Pilot-in-training Nathan Brown (left) and WHOI scientist Susan Humphris talk with Peter Girguis, chief scientist of the expedition and chair of the Deep Submergence Science Committee (DESSC). Humphris, Brown, and Pilot Bob Waters were on Alvin’s first dive of this cruise. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Photo credit Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Over the last 12 days a team of scientists, engineers, technicians, submersible pilots, and ship’s crew sailed into the Gulf of Mexico and took the United States’ newest research submersible, the human-occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin, on its first scientific dives. Though the sub had been through a number of rigorous Navy certification dives to ensure that it can safely transport its occupants to and from the cold, dark deep, Alvin’s scientific equipment had yet to be thoroughly tested. Read More →