British Mid-Ocean Ridge Initiative
The British Mid-Ocean Ridge Initiative (the BRIDGE Programme) was a multidisciplinary scientific investigation of the creation of the Earth's crust in the deep oceans.
They occur where the edges of the Earth's tectonic plates are separating, allowing mantle rock to rise to the seafloor and harden, creating new crust.
[1] BRIDGE investigated the geological setting of the ridge, the geochemistry of vent fluids, and ways in which biological communities survive in this apparently hostile environment.
The scale of the investigation ranged from extensive regional studies mapping unexplored seafloor to microscopic and chemical analyses at individual vent sites.
The programme held a series of annual funding rounds to which scientists and engineers in the field submitted research proposals.
[3] Three of the BRIDGE conferences resulted in books published by the Geological Society of London, presenting in greater detail the science reported at the meetings.
[7] On 16 November 1999 at the Natural History Museum, London these results were presented to invited guests at a formal end of programme meeting.
As the programme ended, Joe Cann reported, "As a result of the BRIDGE initiative, several groups of UK scientists are at the forefront of international research in mid-ocean ridge science.
We made sonar images of the first of a family of enormous faults that slice through the ocean floor, bringing deep rock to the surface.
[bnl 17] In addition to the results of the researches, which are still quoted,[9] the BRIDGE Programme left an interdisciplinary community of deep-ocean scientists with a proven track record of collaboration and new equipment for working at depths of over 3,500 metres.
[bnl 18] BRIDGE had purchased for the UK research fleet a Simrad multibeam echosounder for mapping the seafloor from a surface ship.
[bnl 19] The BRIDGE Towed instrument (BRIDGET), was developed for hunting and studying the plumes of warm, mineral rich fluids rising into the water column from vent fields.
Deployed by a deep submergence vehicle, this could be placed over individual vents for extended time periods to record the characteristics of the fluids as they emerge.
[bnl 22] For study of the dispersal of animals found at the vent fields, the biologists developed a Planktonic Larval Sampler for Molecular Analysis (PLASMA).
PLASMA could be left on the sea-bed in the vicinity of a vent field for up to a year if required, sampling at programmed intervals and preserving any larvae for DNA analysis after the recovery of the equipment.
