James Cameron's Aliens Of The Deep: Voyages to the Strange World of the Deep Ocean

The search for life in space begins on the ocean floor...

Far beneath the ocean''s surface, beyond the reach of the sun, an astonishing community of animals lives in a world of searing heat, intense pressure, and absolute darkness. In Aliens of the Deep, Academy Award-winning filmmaker James Cameron and a crew of scientists embark on an extraordinary mission to document this extreme environment. What they learn about the deep sea may one day help scientists search for life on other worlds.

Aliens of the Deep takes readers miles below the sea to volcanic hot springs -- hydrothermal vents -- where superheated water flows from Earth''s crust into the cold, deep ocean. These vents are surprising oases of life, home to blind crabs, seething hordes of shrimp, reefs of mussels and clams, and swarms of microbes that have found a way to adapt in one ~of the most unlikely places on the planet. Unknown until 1977 and still largely, unexplored, hydrothermal vent fields support no life-giving photosynthesis. Yet many scientists believe that at sites like these, life on Earth may have begun.

Spectacular high-resolution photography brings this breathtaking world into focus: jellyfish that appear to glow from within, hideous-looking anglerfish, and the stunning architecture of the calcite towers of a site dubbed "Lost City."

Aliens of the Deep asks: If life can survive in this extreme environment on Earth, can the conditions to sustain life exist elsewhere in the universe? Veteran ocean explorer and writer Dr. Joseph MacInnis follows Cameron and his crew as they overcome technical and physical challenges to make a giant-screen film that provides an unprecedented view of this savage and surreal world.

Longtime colleague of James Cameron, author Joseph MacInnis accompanied James Cameron on the Aliens of the Deep expeditions in the summer of 2003. Dr. MacInnis spent his early career studying the performance of divers working at extreme depths under the sea. As an undersea explorer the led thirty major expeditions and logged more than 5,000 hours below the Atlantic, pacific, and Arctic Oceans. In 1974, he led the first team of scientists to dive under the ice at the North Pole. Dr. MacInnis has written six books and numerous articles for magazines including Scientific American and National Geographic. He lives in Canada.

James Cameron (Introduction) is an award-winning feature filmmaker whose credits include Terminator, The Abyss, and the international smash-hit Titanic. In 2003 Cameron produced Ghosts of the Abyss, a 3-D large format film that was a return to the site of the famous wreck. He lives in San Diego, CA.