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18 -- 9 October 2008 -- Trekking 8,000 m with Jason Along the South Rift
Jason leaves the bottom at 10:30pm to reach the surface by midnight. The entire dive has explored over 8,000 meters of the South Rift. Though no hot vents or bacterial mats were found, microbiologists are still interested in the rock samples because they may harbor iron oxidizing microbes that are able to tunnel into the basalt seeking iron.
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17 -- 8 October 2008 -- Volcanic Glass Hunting on Dive J2-374
The heavy bottom mapping sonar was removed to give more lifting capacity to Jason for bringing rock samples to the surface. The goal of the new dive (J2-374) is to document rifting and lava flows along the South Rift and collect rock samples that might provide clues to where in the Earth the basalt came from.
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16 -- 7 October 2008 -- Engines, Propulsion, Electrical Generation, Water Making and More
Much oceanographic work is done with the ship attempting to stay over a particular patch of the bottom of the ocean so that instruments and tools (such as Jason and Medea) can be lowered to a particular spot. The
ship's computer gets a GPS satellite signal and then rotates the propeller drives to keep the ship
in that position. This is called Dynamic Positioning.
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15 -- 6 October 2008 -- Using Skype In Combination with SeaNet
Craig, Anthony and I got up at 4:30 this morning so we could speak to students at Sehome High School in Bellingham via the SeaNet system. We had a great time fielding questions such as: Has the loss of the deep sea elevator hindered research activities? How do scientists preserve specimens that grow in warm vent water on there way to the surface?
How much fuel does the ship use and how does the ship make power?
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14 -- 5 October 2008 -- Preparing for Videoconferencing
I’m looking forward to talking to my classes at Sehome High School tomorrow. The teacher and I have arranged an internet video conference for 5am, 6am and 8 am Hawaiian time. The first time we did this it worked well from the point of view of those at Sehome.
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13 -- 4 October 2008 -- Thompson's Slosh Tank
The R/V Thompson has this nice easy, long and irregular roll that is easy to deal with. The entire 03 deck forward the bridge is a slosh tank,
which helps to negate the rolling effect typical on the ocean. When the
boat rolls, the water up there first counters the roll (because of the
inertia of the water) and then slowly sloshes to the other side.
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12 -- 3 October 2008 -- How to get Internet on the High Seas?
The R/V Thompson is a modern research enterprise full with high-end computers, data servers and other high-tech instrumentation. But to get good internet connectivity from a ship riding the high-seas to the rest of the world is especially difficult.
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11 -- 2 October 2008 -- Halfway Scientist Exchange
I awake shortly after the ship gets underway. The Thompson is riding gently in a following sea, but the fittings in the cabin are vibrating and buzzing in an unfamiliar way because of the engines and propellers. I can’t tell what time it is.
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10 -- 1 October 2008 -- Exploring Loihi's North Rift
Jason’s work day began in Pele’s pit working around the hot water vents that sponsor the growth of so many bacteria, but the second half of dive J2-368 is devoted to exploring the North Rift roughly parallel to a dead submarine cable.
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09 -- 30 September 2008 -- Jason's Quick Turnaround
When I get up in
the morning Jason is back on deck and scientists getting their samplers
ready and planning the next dive on the summit. During the day the
trade winds pick back up and blow away the still, muggy air.
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08 -- 29 September 2008 -- Mariprofundus Ferroxydans
Clara Chan has grabbed some bacteria from the slurp containers and put the “slurpings” into microscope slides that have special chambers in them. The chambers are grooves into which the bacteria, some filtered seawater and some nutrients are added in the hopes that the bacteria will survive and grow under the
microscope. Daily
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07 -- 28 September 2008 -- Going On Without Elevator
The decision was made to leave the damaged
deep-sea elevator on the bottom. The risk and cost in dive time was judged too great. The most valuable part of the elevator, the glass floats, were gone already.
So we continue with dive J2-367 but without elevator.
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06 -- 27 September 2008 -- Implosion of Elevator Floatation
The elevator started its decent with 8 of these “hard hat” spheres bolted to the top. At some point, as the pressure increased, one of the spheres imploded, and the concussion caused the others to implode as well. It was loud enough that it was heard in a stateroom in the bottom of the ship.
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05 -- 26 September 2008 -- End of Dive 365
Jason completed its first dive of the cruise shortly before noon Friday. Jason and Medea had been underwater for about 56 hours continuously. Before surfacing the deep-sea elevator was released from its weights and retrieved by the ship, then Medea and Jason were brought to the surface.
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04 -- 25 September 2008 -- Another Conference with Sehome High School
Early this morning we again made contact with Sehome High School students. I was joined by Katrina Edwards and Brian Midson. Dr. Edwards is a microbiologist from USC and specialist in microbes that make their food from chemical energy. Dr. Midson is the National Science Foundation’s program manager for deep submergence vehicles. Daily
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03 -- 24 September 2008 --
Jason Takes His First Dive
The R/V Thompson reached her station over the summit of Loi’hi late last night. The first task was to send a CTD
rosette down to characterize the water column and to deploy the acoustic transponders by which Jason is navigated. Once the transponder net is surveyed in Jason and Medea can enter the water.
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02 -- 23 September 2008 --
Videoconference with Sehome High School
Our day started at about 5:20 am when Anthony and I got up to prepare for a videoconference with my first period class at Sehome High School in Bellingham, WA.
The conversation was very enjoyable despite being choppy due to the
ship’s narrow bandwidth.
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01 -- 22 September 2008 --
Final Loading and Leaving Port
The R/V Thomas G.
Thompson has been loaded with all scientific equipment, with the JASON2
that will be used in our dives and we are ready to leave port.
Our final destination: the Loihi Seamount where we will sample and research the biological mats and hydrothermal vents. Daily
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