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National Geographic Special Collections: Archives & Film Preservation Blog

Unseen Footage from 1979 Galápagos Rift Expedition

by Karen Cerka on 2023-02-23T21:04:00-05:00 | 0 Comments

 

 

As part of our ongoing preservation work, we recently had all of the original film and audio reels from the 1979 Galápagos Rift Expedition digitized.  During this expedition, Bob Ballard and team returned to the Galápagos Rift to closer examine the marine life surrounding the hydrothermal vents, including the giant tube worms and clams that you see in the clip.  This time Alvin was outfitted with an innovative miniature television camera, provided by the Society, complete with zoom lens and enough lights that NGS photographer Emory Kristof said it was like taking a television studio to the bottom of the sea.  This small television camera obtained the clearest pictures, including stunning close-ups never before made of this strange new biology.  The footage was then edited to produce the Television Special, "Dive to the Edge of Creation," which was broadcast in January 1980 and won an Emmy. 


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Banner Photo Credit: Renan Ozturk

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