Do you know what would make a wonderful addition to the Georneys annual What to Buy a Geologist for Christmas list? A LEGO version of the Deep Sea Submersible Alvin! I have a soft spot in my heart for Alvin because I obtained my Ph.D. in Marine Geology from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which operates the Alvin. I have never personally participated in an Alvin dive. However, my Ph.D. supervisor Susan Humphris has participated in many Alvin dives and is the scientist who has been leading the recent Alvin upgrade. You can read more about Susan and her work on Alvin in this recent article. I would love to be able to buy a LEGO Alvin for Susan– I’m sure she would love it! In fact, I want to buy a dozen or so LEGO Alvins and give them to all my scientist friends.

Here’s the thing, though: LEGO doesn’t actually make an Alvin. Not yet, anyway. However, there is a design for a LEGO Alvin in the Idea Stage, and you can help turn the Idea Stage into reality by voting here. The LEGO Alvin currently has 275 votes. Personally, I think we can do a little bit better than that! In order for LEGO to even take a look, a design needs 10,000 votes. So, please go vote for LEGO Alvin and tell all your friends and family to vote, too! Now, voting is a little bit difficult because you have to create an account or sign in with Facebook. However, please be patient and take a minute to vote for Alvin. And help me spread the word on other geology blogs and social media. Let’s aim for 10,000 votes!

Let’s start by seeing how many votes we can gather for LEGO Alvin in the next week. I’ll check-in again on Friday, October 25th to see how many more votes there are.