Life Below The Galapagos, Part 4

Digital Dan Dubno Ships Out And Prepares For His Deep-Sea Dive

(CBS)  As we descend, the changes in the water column are astounding: first the top level seems loaded with microscopic creatures. As the light disappears into inky darkness, we soon discover something unexpected: an endless light show. Bright, somewhat bluish light sparkles like stars in the night. Photoluminescence is very much like seeing fireflies underwater: jellies, shrimp, and micro-fish emit light for mysterious reasons. Some think creatures flash light to ward off other creatures ... or to attract mates ... or to lure predators to the flash as they scamper away in the darkness. As we descend thousands of feet, the show continues. Some creatures glow in shapes like centipedes, others like specks of dust, or round balls of jellies glowing and undulating. Pat, Alvin's pilot, flashes the lights and the luminescent creatures answer back. As suddenly as it began, perhaps 1,000 meters down, the light show ends. We sink deeper into jet black darkness.

Within a few minutes, or what seems like a few minutes, the air gets pleasingly cool. Moisture in the air condensates along the walls of the titanium sphere. The delicate viewing ports fog and need to be cleaned over and over again with special wipes. We near the bottom in what feels like 10 minutes. Amazingly, more than an hour-and-a-half has passed.

We drop two weights and add water to the ballast tanks so the pilot can maneuver around the "Rosebud" field. Rosebud was formed over the last seven years, following an eruption of lava that paved over the first lush site of life. That had been called "Rose Garden" when discovered in 1977. Scientists were amazed when they discovered this underground oasis of life, teeming with fish and strange tubeworms. The mineral-rich water bursting from the vents were toxic yet mysteriously sustained life. In this region of unimaginable pressure, completely without energy-producing light, scientists discovered a startling and unexpected phenomenon: "chemosynthesis." In these scalding vents, bacteria thrived on hydrogen sulfide stewing in the hot water. Animals, like the red-plumed Riftia, live off nourishing chemicals produced by the sulfur-eating bacteria. Vent crabs and mussels also thrive at the edge of super-heated vent sites. This is, simply, one of Life's most mind-boggling tricks: dashing long-held views that sunlight was essential for life; that life couldn't exist in environments highly toxic to humans; that the benthic regions (ocean bottom) were devoid of life. The camera lights on the exterior of Alvin blaze on. All around us, we see life at its most amazing.