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GALLERY

  • Paleontologist Dolf Seilacher (left) and Geologist Peter Rona (foreground) aboard the research vessel Altantis.
  • Submersible Alvin being launched from RV Atlantis in a scene from Volcanoes of the Deep Sea.
  • Alvin on the bottom of the Atlantic at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in a scene from Volcanoes of the Deep Sea.
  • Submersible Alvin at Lost City, (mid-Atlantic) in a scene from Volcanoes of the Deep Sea.

August 25, 2009

New York Times features Enduring Film Mystery

An article in the New York Times by science writer William J. Broad spotlights the work of Rutgers scientist Dr. Peter Rona and the ongoing puzzle of the trace fossil Paleodictyon nodossum--the mystery at the heart of the giant screen film Volcanoes of the Deep Sea released in 2003. The New York Times article appeared August 24th, 2009.

Filmed with an IMAX camera in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans from aboard the deep sea submersible Alvin, Volcanoes of the Deep Sea explores the strange world of deep sea hydrothermal vents and the fantastic creatures associated with this kind of habitat. A key thread in the film follows the collaboration of geologist Dr. Rona and palaeontologist Dr. Dolf Seilacher of the University of Tubingen and Yale University as they seek to elucidate eerily precise hexagonal patterns appearing in profusion on the sea bottom near a hydrothermal vent site on the Mid Atlantic Ridge. In the film, a connection is made between the apparently freshly-created patterns in the sediment and fossils discovered in sedimentary rock formations on the coast of Spain. The 100 million year-old fossils in Spain indicate Paleoedictyon to be among the oldest and possibly the oldest living representative of a form long thought to be extinct.

The film project which documented the Paleodictyon research, also assisted with some of its key findings through the allocation of submersible dive time.

In May, a new paper by the team appeared in the online version of Deep-Sea Research, Part II, an oceanographic journal published twice monthly. The printed article will appear in  the September 2009 issue of the journal. While research has helped to elucidate many details, the fundamental mystery of the source of these deep sea patterns persists.

Links:
www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/science/25fossil.html