Deep Ocean Expeditions

The Descent
Following a pre-dive briefing, you'll enter the submersible, then the Keldysh on-board crane will lift the Mirs into the ocean. They usually dive about an hour apart. After pre-dive testing, ballast water will be pumped into the tanks and you'll begin your descent at a rate of 100 feet (31m) per minute. Three view ports, each seven inches thick will be your windows to this undersea world.

By 800 feet (245m) all traces of sunlight will be gone and you will be immersed in total darkness. To conserve power, the Mir submersibles descend without external lights. However the pilot will at times switch them on to observe passing marine life. Even in the darkness, the ocean is alive. Be sure to look for tiny bioluminescent creatures, whose glowing characteristics require no lights to be seen. By 4,000 feet (1,220m) the interior of the Mir will start to cool and you may want to don extra clothing. Topside the Keldysh (only occasionally out of voice contact) will help navigate the Mir to the vent field 7,875 feet (2,400m) below the ocean surface. Every dive is a working dive so your deep dive observations will provide valuable data for the on-board research scientists.

Observing The Hydrothermal Vents
Your Mir pilots have explored numerous active vent fields throughout the world over the past 15 years as well as having done important research in the fields of geology, biology and oceanography. On your dive they will help you to interpret what you are seeing. And there will be incredible opportunities for you to make you own film or video images using the powerful outside floodlights carried by the submersible. You are now in 'innerspace', a person from another planet...

As you enter the active vent zones you will marvel at the incredible, almost other worldly, scenes spread before you. Shimmering patterns of superheated water abound as vents 'breathe' into the cold seawater (34ºF/1ºC). Black smokers belch out plumes of dark stygian elements. Mineral deposits spewed onto the seafloor surrounding the vents offer a beautiful kaleidoscope of colour. A recent lava flow will produce 'pillow lava' formations - Mother Earth's new crust, fresh out of the oven.

Especially important are the robust and diverse life forms crowding around these erupting vents. Here are some of the oldest life forms on earth, unknown to man until just two decades ago, ready to be seen and captured on film for later reflection.

Hydrothermal Vents (PDF)