On the process of being selected to the mission:
Peter Rona of the department of geology and geophysics at the Rutgers Institute of Coastal and Marine Science, usa , came to the National Institute of Oceanography (nio), Goa, in October 1996, for an international symposium on the Indian Ocean. He made a presentation on the hydro-thermal mineralisation of global oceans, and specifically of the Indian Ocean. On that occasion, we presented some of our findings on the Andamans basin, where we had started work two years earlier. He visited our geological oceanography department and held discussions with the staff. Some of my colleagues were working on a programme on the Karlberg ridge, in the North Indian Ocean, located in the middle of the Arabian Sea.Rona, who had been conducting scientific explorations in the mid-Atlantic ridge and the back-arc basins of the Pacific, proposed that we could compare our results to see whether these ridges are similar. That was the beginning of the collaboration.

On the preparations for the exploration:
I thought it was a great opportunity for Indian oceanographers who had never been on submersibles to explore the sea-bed. Until now, they have been only sampling or undertaking remote-sensing. As such, there was no special training to undertake this voyage. I was only briefed by the pilot for about two hours a week before the dive. The brie-fing was mainly on how to handle the equipment. In such dives, observers are expected to assist the pilot, if needed. All scientific operations to be executed during the dive were finalised before the dive. Our scientific contingent came from nine countries including the us , the uk , Portugal, Russia, Italy, Panama, Colombia and India. I was covering the geology aspect of the cruise.

On the journey to the seabed:
The cruise began on July 5 from Ponta Delgada in the Azores Islands off Portugal and ended at Barbados, West Indies, on July 30. We travelled about 2,000 kilometres on the mid-Atlantic ridge - where there are eight hydrothermal fields - and collected various samples. The main contingent was from the Rutgers University, usa , which planned the cruise with the support of the National Science Foundation of the us. In all, we undertook about 18 dives during the cruise.

On temperatures under sea:
We were in the middle-latitudes, mainly the tropical areas. On surface waters, it's about 20