HR: 08:05h
AN: OS51D-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Jack Dymond's Deep Insights
AU: Thomson, R E
EM: thomsonr@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
AF: Institute of Ocean Sciences, PO Box 6000, Sidney, BC V8L4B2 Canada
AU: * Delaney, J R
EM: jdelaney@u.washington.edu
AF: University of Washington, School of Oceanography Box 357940, Seattle, WA 98195 United States
AB: Most people do not know that Jack Dymond was a major influence on several aspects of current deep-sea research. Along with Margaret Leinen and Jack, we were part of the first Alvin dive program on the Endeavour hydrothermal field in 1984. Jack was working with Rick, on a sediment-trap study of the overall carbon fluxes in the vicinity of the Endeavour hydrothermal systems in an effort to address a question that Cindy Lee had posed about the overall carbon production from hydrothermal vents. At the time we were recognizing and naming many of the 20- to 40-meter-high sulfide structures in the Endeavour field (Hulk, Grotto, Dante, Dudley, Bastille), Jack commented that it was a shame that the world could not see these magnificent edifices or watch endlessly awesome black smokers. His feeling was that some vent sites should be converted to National Parks to preserve them from invasion by enthusiastic scientists, yet he clearly had the vision that the public should be given a sense of the grandeur involved locally, as well as the vastness of the 70,000-km ridge-crest system running through every ocean. Within a year we started talking about the RIDGE Program, and Jack was an early and enthusiastic participant in the design and development of RIDGE. Jack was among the first to encourage multi-disciplinary research at the hydrothermal vent sites. Recognizing that deep currents are important to vent processes, he urged physical oceanographers to work with the chemists, biologists, and geologists and was personally responsible for Rick becoming interested in studying vents. We, the co-authors of this abstract, became close friends as a result of having been introduced to each other by Jack. Several years ago, we co-authored the first paper ever written on the possible influence of hydrothermal activity on the circulation of the Europan Ocean, a paper that we here dedicate to the memory of Jack. Finally, it was in part because of Jack's conviction that the world should know more about submarine hydrothermal systems, albeit in a manner we could not then imagine, that eventually led to developing the concept of a cabled ocean observatory. Technology evolved to allow us to design a system that would deliver considerable power and nearly inexhaustible bandwidth to major portions of the ocean basins, enabling an interactive form of oceanography that will be developed within the ORION program and that is now becoming a reality in the form of the Canadian NEPTUNE program. Within five years, these cabled systems will reach into the newly established Canadian Marine Protected area on the Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge and will bring live-action high-definition video in stereo to anyone capable of logging onto the Internet. Jack Dymond was an inspiration to many communities, one of which was oceanography. We miss him tremendously.
DE: 4200 OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL
DE: 3035 Midocean ridge processes
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting