Kathleen (Kathy) Crane (born 1951) is an American marine geologist, best known for her contributions to the discovery of hydrothermal vents on the Galápagos Rift along the East Pacific Rise in the mid-1970s.
In June 1976, on the Pleiades II expedition on the R/V Melville to the Galápagos Rift, Crane detected a 0.1 °C anomaly using a temperature-monitoring system she had developed for the Deep-Tow seafloor imaging system run by Fred Noel Spiess of the Marine Physical Laboratory at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The temperature anomaly, as well as seafloor images of volcanic features, provided strong support for the hypothesis that hydrothermal vents existed on the seafloor.[1] Crane nick-named the sites “Clambake I" and "Clambake II", after the abundance of clamshells in the area, and deployed transponders near the vents. She published the maps and temperature anomaly in the Journal of Geophysical Research in November 1977,[2] and on the structure and tectonics in the Journal of Geology in November 1978,[3] and in the Journal of Geophysical Research in October 1979.[4]
In 1990, Crane was part of an expedition of American, Soviet and Canadian scientists, sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the Soviet Academy of Sciences, that discovered hydrothermal vents on the bottom of Lake Baikal in southern Siberia, which revealed that the lake lies in a continental rift zone.[12][13][14]
Crane has published 83 peer-reviewed articles and is the author of the 2003 autobiography, Sea Legs: Tales of a Woman Oceanographer,[1] which received acclaim as a personal memoir as well as for its first-hand reports of "ocean science, Cold War science, and women's participation in science".[15]
^Crane, Kathleen; Normark, William R. (1977). "Hydrothermal activity and crestal structure of the East Pacific Rise at 21°N". Journal of Geophysical Research. 82 (33): 5336–5348. doi:10.1029/jb082i033p05336. ISSN2156-2202.
^Crane, Kathleen (1978). "Structure and Tectonics of the Galapagos Inner Rift, 86°10'W". The Journal of Geology. 86 (6): 715–730. doi:10.1086/649738.
^Crane, Kathleen (1979). "The Galapagos Rift at 86°W: Morphological wave forms; Evidence for a propagating rift". Journal of Geophysical Research. 84 (B11): 6011–6018. doi:10.1029/jb084ib11p06011. ISSN2156-2202.
^Corliss, John B.; Dymond, Jack; Gordon, Louis I.; Edmond, John M.; Herzen, Richard P. von; Ballard, Robert D.; Green, Kenneth; Williams, David; Bainbridge, Arnold; et al. (1979). "Submarine Thermal Springs on the Galápagos Rift". Science. 203 (4385): 1073–1083. doi:10.1126/science.203.4385.1073. ISSN0036-8075. PMID17776033.
^Crane, Kathleen; Ballard, Robert D. (1980). "The Galapagos Rift at 86° W: 4. Structure and morphology of hydrothermal fields and their relationship to the volcanic and tectonic processes of the Rift Valley". Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 85 (B3): 1443–1454. doi:10.1029/jb085ib03p01443. ISSN2156-2202.
^Williams, David L.; Green, Kenneth; Andel, Tjeerd H. van; Herzen, Richard P. von; Dymond, Jack R.; Crane, Kathleen (1979). "The hydrothermal mounds of the Galapagos Rift: Observations with DSRV Alvin and detailed heat flow studies". Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 84 (B13): 7467–7484. doi:10.1029/jb084ib13p07467. ISSN2156-2202.
^Crane, Kathleen; Aikman, Frank; Embley, Robert; Hammond, Steve; Malahoff, Alexander; Lupton, John (1985). "The distribution of geothermal fields on the Juan de Fuca Ridge". Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 90 (B1): 727–744. doi:10.1029/jb090ib01p00727. ISSN2156-2202.
^Crane, Kathleen; Aikman, Frank; Foucher, Jean-Paul (1988). "The distribution of geothermal fields along the East Pacific Rise from 13°10′ N to 8°20′ N: Implications for deep seated origins". Marine Geophysical Research. 9 (3): 211–236. doi:10.1007/BF00309974. ISSN0025-3235.
^Crane, Kathleen (1985). "The spacing of rift axis highs: dependence upon diapiric processes in the underlying asthenosphere?". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 72 (4): 405–414. doi:10.1016/0012-821X(85)90061-5. ISSN0012-821X.
^Crane, Kathleen; Hecker, Barbara; Golubev, Vladimir (1991). "Heat flow and hydrothermal vents in Lake Baikal". Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union. 72 (52): 585. doi:10.1029/90eo00409. ISSN2324-9250.
^Rozwadowski, Helen M. (2003). "Kathleen Crane. Sea Legs: Tales of a Woman Oceanographer". Isis. 94 (4): 779. doi:10.1086/386499. ISSN0021-1753.