Life Below The Galapagos, Part 4

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

(CBS)  Pat has surveyed, gathered, moved, and explored. While the Alvin pirouettes around each project on the punch list, I stare out the portal: to me, tubeworms are not animals ... they're like giant animated flowers popping and weaving a rhythmic pattern they alone understand.

We explore new areas of the deep, places where new obsidian rock (clean, shiny and black) suddenly looks weathered and dusty. Here, sediment of centuries gathers undisturbed save for the occasional sea cumber slogging through or white crab scuttling by. Alvin stirs up the dust which billows around the view ports. Even in this sediment, even in this long history of sea dust, there is life: microbes and other small creatures dance in the yellow muck.

Ahead, Pat comes to a Riftia bed. He gathers samples with the giant claw ... one, two, three ... and places them in the collection box. We motor over a clam bed and, quick as a flash, 10 samples are picked up and placed in special collection tubes. Handling the titanium arm like a surgeon, Pat makes gathering samples look easy. To me, the process seems as simple as picking up a bowling ball with chopsticks. In a final act of grappling virtuosity, Pat spies a large, flat lava plate and, he can't be serious. He's trying to lift this flat rock the size of a kitchen table into the collection basket. The volcanic sheet glass fractures. Another grab, another pile of debris. Finally, a tenuous hold and the black slab, nearly two inches thick, hangs over the science tray in the front of the craft.

With that, Pat says, "dropping weights" and we're headed up. Lights are shut off and now we suddenly feel very cold and damp. We have been to the bottom of the ocean and, in what feels like minutes, our exploration is ended. Yet, amazingly, 7 hours have somehow mysteriously gone by in a blur. We move our legs over each other's and jockey for seating space. In thick plastic bins, we find simple sandwiches: cold cuts or peanut butter and jelly. They're the best damn sandwiches I've ever had. With a full science load, Dan Fornari has completed a whirlwind of experiments. He's happy. We've been taken all over the dive site. Carefully cradling a high-definition video camera, I've captured some astonishing video: Riftia spawning; mussels in the hot poison brine; crabs in frenzy. It's been drilled into my head that the camera can not touch the delicate port window so I've carefully held my hands protectively over the edge of the lens to thwart sudden movements of Alvin.