Updates

On August 11, we closed out another highly successful Regional Cabled Array cruise with the completion of all core Ocean Observatories Initiative and externally funded PI tasks scheduled for the annual maintenance and operations expedition. This was also one of the most successful years for the at-sea experiential VISIONS program with an amazing and diverse cohort of students. Many of the students shared that this experience changed their lives. After record setting…

The R/V Atlantis has been non-stop with activity over the last four days! The log trapping the cables at the 80 m shelf site was dealt with by Jason carefully grasping either end and “flossing” the cable out from under the log until it was freed. This allowed all the instruments and packages at the site to be successfully swapped, including a benthic experiment package (BEP), a zooplankton sonar, and a digital still camera….

After a very successful Leg 1 where the R/V Atlantis sailed under incredibly calm weather, Leg 2 began with a slightly wavier start on August 18th. The team returned to the 80 m Oregon Shelf site, which was the final site visited on Leg 1. Operations there were stymied by the discovery of a log laying over the cables connecting the Benthic Experiment Package, zooplankton sonar, and the digital still camera to the junction…

We have spent the last two days diving at Axial Seamount, 300 miles off the coast of Oregon and Washington and nearly a mile beneath the waves. This volcano is the largest and most active underwater volcano off our coast having erupted in 1998, 2011, and 2015 – it is poised to erupt again. Axial exhibits an astounding landscape with remanent, anastomosing lava channels from past eruptions that cut across…

Deep beneath the ocean’s surface, life persists in a realm of perpetual darkness. For many, the impression of this vast sediment-laden oceanscape is that the seafloor is a barren “desert”, yet in fact, it is teeming with life. Here, most life forms swim slowly through the near freezing water, conserving energy. Over the past decade, the RCA team has had the privilege of observing this hidden world through the “eyes”…

Our first 24 hours at sea have been just as full as the last two days on shore. As of lunchtime on August 9th we had successfully ‘turned’ the shallow profiler moorings at Oregon Offshore (600 meters depth) and Slope Base (2900 m) sites. These ‘turns’ consist of three Jason dives each where old packages containing the controller computer and science pod (which during normal operations moves up and down in the water…

The past two days have been chocked full of activities. On August 6th, thanks to a significant effort by the RCA and R/V Atlantis team, a shore crane, and  -loading more than 40,000 labs of gear onboard the R/V Atlantis on August 6th. Early morning on the 7th, a very excited group of VISIONS students departed from the UW for the ship, arriving at ~ 1330. The Main Lab, where the entire…