Program History
The discovery of life at hydrothermal vents on mid-ocean ridges in 1977 and the discovery of black-smoker vents in 1979 represent milestones in scientific achievement in the twentieth century. Through the following decade, most research on the biology, chemistry, and geology of mid-ocean ridges was funded from core funds at the National Science Foundation. In 1989, NSF developed a special initiative, called Ridge Interdisciplinary Global Experiments (RIDGE). RIDGE aimed to integrate exploration, experimentation, and theoretical modeling to understand the physical, chemical, and biological causes and consequences of the energy transfer through time and space between the global mid-ocean ridge magmatic system and the ocean environment. In 1999, the Ridge 2000 Program was developed through NSF and community deliberations to specifically focus on multi-disciplinary research at three integrated study sites and time-critical studies to investigate oceanic spreading center systems 'from mantle to microbe'.
