Posts Tagged ‘RCA’

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

September 18 2023: The last dive of Leg 4 (J2-1562) surveyed the seafloor at Slope Base to locate and mark a cable for potential recovery in 2024. Jason was back onboard early this morning, and the Thompson headed back to port.  The vessel arrived at the NOAA dock of ~1500 local time. Demobilization commenced then and is expected to…

September 16-17, 2023: Jason is busy with a variety of tasks.  At Axial Seamount, the ROV dove in the International District hydrothermal vent field to collect fluid samples from the vent to be analyzed for microbes and viruses.  The Jason did a second dive collect more fluid samples at Marker 113, a diffuse flow site…

September 12-15, 2023: Leg 4 has been very busy. Jason swapped out the wire crawler vehicle at the Axial Base Deep Profiler Mooring at a water depth of 2900 meters.  CTD casts were completed to verify the instruments on the deep profiler vehicle and  a CTD was exchanged at Axial Caldera. The Thompson then transited from Axial…