Web-cam’s potential for collaborative activities in the Earth sciences

We report here our experiences from using easily acquired web-cam components for collaborative ventures in the Earth sciences. We have used a variety of hardware and different software. We demonstrate from various locations in the U.S.A. the feasibility of using web-cam in multitudinous activities, relevant for conducting research and knowledge dissemination. We summarize the quality of the connections from the various combinations of communicating parties. Today, web-cams can be utilized as an economical and viable means of point-to-point communication in the Earth science community. Greater bandwidth is sorely needed for activities such as multi-party conferencing on the present internet network. We propose that web-cam can be readily deployed as a web-service for facilitating collaborative research over the GRID infrastructure, using the middleware Narada-Brokering. Web-cam will play an important role in the emerging field of geoinformatics.     

The structure, mass and interactions of the hydrothermal plumes at 26°N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Water-column surveys by combined nephelometer/CTD (NCTD) tows contributed to the 1985 discovery of the first black smokers on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Subsequent regional water-column mapping has helped define the extent, mass and interactions of the suspended particulate matter phase (SPM) of the hydrothermal plumes emanating from the known and other nearby sources. The results of 29 NCTD cast/tows, covering 25–30 km² of ridge segment, indicate the presence of as many as two additional sources based on SPM concentration gradients and plume-top doming over source areas. Plume doming, documented here for the first time from field observations, conforms strikingly with laboratory experiments and can serve as a marker for source field location. A comparison of the plumes' SPM with potential temperature and salinity distributions indicates close correlation in water-column anomaly patterns for each, confirming modification of the regional potential temperature and salinity structure by hydrothermal plumes, which is expressed by wide separation and sloping of isotherms and isohalines.