My friend John Jamieson, who is now a prof in the geology department at Memorial University in Newfoundland and Canada Research Chair in marine geology and is also a former GeoSphere guest poster is currently on a research cruise near Fiji. John researches deep sea vents, aka. black smokers/seafloor massive sulphide deposits that are exhaling super heated water at tectonic plate boundaries around the world. These vents are modern analogues of the conditions in which volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits form, which are major sources of iron, copper, lead and zinc around the world.

Watch the really cool video below to learn all about the cruise and why we care about black smokers and mapping the ocean floor.

While you’re at it, check out some of the other awesome videos from the Schmidt Institute for Ocean Science!