Posts Tagged ‘RCA’
Visit to West Coast OOI Facilities
A group of Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) leaders visited OOI facilities at Oregon State University and the University of Washington last week to get a first-hand look at operations of the Coastal Endurance Array and Regional Cabled Array, respectively. National Science Foundation Program Director George Voulgaris, OOI Principal Investigator Jim Edson and Senior Program Manager Paul Matthias spent five days on the road meeting with their OOI west coast colleagues. The trip was designed to give recently appointed Voulgaris an opportunity to inspect the infrastructure and meet team members who keep the Coastal Endurance and Regional Cabled Arrays operational and reporting back data around the clock. Edson and Matthias seized the opportunity to meet in person with colleagues who they routinely see on the screen.
The following provides a glimpse of some of the activities that occurred during the trip:
[media-caption path="https://oceanobservatories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230207_140014.jpg" link="#"]Grant Dunn, Mechanical Engineer with the Electronic & Photonic Systems Department at UW-APL (left) describes the level-wind system on the RCA profiler mooring to Dr. George Voulgaris during a tour of the RCA laboratory facilities at the University of Washington as RCA Project Manager Brian Ittig looks on. Credit: Paul K. Matthias © WHOI.[/media-caption] [media-caption path="https://oceanobservatories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230207_144911.jpg" link="#"]Regional Cabled Array Principal Investigator Deborah Kelley (left) and OOI Senior Program Manager Paul Matthias take a selfie to commemorate their in-person visit during a tour of the RCA facilities at the University of Washington. Credit: Paul K. Matthias © WHOI.[/media-caption] [media-caption path="https://oceanobservatories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230207_141656.jpg" link="#"]NSF Program Director George Voulgaris (from left), OOI Principal Investigator Jim Edson look on as Regional Cabled Array technicians Grant Dunn, Mechanical Engineer with the Electronic & Photonic Systems Department at UW-APL, and RCA Chief Engineer Chuck McGuire explain the engineering associated with the RCA profiler mooring during a tour of RCA’s facilities at the University of Washington. Credit: Paul K. Matthias © WHOI.[/media-caption] [media-caption path="https://oceanobservatories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230209_123758.jpg" link="#"]NSF Program Director George Voulgaris (left) asks OSU technician Jonathan Whitefield questions about glider operations that provide critical water column data around the moorings of the Coastal Endurance Array. Credit: Paul K. Matthias © WHOI.[/media-caption] [media-caption path="https://oceanobservatories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230207_112718.jpg" link="#"]NSF Program Director George Voulgaris (foreground) and RCA Chief Engineer Chuck McGuire discuss the RCA data monitoring systems as OOI PI Jim Edson points to real-time data on the screen being relayed by instrumentation on the Regional Cabled Array. Credit: Paul K. Matthias © WHOI.[/media-caption] [media-caption path="https://oceanobservatories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230209_130353.jpg" link="#"]NSF Program Director George Voulgaris (left) gets a hands-on look at the multiple instruments contained on multi-function node that will sit on the bottom of the ocean floor for six months collecting data for the Coastal Endurance Array. Coastal Endurance Array Principal Investigator Ed Dever (middle) and Project Manager Jonathan Fram the functionality of each instrument during the visit to Oregon State University. Credit: Paul K. Matthias © WHOI.[/media-caption]
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Pythias Oasis: The First-of-Its-Kind Seep in the Oceans
Adapted and condensed by OOI from Philip, et al., 2023, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.add6688.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-26-at-10.21.55-AM.png" link="#"] a) A multibeam sonar image of the methane bubble plumes at Pythias Oasis in 2015. b) Pythias orifice in 2015 showing the fluid-dominated, sediment-rich plume, as first visualized on the discovery dive by the ROV ROPOS. The main orifice has been continuously active since 2015. c) Pythias’ orifice in 2021 with increased biological communities and a small Fe-rich chimney. d) The edge of a large collapse-blowout zone – coring across this area in 2019 recovered substantial methane hydrate. e) A Neptunea snail nursery between the orifice site and the blowout zone.[/media-caption]Pythias Oasis is the first-of-its-kind seep in the oceans, providing a window into controls on megathrust events along the Cascadia Margin. Pythias Oasis, discovered during the 2015 Regional Cabled Array (RCA) Operations and Maintenance Cruise, utilizing the hull-mounted sonar on the R/V Thompson, is unlike any seep site yet described along active margins with unprecedented fluid chemistries (Figure above). It hosts an intense fluid-dominated venting system issuing low-salinity, hydrocarbon-bearing fluids carrying low concentrations of suspended particles from a discrete orifice that has been continuously active since 2015. Detailed sampling, as part of an NSF OCE-funded expedition in 2019 (OCE 16582901), and another dive in 2021 (added onto the RCA 2021 cruise) show that the fresh, warm fluids (four times background temperatures) are venting at the highest discharge rates yet measured within the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) and that the fluids are extremely enriched in boron lithium and iron.
