Where in the World? Our nearest point of land is the Galapagos Islands, which is about 1,000 miles away. In the last few days we crossed the East-Pacific Rise. This region may be particularly interesting for hydro-thermal features - more specifically, the chemistry associated with heated water bubbling out of vents. We may be able to understand the distribution of sea water that interacts with the hydro-thermal vents by looking at chemical signature of elements such as helium. The rise is brought about by is a divergent tectonic plate boundary; this means the plates are moving away from each other. Near Easter Island (marked with the red ‘X’) the oceanic crust is moving away from the East-Pacific rise at one of the fastest rates in the world, about 6 inches a year.
