The vents were discovered by a 25-person multinational scientific expedition of the University of Bergen, Norway, more than 120 nautical miles (220 km) north of what were previously the northernmost known, discovered in 2005. The 2005 and 2008 expeditions were both led by geologist Rolf Pedersen of the university's Centre for Geobiology, aboard the research vessel G.O. Sars[1] (named after the Norwegian marine biologist Georg Ossian Sars[4] and launched in May 2003[5]).