Coastal Geologist
CHRIS MALZONE

He's A Really Cool Scientist

Chris has worked as an extreme scientist SCUBA diving in the coldest place on earth; Antarctica. He's a coastal geologist who's been diving under the ice in water that is at freezing temperatures. Really. He uses a special suit, called a dry suit, to keep from freezing to death while he's diving. As you've probably guessed, it's called a dry suit because it keeps Chris almost completely dry while he's wearing it under water. A dry suit is better for diving in extremely cold water, because it prevents him from losing any body heat through direct contact with the water. Chris has been part of a team of scientists who are investigating the effects that humans can have upon living things on the sea floor, down in the cold waters of Antarctica. How can humans have an effect on the ocean floor in the coldest place on earth when nobody lives there?

Why Dive in Freezing Waters?

Very few people realize that there is a research base in Antarctica, called McMurdo Station. About 1000 scientists and support people live there in order to study the most pristine and harsh environment in the world. McMurdo Station was originally built as a military base, but it has gradually been converted to a scientific research facility over the past 3 decades. In the early days, when McMurdo Station was run by the military, very little was known about the sea life which was hidden by 10 feet of ice, 10 months out of the year. Basically, the people stationed there didn't think anything could live under the water in such bitter cold conditions. They didn't think dumping large numbers of 55 gallon barrels, broken down tractors, and other large trash items into the ocean would harm anything, so they went ahead and dumped it. The garbage is still there on the ocean bottom, today. Scientists are worried about the possible risk to the marine environment so they started studying the garbage.

Before donning their dive gear, Chris and his team would start out using a Remotely Operated Vessel (ROV) to check out what was down there. The ROV is a small, remote-controlled sub, which works kinda like the cars you get at the toy store. Only this sub does more than just dive around under water. It uses highly technical equipment to produce images of the sea floor. It gives the positions (i.e Latitude and Longitude) of the barrels, tractors, dumpsters and other trash. And it takes videos of the sea floor. All this information is being used to create an "underwater map" of the trash to better understand how it's distributed and whether any of it is hazardous and needs to be removed. Believe it or not, the trash has formed an artificial reef and is supporting all kinds of sea life. If they take it all they could destroy what has turned into a natural habitat for Antarctic sea life. The scientists are going to use the data they have gathered to decide what to do with the trash.

Where'd He Learn to Do That?

Chris first learned how to dive under the ice up in the Canadian Arctic. He learned how to SCUBA dive while he was in college. But just knowing how to SCUBA wasn't enough. He needed some specialized training to be able to dive in such extreme conditions. When he was offered a job working up in the Canadian Arctic he got some training from the Diving Safety Officer at Moss Landing Marine Labs learning how to dive in a dry suit. Diving in a dry suit is very different from diving in a wet suit, which is how most people learn to dive. When you dive in a dry suit there is air trapped in your suit because it is designed to seal out water. Chris says, "If you hang upside down, the air in your dry suit can travel into the legs of your suit, making them float up. It can be really difficult to get yourself back into a head-up position if you're not trained and experienced in how to do it". Chris really enjoys diving in the cold waters of the Antarctic. He says, "Down there, the water is so clear and clean you can see up to 500 feet!".

Chris diving in some extremely cold waters off McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. He's checking out a submerged military vehicle dumped in the ocean during a time when they didn't think anything could live down there. It turns out, there's all kinds of creatures living inside this truck - it has turned into an artificial reef.

Send a Question to Chris

Chris Malzone
US Geological Survey,
Coastal & Marine Surveys Institute of Marine Science
University of California Santa Cruz, CA
95064