Jack Dymond, 64; Oceanographer Found Hydrothermal Vents

Jack R. Dymond, 64, a retired Oregon State University professor and an oceanographer who was the first to explore the bottom of Crater Lake in Oregon, drowned Sept. 20 while fishing in Oregon’s Rogue River.

In 1977, Dymond was a lead investigator on a research cruise that made an important discovery at the Galapagos Rift on the ocean floor west of Ecuador. He and other scientists were the first to spot hydrothermal vents, where warm, mineral-rich fluids spew from beneath the sea floor. To their amazement, they also found a community of tube worms, clams and other organisms living on the vents in the harsh, lightless environment.

The discovery altered views about many of Earth’s fundamental processes and led to researchers finding vents at other sites, including those on the Juan de Fuca Ridge off America’s Northwest coast.

Dymond also became well-known for his research dives in a one-person submersible to the Crater Lake floor in 1988 and 1989. He was a researcher at Columbia University before becoming an Oregon State faculty member in 1969. He retired in 1997.