Pythias Oasis provides a rare window into processes acting deep in the margin with fluid chemistries indicating that the fluids are sourced near the plate boundary in the Central CSZ at minimum temperatures of 150-250°C. The high discharge rates are thought to reflect draining of fluids along an over-pressurized reservoir associated with the subduction zone-perpendicular Alvin Canyon strike slip fault, suggesting that the faults regulate pore fluid pressure and megathrust slip behavior along the Central CSZ.
Results from this work are presented in Philip, B.T., E.A. Solomon, D.S. Kelley, A.M. Tréhu, T.L. Whorley, E. Roland, M. Tominaga, and R.W. Collier (2023) Fluid sources and overpressures within the central Cascadia Subduction Zone revealed by a warm, high-flux seafloor seep. Science Advances (9), doi: 10.1126/sciadv.add6688.
Read MoreRCA and ROPOS: A Long-Term International Collaboration
A Canadian and American team worked side-by-side for 45 days in August in the NE Pacific Ocean during the eighth operations and maintenance expedition for OOI’s Regional Cabled Array (RCA). The team used the Canadian remotely operated vehicle (ROV) ROPOS to conduct maintenance operations on RCA’s underwater cabled observatory spanning the Juan de Fuca Plate and at water depths from 80 m to 2900 m. Intense operations included the recovery and reinstallation of 222 instruments and a 2700 m-tall, two-legged Shallow Profiler Mooring. This expedition took place on the global class research ship the R/V Thomas G. Thompson, operated by the University of Washington (UW). Twenty-six students joined the cruise as part of the UW at-sea experiential learning program called VISIONS.
ROPOS is operated by the Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility (CSSF). The vehicle was specially designed for cabled observatory work, bringing in components from the oil and gas field, and a uniquely designed Remotely Operated Cable Laying system (ROCLS) that allows the vehicle to install extension cables extending for several kilometers on the seafloor. Their work culminated in 2014 during an 83-day cruise onboard the R/V Thompson, which resulted in the installation of >15,000 m of extension cables (in total, ~33,000 m of extension cables was installed on the seafloor), >140 instruments, and platforms on the six-state of-the art moorings with instrumented profiling vehicles. They also installed 18 junction boxes at the key experimental sites using their underbelly latching system that allows the vehicle to directly secure loads up to 4,000 lbs beneath the vehicle. This latching system was adopted by the Deep Submergence Facility ROV Jason, which has conducted multiple RCA maintenance cruises.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/R2209_20220812_091705_launch_ME.Axial-Base_Science-Pod_install-2.jpg" link="#"]The Shallow Profiler Science Pod being deployed with ROPOS during Leg 1 of the RCA 22 cruise at Axial Base. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington, V22.[/media-caption]
During this latest expedition, ROPOS conducted 60 dives over 33 at-sea days. Keith Tamburri led seven members of the ROPOS team, who worked 12 hours on, 12 hours off for 45 days. Operations are more similar to industry with as little time on deck as possible for the ROV, typically about three hrs before ROPOS reentered the water. Team work is exemplified during ROPOS operations where two pilots each operate a manipulator to conduct complex operations. The ROPOS team was joined in the dive control laboratory by varying members of the RCA’s team, who directed ROPOS activities on the seafloor and throughout the water column, and the VISIONS’22 students who stood 4 hour watches. (A list of ROPOS and RCA team members can be found here).
