Gary Massoth

chemical oceanographer

Gary Massoth is a chemical oceanographer with NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. Massoth is a member of the Vents Program's team of interdisciplinary scientists who are trying to understand how undersea volcanoes work and, in particular, how they effect the oceans. A discovery in 1986 has changed the way they view how some of these effects are generated. Massoth's niche as a chemist is to operate SUAVE (Submersible System Used to Assess Vented Emissions). SUAVE is a miniature chemistry lab that actually goes underwater to measure the concentrations of key chemical species right where they vent into the ocean.