When, in 1992, geophysicist Bob Detrick found the first recorded hydrothermal vent in the Azores, Portuguese Miguel Miranda was not aboard the US-flagged cruise ship carrying researchers from the InterRidge scientific consortium — in the case of American and French. And luckily, he laughs now, more than 30 years later: the discovery, which happened by chance, when Detrick threw a dredger to the bottom of the sea and, “luckily”, picked up a piece of “chimney”. , a rock composed of fluids released directly from the Earth’s mantle, was so important that, in order not to share the laurels —much less the samples—, the Americans locked the French colleagues in their cabins and did not let them out for hours.
If he was not there when the “Lucky Strike” was found, southeast of Faial, the Portuguese marine geophysicist soon joined the international teams working in that region —the motto created at that time to promote the work is still valid today, Such is the immensity of the object of study: “We know more about the surface of Mars than about the bottom of the sea,” he cites from memory.
This article is exclusive to our subscribers: subscribe now and benefit from unlimited reading and other benefits. If you are already a subscriber, log in here. If you think this message is an error, please contact our customer service.
Source: Observadora