During this 8th RCA recovery and deployment expedition, the R/V Thompson traveled to all of the RCA sites. ROPOS recovered and redeployed a diverse array of instruments and four small seafloor substations that provide power and communications to instruments on the seafloor and to the instrumented Deep and Shallow profiler moorings. The ROV also was used to install a 500 m long extension cable that allowed bringing the Southern Hydrate Ridge live again. ROPOS also recovered equipment and samples for externally funded principal investigators, including several novel instruments developed by scientists in the US and Germany. ROPOS tasks were many and varied. The vehicle emplaced packages up to 3200 lbs in weight and the pilots skillfully used the manipulators to do everything from scrubbing biofouling off cables to unplugging and plugging in instruments to the seafloor cable
In addition to RCA operations, ROPOS was used to help advance scientific investigations involving instruments added onto the RCA cabled network. For example, as part of an Early Career award to for Dr. Rika Anderson at Carleton College, ROPOS conducted sampling dives using a Universal Fluid Obtainer on the ROPOS porch to sample fluids for follow-on analyses of microbes and viruses. Through another NSF award to Dr. Wilcock and his UW colleague Dana Manalang, ROPOS installed a first of its kind acoustic network on the western and eastern rim of Axial Seamount and within its caldera to examine deformation within the caldera. A suite of CTD instruments were also turned within the caldera to test the hypothesis that brines are emitted from the subsurface associated with submarine eruptions as part of and NSF award to Dr. William Chadwick at the Oregon State University. Lastly, ROPOS inspected a Quantification sonar and recovered an Overview Sonar on Southern Hydrate Ridge as part of a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to MARUM at the University of Bremen, led by investigators Gerhard Bohrmann and Yann Macron. In addition, their 4K high-definition camera was cleaned and a CTD turned. The sonar and camera instruments are another example of an international collaboration.
“Our ROPOS team really enjoys working with the team from the University of Washington, School of Oceanography and Applied Physics Laboratory, who are responsible for the RCA. They are a professional, well-organized, efficient, friendly, and mutually respectful group, which makes these long missions at sea productive, efficient, and successful,” said Keith Shepherd, General Manager, Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility. “And for this cruise, in particular, it was a real pleasure working along with UW undergraduates onboard as part of UW’s at-sea experiential program VISIONS. The students brought a curiosity, enthusiasm, and energy that were always welcome during the long hours in the dive control van.”
Added Kelley, “It really takes a tremendous amount of time, effort, and teamwork to pull off an expedition of this length and complexity. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to work again with our Canadian colleagues. It was an excellent international collaboration to help maintain and expand the capabilities of the RCA. “ Because of the complex nature of the undersea work required to keep the RCA operational, few facilities are trained and equipped to execute such operations.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ROPOS-ROCLS_IEEE-copy-2.jpg" link="#"]ROPOS with the cable laying system ROCLS attached during the 2014 deployments of the extension cables. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington, V14.[/media-caption]
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Nature Review Paper Reveals New Understandings of Mid-Ocean Ridge Systems
Only a small percentage of the global seafloor has been investigated, leaving the deep ocean as one of the last frontiers to be explored and sampled. Mid-ocean ridges (MOR) systems extend about 60,000 kilometers around the globe, are where 70% of the volcanism on Earth occurs, and are dynamic and active tectonic regions.
A recent Nature Review paper, Früh-Green, et al. 2022, written by a multi-disciplinary team of experts summarizes what is known about MORs, their importance in regulating seawater chemistry and global chemical fluxes, and the diverse ecosystems that they support in the absence of light and under extreme conditions. The authors describe the tectonic, magmatic, and hydrothermal processes that govern how they form and change and describe some of the biogeochemical cycles at varying spreading rates.
“The first hydrothermal vent was discovered in 1977, which was followed by myriad discoveries about these amazing deep-sea environments over the next 45 years,” said OOI’s Regional Cabled Array Principal Investigator, Deborah Kelley at the University of Washington and an author of the paper. “Yet, much remains to be understood about these environments, which play a key role in regulating seawater chemistry and global chemical fluxes. Key unknowns include the evolution of the novel microbial communities that they host and the diversity of viruses. This paper summarizes some of the key discoveries that researchers have made and questions that remain to be answered.”
Among the paper’s key findings are:
- Spreading rates control variations in heat sources, magma input, and tectonic processes along MORs, providing multi-faceted habitats for life.
- Seawater circulation and hydrothermal alteration regulate seawater chemistry and change the composition and physical properties of the lithosphere (crust and upper mantle).
