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A Context of Motivation

US Navy Oceanographic Research and the Discovery of Sea-Floor Hydrothermal Vents

Science Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego, noreskes{at}UCSD.edu

In the late 1970s, scientists discovered something new under the sea: sea-floor hydrothermal vents, supporting complex biotic communities under conditions previously thought inimical to life. While the vents themselves were predicted by the theory of plate tectonics, their extent and geochemical significance, and the ecosystems associated with them, were a profound surprise. Perhaps for this reason, their discovery has been portrayed as an example of the serendipitous nature of scientific research, a triumph of curiosity-driven investigation. Yet the US scientific presence in the deep-sea environment was anything but the result of chance. In the period following World War II, the US Navy actively promoted research in the deep-sea environment in support of pro-and anti-submarine warfare. Central to this was the development of deep-sea technologies to aid underwater acoustic surveillance of Soviet submarines, and it was this technology that enabled the discovery of the sea-floor vents. The US political desire to monitor the deep ocean provided both justification for substantial expenditures for deep-oceanographic research, and motivation for oceanographers to build expensive experimental technologies and use them in creative ways. In this sense, the Cold War political context was highly productive of scientific advance. Yet, at the same time, the scientific topics that gained the attention of the oceanographers came into focus through the crosshairs of national security. Like a lens, military pertinence brought certain subjects into clear sight while others remained on the edges of the field of view.

Key Words: geophysics • hydrothermal vents • military science • oceanography • submarines

Social Studies of Science, Vol. 33, No. 5, 697-742 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/0306312703335004


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