Beijing, 22 Apr (Xinhua) -- On 22 April, xinhua daily telegraph published a report entitled "Female Chief of the Ocean Science Expedition: Loving the Earth Like a Mother."
On the days when he didn't go to sea, without the knife blade of the sea breeze, Han Xiqiu's skin color became white again. At the age of 53, she whispered softly and smiled, and the journey of thousands of miles in the vast ocean did not leave too many marks on her face.
But she was destined to be the "daughter of the sea". As the first female chief scientist of China's ocean science expedition, she led the team to uncover the darkest secrets of the earth, giving the world a glimpse of the deepest beauty of the planet.
71% of the Earth's surface area is ocean, and the seabed contains abundant "blue resources". In Han Xiqiu's eyes, the vast seabed is an underwater treasure map full of mountains and rivers.
She and her team searched for "seabed mineralization plants" for the country in the vast ocean thousands of meters deep. "Humanity goes to the deep sea, just like human exploration of space, for the sake of sustainable development in the future." Han Xiqiu said.
Han Xiqiu was on the expedition ship. Courtesy of respondents
Go deeper into the sea
Han Xiqiu was born in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, a peasant family, and her life choice seemed to be decent at first, to do something that some people thought had nothing to do with women, she wanted to go to the sea, to the farther and deeper parts of the sea.
Mineral resources are one of the material foundations of social and economic development, and with population growth and social development, land resources are inevitably depleting.
"In the case of copper, for example, the global demand for copper is basically doubling every 10 years. Based on the proven global terrestrial copper reserves and annual mining capacity, its static recoverability period is only 40 years. Han Xiqiu said that in order to ensure the sustainable development of the social economy, it is crucial to find new mineral resources to continue, and seabed exploration and development will become the trend of the times.
In 2005, the mainland organized China's first ocean global scientific expedition and launched a plan to investigate polymetallic sulphide resources in the international seabed area. Han Xiqiu served as the chief scientist assistant of the Pacific and Indian Ocean segments, and since then she has begun her deep-sea search for "treasure".
From March to April 2007, Han Xiqiu served as the chief scientist of the third segment of the 19th voyage of "Ocean One", becoming the first female chief in the history of China's ocean scientific expedition.
"Our voyage mission is mainly to explore the vast seabed, including the search for the seabed 'black chimney'." Han Xiqiu said.
"Black chimney" is a phenomenon in which the high-temperature hydrothermal liquid sprayed from the seabed quickly precipitates to form ferrous metal sulphide minerals after encountering cold seawater, resembling billowing "black smoke". Over time, hydrothermal sulfides rich in copper, iron, zinc, gold and other metal elements precipitated around the vent, forming a stack of polymetallic sulfides shaped like chimneys.
"There is a 'seabed mineralization plant' that produces a steady stream of gold- and silver-rich copper-zinc mines." Han Xiqiu has served as the chief scientist or team leader for 10 times, leading the team to discover 12 polymetallic sulphide deposits (points) in the international seabed area, naming 16 oceanbed geographic entities discovered by the newly surveyed ocean floor.
A contest of time and wisdom
Finding a hydrothermal area with a diameter of only 100 meters on the vast dark ocean floor, and then accurately locating the "black chimney", like a "needle in a haystack", is a double contest of time and wisdom.
Han Xiqiu still remembers the situation when the "Jade Emperor" hydrothermal area was first discovered independently in the southwest Indian Ocean. It was May 2010, the day before the Southwest Indian Ocean Devil's Westerly Wind Belt and Ocean One was about to return.
At one point, the furious waves slammed into the four-story glass window of the driver's platform. "But thinking that significant hydrothermal abnormalities have been discovered and that the next time I return to this area I don't know when, the 'Courage Villain' and the 'Curious Villain' encouraged me in their hearts, and they insisted on it a little longer, and insisted on finding out the polymetallic sulphide mine." Han Xiqiu recalled.
With the belief that they must win, Han Xiqiu and the team began to wait from midnight, and in the early morning when the wind and waves subsided slightly, everyone decided to put the TV grab bucket down to the sea to make a final attempt. At this time, the gust of wind came again, and the level 10 wind roared. "Ocean One" dragged two or three tons of heavy objects, fighting against the wind and waves.