- Roughly 50-60% percent of global MORs are spreading at slow to ultraslow rates resulting in the exposure of lower crustal and upper mantle rocks. This spreading is creating asymmetric ridge segments that support different structures, hydrothermal processes, and vent fluid chemistry.
- Serpentinization decreases density and seismic velocities of mantle rocks, weakening the oceanic lithosphere along faults. Serpentinization also produces hydrogen and organic molecules that provide energy for microbial life.
- Unlike serpentinizing systems, basalt-hosted systems support a vast, hot and diverse microbial biosphere. Advanced technologies are allowing better characterization of the genetic makeup and metabolism of microbes and the role of viruses in shaping biodiversity.
- Hydrothermal processes govern global chemical fluxes of magnesium, iron, manganese, and other volatiles and provide nutrients to the deep ocean. Microbial interactions and oxidation of organic compounds within hydrothermal plumes produce organic carbon.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-29-at-10.54.32-AM.png" link="#"]Global distribution of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor. Map of the global ridge system with distribution of known sites of hydrothermal venting and sites inferred to be present from water-column studies. Hydrothermal vents occur at MORs (65% of known sites), back-arc spreading centers (22%), submarine arc volcanoes (12%) and interplate hot spot volcanoes (1%). Data from the InterRidge Vents Database. Map adapted with permission from the Center for Environmental Visualization, University of Washington.[/media-caption]
“Ocean observatories like OOI’s Regional Cabled Array and Ocean Networks Canada , are providing researchers unprecedented real-time views into these highly dynamic regions that help form the face of our planet,” added Kelley. “RCA has allowed researchers to measure and monitor activity at the magmatically robust Axial Seamount, on the Juan de Fuca MOR for example, providing insights into when it might next erupt. Such underwater observatories will only continue to advance our knowledge as we expand capabilities to observe, monitor, and sample seafloor environments and the overlying water column in real time with more sophisticated sensors and advanced underwater vehicles and robotic technologies.”
Reference:
Früh-Green, G.L., Kelley, D.S., Lilley, M.D. et al. Diversity of magmatism, hydrothermal processes and microbial interactions at mid-ocean ridges. Nat Rev Earth Environ (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00364-y
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Student Videos Give Inside Look at Research and Safety
Four students from Queens College were aboard the R/V Marcus G Langseth for a recent ten-day research expedition to the Axial Seamount, a submarine volcano in the northeast Pacific Ocean that erupted in 1998, 2011, and 2015. The students were assisting a National Science Foundation Research team that is deploying autonomous ocean-bottom seismometers on OOI’s Regional Cabled Array as part of a two-year experiment taking place within the predicted time window of the next eruption.
The NSF-funded project is led by William Wilcock from the University of Washington and co-led by Felix Waldhauser, Columbia Climate School’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who served as chief scientist on this expedition, Maya Tolstoy (UW), and Yen Joe Tan from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who also was onboard.
Queens college graduate student Jacqueline Singer was onboard to further work towards her master’s degree. She teamed up with undergraduates Rania Taib, Hema Muni, and Julia Sandke to create two videos – one explains their research, while the other provides an insider’s look at safety issues at sea. In the first video, the students give an in-depth look at how they deployed 15 autonomous ocean-bottom seismometers and how they work. In the second video, the students explain the importance of survival suit training, followed by a humorous look at the complex movements needed to successfully suit up in a “Gumby suit.”
Columbia University PhD candidate Theresa Sawi also provides a written account of the expedition here.
https://vimeo.com/user110037220/studentsataxialseamount
https://vimeo.com/user110037220/gumbysuitdemo
Read MoreInterview from Axial Seamount
In case you missed it, you can watch the video of Chief Scientist Michael Vardaro and student Andrew Paley being interviewed live aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson during the Regional Cabled Array for its eighth annual operations and maintenance cruise. The Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants program is designed to give students an opportunity to see scientists in action in the field, in the hope of piquing their interest in science and perhaps pursuit of scientific careers. (The piece is 45-minutes long so takes a moment to load. If you prefer, click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K–RlkjMjLo).
[embed]https://youtu.be/K–RlkjMjLo[/embed] Read More45 Days of Discovery: RCA’s 8th O&M Expedition
The Regional Cabled Array (RCA) team left port in Newport, Oregon on August 5 aboard the global class research ship the R/V Thomas G. Thompson for a 45-day expedition. This is the eighth operations and maintenance cruise to the array, a network of 900 kilometers of electro-optical cables that crosses a tectonic plate and powers sensors on the seafloor and in the water column, including instrumented profiling platforms on moorings.
