In April 1982, the first-ever biology expedition to the East Pacific Rise set sail from San Diego. It was an exploration of one of the Pacific Ocean’s tectonic plate boundaries, where, more than 2,500 meters below the ocean surface, seawater gushes down through the plates, deep into the Earth’s crust, and comes out through hydrothermal vents—underwater hot springs that release sulfides and other chemicals from deep within the crust.
The three-ship fleet headed to a spot in the Gulf of California. On one of the ships was Alvin, a deep-sea submersible built like a space shuttle to withstand the enormous pressures of ocean depths. Also onboard was a young and eager Cindy Van Dover, who, as a lab technician with no graduate training, was “the lowest person on the totem pole,” the Duke University Marine Laboratory professor now recalls.
I remember how strongly I felt that I did not want ...
