Studying Earthquake Faults With ‘Alvin’

Tiny submarines capable of diving to extreme ocean depths are at work off the Oregon coast researching undersea volcanoes and taking pictures of hot water vents where exotic sea worms reside above the Pacific subduction zones.

The work has been well-publicized in recent years. Less well known is the research going on off the back side of Santa Catalina island, where a vessel named Alvin, under the control of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, has done a series of dives 3,500 feet down to the ocean bottom.

Tonight, one of KCET’s “Life & Times” documentaries, “Alvin & the Earthquakes,” goes along on one of these expeditions out of Avalon, to an earthquake fault of uncertain frequency of activity that leaves little or no visible trace but has been imaged with sound waves.

Alvin, which also once explored the sunken Titanic in the deep North Atlantic, is shown picking subduction zone rocks, known as Catalina schist, off the sea floor and bringing them to the surface.

The producer-moderator who goes along for the ride, Ken Kurtis, adopts a folksy tone, which perhaps does not always convey precisely what the scientists are trying to learn, although the point is made that geological knowledge is gathered slowly and lots of patience is required.

A Woods Hole official, Daniel J. Fornari, observes that it is critical in learning more about earthquake physics to “put the human eyeball to the problem.” So little has been surveyed at ocean bottoms around the world that doing this is “a wide-open field.”

The program is pleasant, the ride to the bottom as narrated by Kurtis an adventure, but no viewer should expect to come away with profound lessons.

* “Alvin & the Earthquakes” airs on “Life & Times” at 7:30 p.m. and again at midnight tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.