The expedition is such a complex operation that it will be conducted in five legs, with the ship returning to Newport to offload recovered equipment and load new and refurbished equipment for a subsequent leg. A scientific and engineering team of 26 from the University of Washington will be joined by an engineering team of 8 that will operate the remotely operated vehicle ROPOS, owned by the Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility. These groups will be joined by 28 students from the University of Washington, participating in the at-sea-experiential learning program, VISIONS, which provides undergraduate students opportunities to conduct research at sea using advanced oceanographic research instruments.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Thompson-leaving-dock.-FZqU5VxUYAAWUie-scaled.jpeg" link="#"]The R/V Thompson as it left the dock in Newport and headed towards the OOI Slope Base site for the first dive of this 45-day expedition. Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/V22.[/media-caption]There will be a live feed video for the duration of the expedition. “During the cruise, website visitors will be able to directly observe parts of the seafloor rarely seen by humans, including the most active submarine volcano off our coast ‘Axial Seamount’ located ~300 miles offshore and nearly a mile beneath the oceans’ surface,” said Deb Kelley, principal investigator of the RCA. “ Visitors will be able to witness one of the most extreme environments on Earth – underwater 700°F hot springs teaming with life that thrive on volcanic gases and that live in the complete darkness of the deep sea. The team will also visit the Cascadia Margin, spending time at Southern Hydrate Ridge where methane ice deposits are sometimes exposed on the seafloor. This hummocky, sediment-rich environment hosts a large number of areas where methane gas seeps from the seafloor feeding dense microbial mats that also host large clams. ROPOS will also visit shallower sites that are some of the most biologically productive areas in the world’s ocean.”
The 45-day expedition required an immense logistics operation with ~20 trucks transporting >130,000 lbs. of gear to Newport. During the cruise, the ROV will deploy and recovery a diverse array of >200 instruments, several small seafloor substations that provide power and communications to instruments on the seafloor and on moorings that span depths of 2900 m (9500 ft) to 80 m (260 ft) beneath the oceans’ surface. In addition, several novel, externally funded instruments developed by scientists in the US and Germany will be installed.
Follow along as the journey unfolds: Live video feed. Student Blog. Expedition updates.
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Trina Litchendorf: A Wealth of Sea-going and Engineering Experience
Trina Litchendorf is a highly experienced member of the Regional Cabled Array (RCA) team with a wealth of sea-going and engineering experience. She’s been with the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at the University of Washington (UW) since 2001. She started there as an intern through a NASA sponsorship, and stayed on while getting a degree in chemical oceanography at the UW. After graduation, she remained at APL, where she has been involved in keeping ocean observing instrumentation operational ever since. She has been working specifically on RCA instruments since 2013. She was onboard for the first deployment of cabled array instrumentation in 2014, and has served as a key part of every annual expedition since.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Trina-1.png" link="#"]Trina Litchendorf in front of the ROVJason. Credit: University of Washington.[/media-caption]
Trina’s duties at APL and for the RCA vary by the season. During the spring and early summer, she is actively engaged in testing and building RCA components so that they are ready for the annual Operations and Maintenance cruise. These cruises usually take place in August when undergraduate students join RCA team members at sea as part of the VISIONS at-sea experiential learning program to recover and deploy the infrastructure and instruments that the cable powers.
Each instrument undergoes three rounds of testing. The first is in the winter after the recovered instruments have been refurbished. Each is put through a rigorous round of testing, with a 12-page document of things to check. These procedures cover everything from checking for ground faults to prevent instruments from shorting out in saltwater, to placing them in a large salt water tank to simulate deployment conditions to ensure they work under such conditions. The instruments are also put through a pressure test to simulate seafloor conditions, followed by full functionality testing.
The second and third tests happen directly before the annual cruise and prior to deployment. “The second test is an integration test in the lab. We attach the instruments on the platforms on which they will be deployed to make sure that we can communicate with them and operate them through the platform. Once this test is complete, we are ready for the third, which happens onboard the ship during the annual expedition.” Onboard, she conducts a final test, connecting to the platform again to make sure all the instruments are working before anything goes into the water. She also is ready with spare and replacement parts should anything go awry during this final test.
