Robotic Oceanographic Exploration of Hydrothermal Vent Sites On The Mid-Atlantic Ridge At 37° North 32° West

1 The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation under Grant number OCE-9505579 and OCE-9627160. The authors were members of the engineering and scientific staff of the 1996 Lucky Strike Cruise. Humphris and Fornari were the cruise chief scientists, and are with the WHOI Department of Geology and Geophysics. Van Dover is with the the West Coast National Undersea Research Center at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Bowen, Elder,Crook, Gleason, Howland, and Lerner are with the WHOI Deep Submergence Laboratory. Bachmayer is with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University. Support for Bachmayer was provided by the National Science Foundation under grant number BES-9625143 held by Louis Whitcomb. WHOI contribution number XXXX. Abstract