Peter Arnold Rona (August 17, 1934 – February 20, 2014) was an American oceanographer. He was also a professor of

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

and

planetary science Planetary science (or more rarely, planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), celestial bodies (such as moons, asteroids, comets) and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes of their f ...

s at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

Early years and college

Born in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1956 and a master's in geology from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1957. Working for

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

from 1957 to 1959, he explored the

Southwestern U.S. The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

for future refinery sites. While visiting his family in December 1958, he met oceanographers, in New York for a meeting, who mentioned a new oceanic

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

. He returned to school, researching oceanographic gear at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and received a Ph.D. in marine geology and

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

from Yale in 1967.

Oceanography

He went on to explore the Atlantic Ocean for the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

(NOAA), using

dredges Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

, cameras and echo sounders that mapped the seabed. While doing so, he found a

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

along the

Mid-Atlantic Ridge The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North Ame ...

in 1985. Not only did the hot spring yield valuable metals, such as gold and silver, but they also were an ecosystem of lifeforms never seen before. The 2003 film, ''

Volcanoes of the Deep Sea ''Volcanoes of the Deep Sea'' is a 2003 documentary film in the IMAX format about undersea volcanoes directed by Stephen Low. Production Richard Lutz served as Principal Investigator and Lutz and Peter A. Rona served as Science Directors of the ...

'', documents Rona's and his colleague

Richard A. Lutz Richard Arthur Lutz (born June 8, 1949) is an American marine biologist and deep-sea oceanographer. He is known for deep-sea research using the ''Alvin'' submersible, and is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the ecology of deep ...

's excursions of the oceanic hot springs. Rona and Lutz had been scouring the ocean floors for the organism ''

Paleodictyon nodosum ''Paleodictyon nodosum'' is a living creature thought to produce a certain form of burrow nearly identical to ''Paleodictyon'' fossils. The modern burrows were found around mid-ocean ridge systems in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Although scie ...

'', believed to be one of the Earth's earliest complex life forms, or one of the oldest "living

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s". No living creatures have been found, only thousands of their formed hexagonal patterns. In 1987, the

U.S. Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth ...

awarded Rona its gold medal for exceptional scientific contributions to the nation. He joined Rutgers in 1994 as a professor.

Death

In February 2014, Rona died in

Plainsboro Township, New Jersey Plainsboro Township is a township in Middlesex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is centrally located in the Raritan Valley region and is a part of the outer-ring suburbs of the New York metropolitan area even though it is ...

, from complications related to

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone pain, an ...

. His wife of more than 40 years, Donna, died in 2013. They are survived by one daughter, Jessica.

References

External links

Peter A. Rona
at marine.rutgers.edu
Peter A. Rona
at geology.rutgers.edu
Article about Rona's mapping the Hudson Canyon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rona, Peter A. 1934 births 2014 deaths American oceanographers Brown University alumni Columbia University alumni Yale University alumni Rutgers University faculty People from Trenton, New Jersey People from Plainsboro Township, New Jersey Deaths from multiple myeloma in the United States Deaths from cancer in New Jersey