The transit goes on...

Date:	2011/10/26
Time:	00:33:36 GMT
Latitude:	7 ° 41.0781 N
Longitude:	87 ° 41.4102 W

We left station early Sunday afternoon, and began our long transit toward Panama. The seas have been smooth and we've been making great time. You can tell that we're getting closer to land - we saw a fishing boat today, and encountered a couple of large pods of dolphins. We're spending the time finishing up data processing, beginning interpretation, and watching loads and loads of movies.

Homeward bound

Date: 2011/10/22
Time: 21:17:36 GMT
Latitude: 9 ° 59.7093 N
Longitude: 104 ° 5.2029 W

With little fanfare but much silent rejoicing, we point our sails homeward. There's still a great deal of work to be done by all of us, and yet a certain sense of finality has set in. I'm absolutely certain I will regret saying that even as I write it when I'm staring at an unprecedented weight of files to ping edit, but there it is. Kevin is currently working with the MAPRs, and he has assured us that data has indeed been collected. Part of our job for this upcoming transit will also be analyzing and visualizing this data in addition to the aforementioned ping editing. On a side note, the EPR area decided to give us a bit of irony right at the end of our time there by being uncharacteristically characteristic. After nearly two weeks of unruliness, clouds, rain, and waves, the water was like glass this morning, and the clouds were modestly distributed. Julie and I even saw a school of fish swimming along beside the boat for a while this morning. I have been assured that this is the image I should carry away of EPR, not the tempestuous sea that plagued us for a majority of the cruise. That's okay though; the days of storms are over, and seasickness is soon forgotten. Again, I am absolutely certain that I will regret saying that when, possibly very soon, the ship is crashing through waves on its way back to Panama while I lie in bed incapable of physical activity of any kind.

Making our way north

Date:	2011/10/20
Time:	19:09:08 GMT
Latitude:	9 ° 37.86864 N
Longitude:	104 ° 15.45162 W

During our current dive, we're maneuvering Jason on a very long transect along the crest of the East Pacific Rise. We began in the south at around 9° 4'N and are slowly making our way north. We expect to continue this transect, with a few small detours, until the end of our time on site. Our hope is to make it as far north as possible toward 10°N. The main objectives of this dive are to (1) recover instruments deployed on the seafloor, (2) map the shape of ridge crest at very high resolution, and (3) collect water column data along the ridge crest that may reveal the signal of hydrothermal activity. We are also collecting a few samples here and there when we come across interesting things on the seafloor.

The transits between stations are done with Jason well off the seafloor in an effort to maximize sonar data coverage, which means there's not too much to see besides the profile of sonar data as we encounter variable terrain. When we break off our transect to look for the instruments, however, we get to see the seafloor and make visual observations and collect photos and video.

groundhog day

Rogue scientist found with strange mutation.

Basalt and styrofoam

Date: 2011/10/18
Time: 03:59:08 GMT
Latitude: 9 ° 38.45778 N
Longitude: 104 ° 15.45264 W
In addition to the selfless liberation of tube worms from the seafloor, the group from Vienna managed to liberate several rocks for us. These mid-ocean ridge basalts were on a long 20 million year trip ending in their subduction beneath Central America and eventual incorporation back into the mantle. Instead, they've won an all expenses paid trip to Panama followed by their eventual deposition in our New York apartments. If you take a look at the image, you can see the glassy chilled margin on the outside of this basalt, a testament to its extrusion in water and a very effective way to get splinters of glass in your fingertips.

In addition, all of us spent time making shrunken cups for ourselves and our loved ones. We sent them down on the elevator that carried the tube worms to the surface. The concept behind these cups is simple. As the cups are transported to the bottom of the seafloor, the pressure of the water increases. At 2500 meters (8000 feet), a cup is feeling a pressure of about 250 bars, or, more impressively, 3640 pounds per square inch. The Styrofoam isn't really made for these kinds of conditions and gets compressed, the end consequence of which is that the cup is turned into a miniature of its former self. Suffice it to say, they're really popular as gifts. While those of us new to the ritual naturally wanted to take part, we were surprised by the avid response from the PIs. This may be the first step in instituting weekly LDEO Marine Geology & Geophysics coloring time.

Lately, our group has been working on processing data from the multibeam connected to Jason. It looks like some really interesting data so far, and I'm sure you'll hear a lot more about it.

The dive continues...

Date:	2011/10/16
Time:	15:33:08 GMT
Latitude:	9 ° 51.04344 N
Longitude:	104 ° 14.09754 W

After a full 24 hours in the water, the dive continues. We successfully sampled some tubeworms yesterday afternoon and sent them to the surface - one is currently being kept alive in a pressurized aquarium! We are now continuing to map and visit benchmarks. By this evening, we hope to begin our southward traverse along the axis of the East Pacific Rise to recover instruments and continue mapping....

Back on the bottom!

Date: 2011/10/15
Time: 16:20:08 GMT
Latitude: 9 ° 50.90946 N
Longitude: 104 ° 17.50134 W


We just started our second dive! The first dive gave us a chance to collect some data at a few sites, and to get the team up to speed with our objective and sampling protocols. Everyone is eagerly awaiting more data!

During this dive we hope to map a significant area of seafloor as we visit each of the benchmarks for additional pressure measurements. During the first dive, we tested out different sonar surveying parameters and figured out exactly how we want to acquire the rest of the data. One of the main objectives of our mapping effort is to better understand the geologic features on the seafloor, and to determine how the seafloor was changed by the volcanic eruption that took place here a few years ago.

We will also be sampling some tube worms at one of the hydrothermal vents in the area. In a few hours, the tubeworms, and several instruments that will be recovered during the dive, will be sent up to the ship using an "elevator", while Jason continues to work on the seafloor.

The weather forecast has improved and the outlook is good for the remainder of the trip!