COULD a humble rock hold the answers to some of the universe’s greatest questions?

That is what an international team of scientists hope to find out when they set sail from Southampton on an ambitious six-week voyage to the mid-Atlantic Ocean today.

When they set sail on board the RRS James Cook from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) they will sail to the Atlantis Massif, a huge underwater mountain.

And the team – which includes an expert from Southampton – hope they may hold the answer to questions on how life began on Earth, and what is required for life on other planets.

It will be the first time that sea-bed deep sea drills have been used to collect valuable rocks in this way, and two giant drills will be taken with the expedition.

They will be used to collect samples of the unstable serpentinite rock that forms part of the massif, between 750 and 1,750m beneath the waves.

The area they are collecting them from is next to the Lost City, the first area of its kind to be discovered on the planet that is dotted with huge chimneys up to 60m high that vent methane and hydrogen into the water around them.

The unique environment created at the massif could allow scientists to work out more about how life started on Earth.

And it could even be used alongside future missions to Mars and Jupiter’s moon Europa to work out if life is possible, or has already existed, elsewhere in the galaxy.

It will also be the first major European expedition of its kind to be headed by three women – American senior research scientist Dr Beth Orcutt, Swiss expert Professor Gretch Früh-Green and British expedition manager and geoscientist Carol Cotterill.

Mrs Cotterill only got the call to lead the project when one of her colleagues ruptured an Achilles tendon.

She said: “This gives us access to an environment we have never been able to explore.

“This will allow us to push the boundaries further and further with technology, which means we are pushing the boundaries of science all the time.”

University of Southampton geophysicist Gaye Bayracki is the only representative from the city taking part in the sea expedition.

The 36-year-old, who lives in the city centre, will be responsible for analysing the rocks brought up from the massif by the drills.

She said: “I’m very excited about taking part in such an important expedition.

“I’ve never been on a ship for this long, although I have been on one for a month. I think it will be OK, we will be very busy so I don’t think we will notice the time.”

The 89.5m long RRS James Cook has been provided for the expedition by its owner, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), while the cost of more than £2.2m will be funded by NERC and other organisations and institutes, across the glove which are part of the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling.