New hot vents in NE Pacific

Abstract

Over the past few years many workers have been attracted to the Juan de Fuca ridge 500 km off the Pacific northwest coast to study its tectonics. Investigations by both American earth scientists in the southern part of the system and Canadians where the northern extension enters territorial waters provided much of the background for the first submersible venture on this actively spreading ridge. In August 1983 a joint expedition of Canadian and American geologists and biologists set out to examine the ridge in the area of a seamount that sits astride the spreading axis. Scientific participants came from the universities of British Columbia, Victoria, Washington, Toronto, California at Santa Barbara, and the Institute of Ocean Sciences, British Columbia.