Scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, are set to explore the world’s deepest undersea volcanoes and find out what lives in a ‘lost world’ five kilometres beneath the Caribbean, using the UK’s newest research ship, RRS James Cook. From the ship, the team will send the remotely-operated vehicle Isis, and new robot submarine, Autosub6000 into the abyss.

In two expeditions over three years, the researchers will look for new geological features and new species of marine life in the rift on the seafloor.

Team leader, Dr. Jon Copely explained: “The deep ocean is the largest ecosystem on our plant, so we need to understand its patterns of life.

“Deep-sea exploration has also given us new cancer treatment and better fibre-optic cables for the internet, both thanks to deep sea creatures.”

Working at depths of over five kilometres will take the UK’s deep-diving vehicles close to their limits. Isis is the UK’s deepest diving remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) reaching depths of 6500m. The team will control Isis from their research ship to film the ocean floor and collect samples with its robotic arms.

Autosub6000, a new unmanned undersea vehicle built in Southampton, can dive to 6000m. An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), the Autosub6000 is a robot submarine that can carry out missions on its own, without being remote-controlled. The team will launch Autosub6000 from their ship to survey the area and hunt for volcanic vents on the ocean floor.

Dr Copely continued: “These undersea volcanoes lie within British seabed territory recognised by the United Nations.

“We now have the technology to explore them.”