During the expedition, Trina also directs remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives, which serves as the eyes, ears, and hands of the underwater operation. She sits in the “hot seat” next to the ROV pilot where she directs activities on the seafloor and in the water column. The pilot manipulates the ROV to execute myriad complex operations she directs. Every platform is a little different so it is necessary to follow a prescribed dive plan to make sure every task is completed in the order in which it is supposed to happen. The complexity of these dives makes for some long days. “Typical dives run anywhere from 3-12 hours or more, and I usually end up pulling one or two 24-hour days while I’m at sea.”
“We have to get all of our gear on the seafloor plugged in and operational and last year’s gear up and off the seafloor,” Trina explained. “We have so much equipment that there’s not enough deck space for all of it, so we break the cruises up into multiple legs to load the next batch of equipment and offload the recovered gear. As a result, these cruises last anywhere from five to six or more weeks.” She’s currently getting ready to depart on VISIONS 22 in August, which because of its scope, is six weeks long and will be conducted in five legs.
Once recovered, another of her jobs is to photograph the platform and instruments’ condition, before helping with clean up, scraping of sea life that has colonized instruments and platforms, and removing a years-worth of additional biofouling.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/students_20190622_171924_working.jpg.jpg" link="#"]Chris Williams, an undergraduate student at UW, helps to clean off a bioacoustics sonar package heavily covered with barnacles and anemones. Credit: UW/VISIONS’19/NSF/OOI.[/media-caption]
In the fall, after the cruise is over, Trina’s responsibilities turn to refurbishment and readying the instruments their next deployment. This, too, is a big job. There are close to 150 instruments deployed on more than 30 different types of platforms. The platforms range from junction boxes on the seafloor that serve as power sources for many instruments to benthic experimental packages with their own suite of instruments to shallow and deep-water profilers that move instruments up and down through the water column to sample at various depths. Her task is to ensure that recovered instruments are cleaned, taken apart, and refurbished. Most of the instruments are sent off to vendors for refurbishment and recalibration. The ultimate objective is to ensure that all of the instruments are working and that high quality data are being streamed from the RCA for community use.
The winter, into spring is spent testing and putting the platforms and instruments back together again in preparation for the upcoming cruise as the cycle begins again.
Trina’s favorite part of her job is her time at sea, particularly the time she spends in the control van with the ROV team. There she also runs the science camera, which gives her an inside look into a world few others have the opportunity to see. “I’m seeing things that most people only get to see on the Discovery Channel or National Geographic. It really is a great privilege to be part of that.”
And, she sees the cabled array as a vision realized. “I remember Dr. John Delaney telling us (during one of her undergraduate oceanography classes) about this idea he had to put a large cable in the water to power multiple seafloor sensors to study the ocean and that the whole paradigm of how oceanographic research was conducted was going to change. He saw it as moving from the old model of going out to sea on research vessels for just a few weeks at a time to collect data, to having a 24/7 365–day presence on the seafloor and throughout the water column streaming data in real time to scientists all over the world. And here I am now, actually doing this work and helping this science happen. It’s amazing,” she concluded.
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Two Artists at Sea
Two artists were aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson during this summer’s OOI Regional Cabled Array VISIONS’21 cruise. Undergraduate student Genevieve Kent was leaving the Thompson for Leg 1 of the four-week cruise. Professional artist and lifelong learner, Catherine Gill, was was onboard for Legs 3 and 4 of the summer expedition, including an extra two days at sea while the Thompson was diverted for a rescue mission of two Ocean Exploration Trust remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).
While their physical paths didn’t cross aboard the ship, each spent their time similarly while onboard – serving as a member of the scientific party, taking regular shifts to ensure samples were collected and underwater footage from the ROV Jason was catalogued and archived. They also spent whatever free time they had capturing their experiences in creative endeavors.
Catherine Gill
Because of space limitations on the ship, Gill came equipped with only those supplies that would allow her to draw and paint in very limited space. As a plein air painter, Gill has painted everywhere from in a kayak to in the forest canopy, so she knew what kind of supplies she would need. She brought with her the basics – a standing tripod easel and a small palette. She also brought with her a very small kit that she could keep on her lap and create 5×7 paintings.
