Updates
And They Are Off
May 16, 2023
With beautiful Seward, Alaska as the backdrop, RV Sikuliaq departs for the Station Papa 10 mooring and glider deployment expedition.
Essential Equipment
May 11, 2023
Most people think about the instrumentation and the electronics on the OOI moorings. But the moorings wouldn’t hold position for 12 months through stormy weather without these pieces of equipment! These are the subsurface mooring 6000 lb mace anchors needed to keep everything in place.
Mobilization Underway
May 10, 2023
Papa mobilization has begun. The first thing the team does is offload containers of equipment and build the moorings. James Kuo, Nico Llanos, and Dan Bogorff assemble the subsurface moorings, including the profiling vehicles, and begin system testing prior to loading the vessel.
Heading to Seward
May 4, 2023
A team of 10 scientists and engineers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Washington are headed to Seward, Alaska to load the R/V Sikuliaq for the tenth turn of the Global Station Papa Array. This annual spring “turn” of the Array is no small undertaking. A successful turn requires months of equipment preparation and testing. After all instrumentation has been cleared to go, it is then shipped…
An Undergraduate’s Experience
March 22, 2023
Athena Abramhamsen is an undergraduate student at Oregon State University, who also works part-time with the OOI’s Endurance Team, helping to refurbish and rebuild moorings. The Endurance 18 expedition was her first time at sea. She speaks of her experience and what she learned in this short video.
And it’s a Wrap
March 21, 2023
And it’s a wrap! Last day at sea until the fall. Time to head back to the Ocean Observatories Center (OOC) at Oregon State University (OSU). The R/V Sikuliaq docked and offloading began. The Endurance 18 team offloaded all the moorings and other gear to truck back to the OOC in Corvallis. Well done team! Special thanks to OSU videographer Kim Kenny who shared the journey with us each day….
Teamwork
March 20, 2023
The Endurance 18 Team conquered stormy conditions, recalcitrant anchors, and March winds and successfully recovered and deployed all moorings so that the Array will be operational and reporting critical ocean data for another six months. It takes a team!
Smiling Success!
March 19, 2023
The smiles of Linus Stolz, (left), Alex Wicks, and Raelynn Heinitz and others show the relief and success of completing all of the mission objectives of Endurance 18 despite weather delays and stormy conditions. Well done team!
Anchor Recovery via ROV
March 19, 2023
Here are the moments the Endurance Array’s team Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) first spotted a giant pacific octopus, and when the ROV latched onto an anchor of a mooring that wasn’t properly releasing. The team worked the problem, and in the end they got it done.
Eric Tappa Talks Sediment Traps
March 19, 2023
Researcher Eric Tappa from the University of South Carolina explains how sediment traps work. Eric is aboard the R/V Sikuliaq as it winds up the Endurance 18 expedition.