{"id":536663,"date":"2025-08-19T10:25:49","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T14:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/?p=536663"},"modified":"2025-08-27T11:14:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:14:00","slug":"swells-gallore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/swells-gallore\/","title":{"rendered":"Swells Gallore"},"content":{"rendered":"

The morning of August 17th<\/sup>, was met with much excitement as the R\/V\u00a0Atlantis<\/em>\u00a0was scheduled to depart at 0830. The morning was filled with insuring 1) all team members were onboard; 2) all gear was stowed and secured; and 3) that a secondary\u00a0junction box<\/a>\u00a0(benthic experiment\u00a0platform<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 BEP), zooplankton sonar, and digital still camera were ready for\u00a0deployment<\/a>. With significant eagerness by the \u201cnewcomers\u201d for Leg 2, the R\/V\u00a0Atlantis<\/em>\u00a0departed under partially cloudy skies to the Oregon Shelf\u00a0site<\/a>, ~ 14 miles off Newport. Although the protected Yaquina Bay was calm, transiting through the channel into the Pacific, big rolling swells were a bit ominous across the horizon. Exiting the channel, herds of brown pelicans and sealions on the channel marking buoys met us \u2013 always an enjoyable sight.<\/p>\n

During the transit, there was a \u201cfire\u201d and boat drill during which time the\u00a0Atlantis<\/em>\u00a0Mates and Science Support Group staff discussed safety at sea, how to use myriad fire extinguishers and emergency breathing apparatus, and all new Leg 2 personnel donned their emergency immersion suits. During this time, the swells grew intermittently larger, and we began to lose various members of our science party to the gods of seasickness.<\/p>\n

Upon reaching the Oregon Shelf site ,and after the Chief Sci had discussions with the\u00a0Jason<\/em>\u00a0Expedition Leads (EL\u2019s), a decision was made to postpone dives at the Shelf\u00a0 site and begin an ~ 20 hr transit to the base of Axial Seamount. The Shelf site is a notoriously difficult place to dive, especially with heavy packages latched beneath the vehicle (the BEP weighs ~ 3200 lbs). Here, strong currents and biological material and sediment are so abundant in the water column, that often\u00a0Jason<\/em>\u00a0can\u2019t see its manipulators. At 80 m water depth, there is no \u201csoftening\u201dof the impact of waves such as what occurs on deeper dives \u2013 the up and down movement is translated into \u201csnapping\u201d of the ROV tether at the termination of the vehicle. This can lead to broken fibers in the tether and the vehicle going dark. Rather than wait 24 hrs for the swell to decrease, it was decided to use the time to transit the 20 hrs to Axial Base for a CTD cast.<\/p>\n

The rest of the day was put to good use with finalizing Leg 2 preparation duties, making sure all the\u00a0infrastructure<\/a>\u00a0and instruments were ready for the Axial summit work, training students on the CTD deployments and water sampling, and giving them tours of\u00a0Jason<\/em>\u00a0and training in the ROV control room\u2026it was also a good time for all to get their sea legs.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow we dive at the International District Hydrothermal Field!!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Swells crash along the Yaquina Channel jetty. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Successful donning of immersion suits on Leg 2. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

VISIONS\u201925 Leg 2 students receive CTD training prior to the first cast. Credit: J. Thirtyacres, University of Washington, V25.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The morning of August 17th, was met with much excitement as the R\/V\u00a0Atlantis\u00a0was scheduled to depart at 0830. The morning was filled with insuring 1) all team members were onboard; 2) all gear was stowed and secured; and 3) that a secondary\u00a0junction box\u00a0(benthic experiment\u00a0platform\u00a0\u2013 BEP), zooplankton sonar, and digital still camera were ready for\u00a0deployment. With…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":536664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[324],"tags":[326,155],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":536667,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536663\/revisions\/536667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}