Undersea Search Begins For Life At Top Of The World

Ice-covered and isolated, the Arctic Ocean has been stingier with its deepest secrets than any other of Earth's oceans. It might as well be on another planet. Now, armed with a unique set of robotic tools, an international team of scientists is heading there to hunt for life along a little-explored gash in the ocean floor known as the Gakkel Ridge. Click to enlarge Rich Clabaugh u" StaffA decade ago, the project would have seemed quixotic. But since then, scientists have uncovered evidence suggesting that spots along this oddball ridge might be capable of supplying the heat and nutrients to support colonies of creatures that thrive in the pitch-black water thousands of feet below the surface. Once that evidence emerged, the search for basic life in one of the world's most inaccessible places became a must, say several of the scientists involved. The voyage begins July 1...