Robots to search unexplored Arctic for new life

POSTED in CNN.com: 1:20 p.m. EDT, June 22, 2007

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Researchers hope newly developed robots will give them their first look at a mysterious ridge located between Greenland and Siberia. The Gakkel Ridge, encased under the frozen Arctic Ocean, is steep and rocky, and scientists suspect its remote location hosts an array of undiscovered life.

Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod plan to begin a 40-day expedition of the ridge on July 1. The Gakkel Ridge marks a 1,100-mile stretch from north of Greenland toward Siberia, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates continuously move away from each other. Scientists believe new life could be discovered there because of hot springs that are created at such tectonic boundaries when ocean water comes into contact with hot magma rising from the earth's mantle.

The two robots, named Puma and Jaguar, are built to descend to about 5,000 meters and work 5 to 6 meters off the bottom, photographing and removing samples, said Hanumant Singh, the project's chief engineer. The advances are no guarantee of success, however.

source: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/22/arctic.explore.ap/index.html

Geb Roj J Baroro
4 - Tau
for July 2, 2007