Indeed this was to be the first diving cruise at more than 5000 m depth in a zone
where we had evidence that deep-seated upper-mantle/lower-crust had been
exposed. At that time, this exploration was the first of its kind to look at the Earth’s
upper mantle on an ultrafast spreading ridge segment of the Pacific Ocean.
Once the cruise was accepted and planned, we started our journey by plane to
the town of Callao in Peru on January 2, 1991. Arriving at the airport, we discovered that a policeman, after stopping Rejean Hébert, had kept his wallet with
all his money and there was nothing that he or we could do about this. Little
adventures dealing with human behavior have been additional learning experiences in my life as a scientific explorer.
We continued our trip by flying to the small fishing port of Talara, located
further north at about 4°34
0 N-81°16
0 W. While I was passing the embarking gate, I
saw a sign at the airport indicating an air flight for Garrett, probably a town with
the same name as that of the oceanic fracture zone that we were heading for.
The town of Talara is located in a barren region of the Andes and it looks like a
western style ‘‘cowboy town’’. We had to spend the night in a shabby hotel. The
ship was scheduled to arrive the next day at noon. It was very hot and we were
dehydrated because we did not dare to drink any local water. Of course, there was
beer but one can only drink so much, and beer does not always quench one’s thirst.
From Talara, we were going to board the N.O. NADIR, the support ship of the
submersible Nautile. The NADIR was coming from Fort de France (Martinique)
via the Panama Canal. Captain Guénhaël Thébaud and Norbert Compagnot, head
of the submersible group, were already on board. They moored the ship outside the
harbor of Talara, and remained there only long enough to embark the scientific
team.
The journey from the Peruvian port of Talara to the Garrett transform diving
site lasted 7 days and covered a distance of 1867 nautical miles from Talara to the
site of 13°20S-130°W. During this transit time, we prepared and coordinated our
strategy with all the team members. I organized briefings with the Captain,
the Chief Engineer, the head of the submersible team, and the scientific party. The
meetings took place in the science container (a sort of box car), located on the
starboard side of the deck, just above the engineering container for the Nautile.
The access was somewhat risky because we had to cross a gangway that was
unstable, so it swayed with the ship’s motion. The science-container was also the
place where the scientific team had to view their videocassettes and write up their
daily reports after each dive. During the first ‘‘briefing meeting’’, we decided to use
part of the evenings, after the dives, and part of the early mornings, before the
submersible was launched, to do extra work with the deep towed television camera
in order to have additional bottom observations to implement the diving data.
Since all the dives had to take place during the day for security reasons, in order to
optimize our time at sea, we all agreed to conduct additional exploration after the
Nautile was safely secured on board.
As soon as we left Talara, the magnetometer (used for measuring the Earth’s
magnetic field) was put overboard, once we had left the Peruvian economic zone,
but unfortunately, our magnetometer failed to work and was pulled back on board
Garrett Transform Fault
259
where we had evidence that deep-seated upper-mantle/lower-crust had been
exposed. At that time, this exploration was the first of its kind to look at the Earth’s
upper mantle on an ultrafast spreading ridge segment of the Pacific Ocean.
Once the cruise was accepted and planned, we started our journey by plane to
the town of Callao in Peru on January 2, 1991. Arriving at the airport, we discovered that a policeman, after stopping Rejean Hébert, had kept his wallet with
all his money and there was nothing that he or we could do about this. Little
adventures dealing with human behavior have been additional learning experiences in my life as a scientific explorer.
We continued our trip by flying to the small fishing port of Talara, located
further north at about 4°34
0 N-81°16
0 W. While I was passing the embarking gate, I
saw a sign at the airport indicating an air flight for Garrett, probably a town with
the same name as that of the oceanic fracture zone that we were heading for.
The town of Talara is located in a barren region of the Andes and it looks like a
western style ‘‘cowboy town’’. We had to spend the night in a shabby hotel. The
ship was scheduled to arrive the next day at noon. It was very hot and we were
dehydrated because we did not dare to drink any local water. Of course, there was
beer but one can only drink so much, and beer does not always quench one’s thirst.
From Talara, we were going to board the N.O. NADIR, the support ship of the
submersible Nautile. The NADIR was coming from Fort de France (Martinique)
via the Panama Canal. Captain Guénhaël Thébaud and Norbert Compagnot, head
of the submersible group, were already on board. They moored the ship outside the
harbor of Talara, and remained there only long enough to embark the scientific
team.
The journey from the Peruvian port of Talara to the Garrett transform diving
site lasted 7 days and covered a distance of 1867 nautical miles from Talara to the
site of 13°20S-130°W. During this transit time, we prepared and coordinated our
strategy with all the team members. I organized briefings with the Captain,
the Chief Engineer, the head of the submersible team, and the scientific party. The
meetings took place in the science container (a sort of box car), located on the
starboard side of the deck, just above the engineering container for the Nautile.
The access was somewhat risky because we had to cross a gangway that was
unstable, so it swayed with the ship’s motion. The science-container was also the
place where the scientific team had to view their videocassettes and write up their
daily reports after each dive. During the first ‘‘briefing meeting’’, we decided to use
part of the evenings, after the dives, and part of the early mornings, before the
submersible was launched, to do extra work with the deep towed television camera
in order to have additional bottom observations to implement the diving data.
Since all the dives had to take place during the day for security reasons, in order to
optimize our time at sea, we all agreed to conduct additional exploration after the
Nautile was safely secured on board.
As soon as we left Talara, the magnetometer (used for measuring the Earth’s
magnetic field) was put overboard, once we had left the Peruvian economic zone,
but unfortunately, our magnetometer failed to work and was pulled back on board
Garrett Transform Fault
259