They’re oceanographers.
They are expert oceanographers. They’re been in the Alvin, and they’ve handled probably the most complex situations with underwater research. Jack is an underwater oceanographic geologist and Bob is a chemist. Together they were quite the dynamic duo in planning and writing up all the objectives for this research. If you look at some of the news broadcasts, they would say that in no way were they trying to prove that the drilling on the flanks of the mountain would influence the lake. That would be far too difficult to do and it wasn’t really part of their research. Their work was pointed toward finding a geothermal connection to the lake. They were looking for a hot spring or geysers on the bottom that might prompt legislation. If the lake had hydrothermal activity, then there could be a larger zone of protection for the park itself. I think that the Park Service was hoping to fight the threat with this research. The third step was funding. I’m not sure how this works, but there are emergency funds for research. Those are the three pieces: a threat, people who could run the project, and funding. I feel those three things allowed us to work with the submarine for two summers.
The continued interest of the USGS helped, too.
Once the sub was on location, it cost tens of thousands of dollars just to get it in the lake. How many days do you want the sub? How much research do you plan on doing? Who has money to support this research? I think the Monterey Bay Aquarium bought one day of research, and I forget the name of the fellow [Robuson] that came up. They put him in the sub and down he went. Charlie Bacon, of the USGS, bought some days. I don’t know how many. There were days that we called geology dives, where Mark Buktenica was the pilot working for Charlie Bacon. Charlie would have been in the sub if he had wanted to go. He bought the day and explained to the crew that he had risked his life over a cliff often enough and he wasn’t willing to do it again. Mark would say, “ I think I’ve found an interesting rock.” Charlie would say, “No you’re not deep enough, go further.” He was directing from the top what was going on down below.
