted the Coast Guard Marianas Section (MarSec) Law Enforcement team. In
1996 he was selected as the MarSec Sailor of the Quarter and took the servicewide
examination for advancement to Chief. At the conclusion of his tour in May he
was once more transferred to Washington State, this time to Port Angeles.
The prolonged separation finished what his time as XPO had started, and Deborah
and Glenn had an amicable divorce upon his return from Guam. Glenn served as
a Group Duty Officer (GDO) or Search and Rescue (SAR) coordinator for 1 year
at Coast Guard Group Port Angeles before being advanced to Chief Boatswain’s
Mate. In June of 1997 Glenn married Dianna Wiklund, another Mediaevalist, at
North Beach in Port Townsend, Washington. In July Glenn was transferred again
and they moved to Alameda, California.
In Alameda Glenn was part of the Pacific
Area Training Team, first as a member and later as leader of the 14th District
Fisheries Training Team. This involved frequent training visits to the Hawaiian
Islands and annual returns to Guam, instructing Coast Guard Boarding Officers
and Boarding Team Members in Fisheries Law, Investigative Techniques and Case
Preparation. In August of 1999 Dianna bore their daughter, Aelfhild. In May
Glenn was transferred to the icebreaker Healy (WAGB 20) and joined the ship
in St. Johns, Newfoundland during her maiden voyage and trip home through the
Northwest Passage.
On Healy Glenn serves as Chief
Boatswain’s Mate, in charge of Deck Seamanship, Line Handling, Anchoring,
Small Boat Operations, Cargo Stowage and Crane Operations. Underway he also
stands watches as an Officer of the Deck.
After 20 years in the Coast Guard, Glenn will be eligible for retirement in May of 2003. He, Dianna and Aelfhild are living in a yurt on Dianna’s family’s property in Auburn while they save for their building fund. Unlike Ulysses who declared that he would put an oar on his shoulder and walk inland until he was asked what that strange winnowing staff was; Glenn has no intention of leaving the sea. When their house is complete, he plans to use the G.I. bill to attend the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Townsend, Washington so he can build his own boats. And incidentally, keep a good eye on his older children while they are in High School.
Students
Joel Donohue Joel Donahue, always cheerful at 4AM on the night shift.
Molly Langmuir I am a 21-year-old nonscientist (and Professor Langmuir's daughter), on my
very first time at sea. I am here to help out and to experience life at sea.
Yasuhiko Ohara
Paul Schmieder I am a junior at the University of Tulsa, and I am currently on track for a
geosciences degree. I am originally from St. Louis, Missouri. I have been working
this summer in Bakersfield, California, as an intern with Schlumberger, an oil
services company. I am using this internship to help me decide if I would like
to move into geophysics. My interests tend to lead me outdoors, and I like activities
that offer new opportunities and exploration. During the school year I devote
a lot of time to my studies, but when the time is free I love to go climbing,
biking, camping, and hiking. Being on this boat in the middle of nowhere will
be exciting. I am going to a new place, and I may never go there again.
This trip will also be my first chance to do hands-on research in geology.
At school this will go down as independent study, but I expect this trip to
provide more for me than a mark in the grade book. I will gain new interests
from this trip, and I hope the exposure to the researchers and the research
environment proves beneficial. I look forward to meeting everyone in Norway
and at sea.
Kyla K. Simons I am a first-year graduate student, working at Lamont with Charlie Langmuir,
Steven Goldstein, and Richard Fairbanks. I have a B.S. in geology from the University
of Miami and an M.S. in marine geology and geophysics from the Rosenstiel School
of Marine and Atmospheric Science at Miami.
My interests include the evolution of the oceanic lithosphere and mantle. I
want to study the geochemistry of mantle plumes, the hot materials that rise
from the ocean floor and interact with ocean ridges. Volatiles are substances
that are easily vaporized, and volatiles play a big role in the chemistry and
cycles of the Earth’s mantle.
Gad Soffer I am a new graduate student at Lamont, starting on my Ph.D. in geochemistry
and petrology this fall with Dr. Charlie Langmuir and Dr. Steve Goldstein. My
geologic career started at age 7 with a strong interest in mineralogy. A few
bookshelves of mineral samples later, I ended up as an undergraduate studying
the Neoproterozoic era, from 900 to 544 million years ago. I became interested
in tectonics, the motions that shaped the continents, along with stratigraphy
and sedimentology, which help sort out the structure and nature of sedimentary
rocks.
After graduation I spent a year or so wandering the world in search of interesting
rocks, and I eventually decided to continue studying the Earth as a geochemist
here at Lamont. This expedition to the Gakkel Ridge will be my maiden voyage
on a scientific cruise ship. It will certainly be an interesting starting point
for my research at Lamont.
Jared J. (Jeff) Standish I am currently a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the MIT/WHOI joint program.
I have my B.A. in geology from Colgate University and an M.S. from the University
of Idaho. I want to study how plumes of hot rock and liquid rise from the seafloor
and interact with ocean ridges. I want to see the geochemistry of the Earth’s
mantle. I hope to become more active in volcanology and hydrogeology.
I first got to look up close at ocean ridges on a cruise to the Southwest Indian
Ridge. By working first-hand there and on the Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic, we
can follow the slower movements of ocean plates, or seafloor spreading.
Kevin Wheeler I am a Brown graduate and am going to be a first-year graduate student at Columbia
University. I’ll be studying petrology with Dave Walker. But first I have
to return, literally, from Siberia. 
http://www.geo.utulsa.edu/
Student
University of Tulsa
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/
Research Assistant
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
http://www.whoi.edu/science/GG/dept/cv/yo.html
Graduate Student
Woods Hold Oceanographic Institution
http://www.geo.utulsa.edu/
Student
University of Tulsa
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/
Graduate Student
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/
Graduate Student
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
http://web.mit.edu/mit-whoi/www/
Graduate Student
Massachusetts Institute of Technology/
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/
Graduate Student
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
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