''Volcanoes of the Deep Sea'' is a 2003 documentary film in the IMAX format about undersea volcanoes directed by Stephen Low.

Production

Richard Lutz Richard Arthur Lutz (born June 8, 1949) is an American marine biologist and deep-sea oceanographer. He is known for deep-sea research using the ''Alvin'' submersible, and is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the ecology of de ...

served as Principal Investigator and Lutz and Peter A. Rona served as Science Directors of the film, which was funded by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

and co-produced by

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

Content

The film included footage, research, and stories from the deep-sea ''

Alvin Alvin may refer to: Places Canada *Alvin, British Columbia United States *Alvin, Colorado *Alvin, Georgia *Alvin, Illinois * Alvin, Michigan *Alvin, Texas * Alvin, Wisconsin, a town *Alvin (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated community Other ...

'' expeditions of Lutz and his colleagues. Scientists use the deep-water submersible DSV Alvin to search for an organism, the Paleodictyon nodosum maker, that produces a honeycomb patterned fossil called a Paleodictyon, near volcanic vents that lie 3500 meters (12,000 feet) underwater in the

Mid-Atlantic Ridge The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North ...

Reception

The film received the award for "best IMAX film of the Year" at the Paris Film Festival, and in 2005 Richard Lutz received the Scientific Literacy Achievement Award from the

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Association for Biomedical Research for his contributions to the film. The film was not shown in some US theatres because it was feared that the film's mention of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

would provoke a negative reaction from

creationist Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 'th ...

patrons. In particular, the film discussed the similarities in bacterial and human DNA. The film's distributor reported that the only U.S. states with theaters which chose not to show the film were

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, and

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

"We've got to pick a film that's going to sell in our area. If it's not going to sell, we're not going to take it," said the director of an IMAX theater in Charleston that is not showing the movie. "Many people here believe in creationism, not evolution."

References

External links

*
Volcanoes of the Deep Sea official site
2003 films 2003 documentary films IMAX short films Documentary films about nature Short films directed by Stephen Low Submarine volcanoes 2003 short films IMAX documentary films 2000s English-language films {{nature-documentary-film-stub

Production

Content

Reception

See also

References

External links