FeMO2 Dive Cruise 2007
Report Day 14 -- Wednesday 24 October 2007 -- Revisiting Pohaku
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FeMO2 Dive Cruise 2007 |
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Today is the beginning of what may be our last dive – dive 316. The dive plan calls for a descent on Pohaku to revisit the new site there, then travel up the rift through the spillway into Pele’s Pit. The previous dive did not make it to Pisces Peak so this dive is scheduled to end at the peak.
Pohaku receives a marker, number 57, and a series of temperature, electrochemistry and water samplers. A high temperature of 30 degrees Celsius is recorded. Bacteria trap numbers 73 and 75 are deployed near the vents. Three hours are spent at Pohaku and then Jason begins to travel up rift toward the spillway and marker 48.
Jason enters the spillway and finds marker 48. The marker 48 venting has ended or is very diffuse and the area around the vent appears dead. But just a little higher a new vent site is caught in Jason’s lights. The water is venting 5 meters above marker 48 and is coming out at 40 degrees centigrade. Also associated with the venting is a field of finger chimneys. Until now finger chimneys at Lo’ihi have only been found at vents with temperatures in the single digits. The new site justifies a full round of sampling and slurping to characterize the microbes and the vent water chemistry.
Jason then visits the cliff vents at marker 39 and places some bacterial traps for recovery during next years dive series. The traps cling so precariously to the cliff that current from Jason’s thrusters causes one of the traps to tumble down the cliff. Scott, the pilot, accelerates the thrusters; and Jason immediately dives after the tumbling trap. The trap lands on a ledge and Scott picks it up to replace it into the vent water.
Aboard the Kilo Moana scientists are finishing their incubations and experiments. Others are archiving samples in case results need to be confirmed or new experiments performed. Each rock sample is divided into several pieces and preserved several different ways that will be suitable for different types of analyses. The labs are busy when Jason is down. When not in the lab scientists take their turns standing watches in the Jason control van.
Jason visits Pisces Peak and then begins a survey of old sites including the Maximilian’s vents and new territory in the East pit crater. Jason is down all day and through the night. The dive has gone on long enough that it is nearly certain to be the last possible FeMO dive on Lo’ihi this year. As we see the end of the cruise coming near the excitement begins to build.
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