Han Xiqiu directed the ship's forward path on the steering platform, the captain personally operated the ship, and the scientific expedition team fought with the wind and waves for 4 hours, and never gave up. Until her walkie-talkie beeped: "Red hydrothermal deposits have been found!" "We've found the sulfide, we've got the sample!"
This was the first time Han Xiqiu had led the team to make a major discovery, she was galloping, whistling, screaming, rushing from the four-story helm to the deck, "That kind of ecstasy, I will never forget." She named the unnamed seamount she investigated after a famous mountain in Hangzhou, "Jade Emperor Mountain", and the hydrothermal area here was named the "Jade Emperor" hydrothermal area.
And now, in the face of similar discoveries, Han Xiqiu is much more "calm". She has grown from a eager "fighter" to a "female general" who commands Ruoding.
On the ocean, the scientific expedition work is non-stop for 24 hours, almost every second counts, and the scientific expedition team is always facing unknown challenges, and there are many times when they rub shoulders with danger. In the wind and waves, such high-intensity, high-risk work not only did not deter Han Xiqiu, but also stimulated her fighting spirit.
"The conventional wisdom is that the ocean is a battlefield for men, but times are different now. When heaven goes to sea, women and men can make a contribution. Han Xiqiu said that in scientific research, she is first a scientist, and then a woman.
Han Xiqiu, chief scientist of the first section of the China Ocean 38 voyage (middle of the lower row), and the members of the scientific expedition team were on the "Xiangyanghong 09" scientific expedition ship. Courtesy of respondents
Poetry and distant careers
The ocean scientific expedition is arduous, but in Han Xiqiu's eyes, the colorful underwater world and the gorgeous ocean surface like silk add a lot of poetry to the day of the sea.
In 2017, Han Xiqiu took the "Jiaolong" manned deep submersible and dived to the hydrothermal area of the seabed for near-bottom observation and sampling. She described the scene of the seabed that she saw with her own eyes — thousands of meters of deep seabed, most of which is cold desert, but the hydrothermal activity area is like a hot mineralization plant, a vibrant paradise of life. Around the mouth of the billowing chimney of "thick smoke", there are flocks of hot liquid blind shrimp, snail shellfish and crabs, and a little farther away, the white lotus-like anemone blooms on the undersea hill, swaying against the ocean current...
In between the smooth progress of scientific expeditions, she will also take a little time to stargazing, moon viewing, filling in words, and the geographical entities of the ocean floor that she named for the main one are poetic and full of beautiful meanings.
She named a ridge in the northwest Indian Ocean "Lying Silkworm", not only because the ridge moves like a lying silkworm, but also because "silkworm" is reminiscent of Jiangnan; there are two hydrothermal areas named "Tianxiu" and "Da Yue", the former derived from the "Poetry Classic, Shang Song , Long Hair" "He Tianzhi Xiu". No competition, no rigidity, no softness. "The meaning is like a blessing from heaven, and the lucky discovery is that there have been many scientific expeditions in the world that have not been found in this area for a long time." The latter is taken from the "Shijing Shang song Xuan Bird" "Dragon Ten Multiplied, Big Dragon is Cheng", which means that many large carts of dragon flags flutter, full of grain and wine for tribute, and the hydrothermal activity area found is full of shrimp and crabs, and the hydrothermal liquid erupting from the depths of the ocean shell is like qiong pulp jade liquid, all of which is like the "Manchu Han full seat" prepared by the heavens for the scientific expedition team.
This year's Lunar New Year, Han Xiqiu posted a couplet at the door of the office: mountaineering to see the splendid embroidery, diving into the sea to explore the deep. Yokozuna: Loves Earth.
"I study the temper of the earth, study her past and future, and love the earth as much as I love my mother." Han Xiqiu said that before the development of the deep sea, it is necessary to find out the distribution of resources and environmental and ecological characteristics, so as to scientifically formulate the strategy of deep-sea development and environmental protection.
Last year, after more than 180 days and nights of hard work, Han Xiqiu successfully applied for a national key research and development project with five universities and research institutes in the United Nations, and in the next 5 years, she will lead the team to carry out cross-integration research on marine geology, microbiology and ecological environmental science around the seabed hydrothermal mineralization system.