It is cold, dark and cramped. But Lisa Levin will be beaming later this month when she climbs inside a tiny submersible called Alvin and descends 3 miles into the unforgiving waters off Alaska.
The UC San Diego researcher will make a 2 1/2-hour trip to the sea floor, where she’ll press her face against a small window to continue her study of methane, one of the gases that heavily contribute to global warming.
It will be a big moment for her — and for Alvin, a Navy-owned submersible that barely holds three people.
Alvin is celebrating 60 years of often history-making research, including helping to the nature of Earth’s tectonic plates. And Levin, who works out of UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was one of the few scientists who was given research time aboard the sub this year.
She is one of the most experienced deep-ocean explorers in the world, having made 55 dives in Alvin, whose depth range was recently increased to 4 miles — more than a mile greater than what it was. And this time, Levin will travel hundreds of feet deeper than she’s ever ventured.
“We’ll be able to see bioluminescence through the window as we descend,” said Levin, who was in San Diego Bay on Friday, helping prepare Alvin for the trip to Alaska. The first dives will take place in about two weeks.
Levin will examine methane seeping out of the sea floor, in areas filled with microbes and little animals.
“They are terrific filters of methane, removing it before it even gets into the water,” said Levin. “We’re trying to understand the fate of methane — where it goes, who eats it. All of this is useful in understanding how the ocean works, and how it can change.”
Levin, 69, is technically retired. She has emeritus status and no longer teaches classes. But the dives won’t end soon.
“I’m doing more of what I like to do,” she said.
