He returned to school, researching oceanographic gear at Columbia University, and received a Ph.D. in marine geology and geophysics from Yale in 1967.
The 2003 film, Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, documents Rona's and his colleague Richard A. Lutz's excursions of the oceanic hot springs.
[1] Rona and Lutz had been scouring the ocean floors for the organism Paleodictyon nodosum, believed to be one of the Earth's earliest complex life forms, or one of the oldest "living fossils".
[1] In 1987, the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded Rona its gold medal for exceptional scientific contributions to the nation.
[1] In February 2014, Rona died in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey, from complications related to multiple myeloma.