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Atlantis II Geology
What is unknown about the geology of hydrothermal vents?
One of the great motivations for building an undersea research facility is that so much is
still unknown about the geology of hydrothermal vent fields. Geologists have only been
able to perform detailed studies of 1% of the Earth's vent fields. Such a vast hole in our
knowledge means that there are likely many opportunities for research that scientists are
not aware of today, which provides an important incentive to have geologists on-site.
However, for the first six months of operation, we must consider currently known
problems. According to Dr. Stan Hart, the two most important unknowns right now are
records of the "timing, duration, and episodicity" of vent activity and knowledge about
chemical and energy flux around vent fields.
How do the first six months of planned experimentation help resolve these mysteries?
To gather information about vent activity and the particulate matter that vents inject into the surrounding area, our plans call for an analysis of the seafloor followed by the collection and analysis of a large number of 10 meter long core samples taken from the sediment column. More information about this experiment...
Our ideas for studying chemical and energy flux around the vent field utilize a sensor array stacked with a series of sophisticated probes. The first manner of data collection would involve a constant log of temperature, pressure, and several other variables. More information...
One of the many probes on each cluster of sensors will be a fluorometer. We plan to inject a phospho-fluorescent dye underneath the seafloor, wait for it to emerge, and track its concentration at each of the sensors so as to get a clear picture of the currents involved. More information...
Additional information about geological research can be found at the pages below.
Additional experiments (these are less comprehensive in scale than the major experiments listed above)