Investigating the world's deepest &
strangest undersea volcanic vents

Ask the team

We welcome any questions from school students about exploring the deep ocean, the science that we're doing, the undersea vehicles and technology that we're using, how to become a scientist or engineer, or what it's like to live and work on a research ship.

Please use the form below to send your question to our team. The form will ask you how old you are, the name of your school, and which country you are from, so that we can see how many schools are following our expeditions, and where they are around the world.

As we're not at sea at the moment, please include an email address to which we can reply.

Alternatively, if you use Twitter, you can ask us a question directly by using the hashtag #DeepestVents

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For teachers

In its 2007 report on 'Investigating the Oceans', the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee noted that 'marine science has clear attractions to young people and could be drawn into many topics to increase interest in science, such as biodiversity in the deep ocean', and suggested that 'a focus on extreme environments (space and oceans) would entice young people into science'.

We agree wholeheartedly, and here is our pick of educational links about undersea vents and deep-sea life:

Explore the Deep Sea - Volcanoes and Vents

Explore the Deep Sea - Life in the Deep

(There are lots of webpages out there about deep-sea vents, but unfortunately many are riddled with factual errors. However, those Venture Deep Ocean pages are excellent; they were created by the Education and Outreach team of Ridge 2000, the US national programme of scientific research at mid-ocean ridges.)

Join us aboard!

Please note we are now no longer at sea on this expedition, so we can no longer offer a "live" link from the ship. However, we can still offer a live Skype link from our lab ashore to school classes, to show some of the specimens of new species of deep-sea creatures that we are analysing, and talk about the work that we are doing, and what it's like to be a marine scientist. Students can also read about our work at sea via these webpages, see video highlights on our YouTube channel, and find out more about deep-sea vents in our free eBook.

If you are a teacher and would like to arrange one of these sessions for a class, please contact us using the "Ask a question" box above. We typically need notice of a couple of weeks to schedule a session, but can usually arrange one to fit your timetable (at least in the UK time zone!). All you need at your end is a computer that runs a Skype account.

There are a couple of reports on our live links to school classes available here and here.