Students from Talley Middle School in Wilmington, Delaware, participate in a live conference call with scientists working at hydrothermal vent sites over a mile deep on the Pacific Ocean floor.

A special highlight of Extreme 2002: Mission to the Abyss is the “Phone Call to the Deep.” Nearly 50 schools from a total of more than 500 registered were selected to participate in this special feature, which links students in classrooms with scientists working live in the submersible Alvin on the Pacific Ocean floor.

In a total of four calls, each involving 11 or 12 different schools on the dates listed at left, classrooms will be connected by AT&T Teleconference Services first with a correspondent on the R/V Atlantis, who will answer a series of questions about life aboard ship. Then the call will be transferred down to the seafloor, where each classroom may ask questions of the scientists working live in the sub at a depth of more than a mile!