A team of ocean scientists, led by Jill McDermott, associate professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Lehigh and director of the Lehigh Oceans Research Center, recently discovered five new hydrothermal vents in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean
The discovery was supported—and in many ways accelerated—by use of a deep-sea robot and a human-occupied submarine.
The research expedition was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The program is focused on learning more about volcanic and hydrothermal systems in the deep-sea, where unique communities of animals thrive in high-heat environments.
