Internship allows junior Adriana Leiva to explore the deepest depths of the Gulf of Mexico on expedition to Deep Slope

In today’s rapidly-changing world many students take a long and winding path in the search to find their life’s calling. And while she was more willing than most to take detours along the road less traveled, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi junior Adriana Leiva never thought her journey would take her more to the deepest, darkest depths of the Gulf of Mexico.

In late May, Leiva, an environmental science major and protégé to University Professor Ian MacDonald, joined her mentor on a 28-day mission to the “Deep Slope” (http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/06mexico/welcome.html) aboard the R/V Atlantis for the first systematic exploration of waters deeper than 1000 meters in the Gulf. The team assembled included scientists who have led the exploration, discovery, and study of the Gulf of Mexico cold seeps for the last 20 years.

“I’ve always been mesmerized by the ocean,” said Leiva, who was born in Austin but spent most of her formative years in Mexico City. “Even though we didn’t live on the coast, almost all of my family lived in Tampico and on my visits there I learned to love the sea.”

Adriana was so drawn to the oceanic waters that she talked her parents into letting her finish high school in Austin specifically so she could attend A&M-Corpus Christi and study Marine Biology. Although that plan simmered on the back-burner for several years after high school graduation while she played drums in a Samba band and traveled to places like Costa Rica, Adriana eventually found her way to the Island University. She approached Dr. MacDonald about working for him and soon found herself sorting through and cataloguing a seemingly endless collection of underwater photographs. It was monotonous, she admits, but her dedication made a strong impression on her professor.

“Adriana is a responsible student, a hard worker who is always ready to learn and, as it turns out, she has quite a personal affinity for being out at sea,” said MacDonald. “It’s a kick to work with students and see them develop. It’s invigorating and fun to see the world reflected in young eyes.”

Although she knew that her career would somehow involve the ocean, Adriana was at a fork in the road, weighing whether to concentrate on coastal science or deepwater exploration when MacDonald invited her to be part of the “Deep Slope” mission. The expedition, she says, changed the course of her life.

“I saw the passion Dr. MacDonald has for his work and I wondered if I have what it takes to be a scientist,” she said. “But he showed me that with lots of hard work, patience and strong ethics you can accomplish a lot. Not all professors have what it takes to be a scientist, a teacher and a mentor at the same time. I was lucky to get a job with a person who has all three qualities and I thank him deeply for that.”

The highlight of the “Deep Slope” expedition for Adriana was her dive in the “Alvin,” a three-person submersible that took her, the pilot and a port observer on a seven-hour dive more than 2,200 meters below the ocean surface. When she returned to the “Atlantis” she was drenched with buckets of ice water by her shipmates, a ritual suffered by all after making their first deep-sea journey.

“It was amazing and the crazy thing was that I wasn’t even nervous,” Adriana said. It was like a childhood dream but I had never really imagined that I would be descending to the sea floor. Today I realize that everything and anything is possible as long as you keep your dreams alive… This experience has changed the path of my life.”

Photo: A group of very old tubeworms (Lamellibrachia luymesi and Seepiophila jonesi) living on the same piece of carbonate rock as large colonies of the gorgonian Callogorgia Americana americana, with brittle stars and a galatheid crab crawling on the gorgonians. Photo by Derk Bergquist.