"oil companies have been drilling on the continental shelf of the gulf for the past 50 years," says gilbert t. rowe, a texas a&m oceanography professor and head of the project. but technology now makes it possible to drill in deeper water and there is great concern over the environmental impact of exploration and production at greater depths, he says.

the scientists will use the "lander," which is naturally buoyant and drops weights to descend to the ocean bottom, to study marine life and its environment at depths of up to 9,000 feet.

"there are a lot of bizarre fauna down there," rowe says. "for example, there are creatures that act like buzzards, cleaning up the ecosystem. one question is how they find dead carcasses in such a clean, dark, cold, featureless landscape."

spreading censors explored

at the other end of north america, the spanking new coast guard icebreaker will have one primary target on its list. scientists aboard the healy will study the gakkel ridge, more than 3 miles below the surface. the gakkel ridge is one of many "spreading centers" around the world where chunks of the seafloor are spreading apart, allowing new ocean bottom to form as magma flows up through the ridge.

but what makes the gakkel ridge so fascinating to scientists is it spreads at about a twentieth of the pace of other spreading centers. and unlike other ridges, which bubble with heat as molten rock spews onto the ocean floor, gakkel is sort of like a "big crack in the earth," according to henry dick of the woods hole oceanographic institution, who first came up with the idea of studying the ridge 15 years ago.

that means there may be all sorts of life down there that is very different from life near other spreading centers.

the healy will be working jointly with a german icebreaker polarstern, and the ships will work in tandem along 500 miles of the ridge. first the ships will have to break the ice, then they will drop a rather crude-looking device dubbed unofficially as a "bed of nails." the device will be attached to a long cable, so it can be hauled back up with, researchers hope, chunks of rock from the ridge attached.

and when it's all over, the mysteries of the deep should be a little less mysterious.