“It’s very busy on these legs, but whenever I could find an hour, maybe an hour and a half, I would find a spot on the ship. And I’d set up and do paintings of whatever was happening, putting the new profiler in or pulling up the old one, or capturing some of the very cool stuff on cameras being broadcast by the ROV Jason,” she said. “’I’m sitting there in the Jason control van and watching these scenes that are amazing. There’s different sea life coming from all over the place. The ROV lands on the bottom and you see chimneys and all of the amazing sea life that is down there. It was just incredible.”
Gill painted as things unfolded aboard the Thompson and took screen shots of Jason scenes so she would have a point of reference later on. Regional Cabled Array Principal Investigator Deb Kelley also provided Gill with Jason video that Gill took home to her studio to create bigger paintings of the sea life and Jason operations after she left the ship.
But Gill recounted that she was most at home aboard the ship, painting the experience in real time in “plein air.”
“Because I paint on location, not just from photographs, I know there’s a real difference when you paint from life than when you paint from a photograph. The marks you make are more convincing. If you feel the cold, if you’re aware of the silence, if the wind is blowing on you, you give your painting more than just what your eyes can see,” she explained. But I couldn’t get down to the seafloor to actually paint on location, so having access to video is the next best thing. Having high-definition video to paint from, I can get the feel of what that weird fish is doing, better understand the complexity of those tube worms and deep-sea critters all moving and doing their things, and watch that hydrothermal vent smoking and interacting with the seawater.”
Gill created 13 drawings and paintings while onboard. After her return, she has created another eight to 10 larger-scale paintings. More of her work can be seen on her website, Instagram, and Facebook (Catherine Gill).
Genevieve Kent
Kent, a third-year undergraduate student studying marine biology at the University of Washington, merged her passion for marine science with her artwork while aboard the Thompson. Her interest in marine science was sparked during a seminar class on hydrothermal deep sea vents taught by Kelley. Kent took advantage of the opportunity to participate in a shipboard experience that she learned about in this class to see if she really wanted to pursue a career in marine science.
Kent was accepted to participate in VISIONS’20, but student participation was postponed until 2021 due to COVID restrictions. So, she jumped at the opportunity to sail on the Thompson a year later as part of the VISIONS’21 student contingent.
Her favorite part of the experience was doing shifts in the control van, where her job was to log everything that was happening with Jason as it was used to recover and deploy equipment plugged into the Regional Cabled Array. “I really liked being able to be a part of what was happening. It reminded me a lot of when I was a stage manager for live theater, being in the hot seat and you have to know your role in everything. But it was also really amazing to watch the monitors in real time and see all that was happening there, live and being a part of it.”
Kent works in many mediums from water colors to acrylic paints, to markers, but for this project she chose water colors because they fit the theme of the ocean and can help evoke its many changing moods. While Kent is not a professionally trained artist, she is naturally talented. She used her time in the control van to sketch with colored pencils and capture images of marine life on the bottom that she painted when she returned to her in-home studio.
Once home from the cruise, Kent immediately sat down and started to capture her experiences in watercolors. She used her sketches and images as source material. She is spending as much time as possible on her artwork, as she resumed classes and labs as a full-time student. She has completed several paintings of marine life and has many others in varying stages of completion. Kent can be contacted here.
Plans are in the works to have both artists show their creations at an exhibit at the University of Washington later this spring. A sneak preview is provided below:
[gallery size="large" ids="28987,28988,28989,28990,28991,28992,28993,28994,28995,28996,28997,28998,28999,29000,29001"]
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37-day RCA Cruise Met All Objectives and More
This summers’ Regional Cabled Array (RCA) 37-day expedition was one of the most complex of the seven annual Operations and Maintenance cruises to date. Not only was the expedition impacted by COVID restrictions, but it also included four Legs, a full contingent of engineers, scientists, students, and the Jason team, as well as coordinated ship operations with the R/V Thompson, the IT Integrity cable support ship, and the Ocean Exploration Trust ship the E/V Nautilus. However, thanks to the hard work of the RCA staff, and amazing support from the R/V Thompson (Captain Dave Vander Hoek) and ROV Jason teams, (Expedition Leads Ben Tradd and Mario Fernandez) the expedition was highly successful with the completion of all scheduled tasks…and more.
The expedition was led by Chief Scientists Mike Vardaro (Leg 1) and Orest Kawka (Legs 2-4), and Co-Chief Scientists James Tilley (Legs 1-3), Wendi Ruef (Leg 1 – this was the first time Ruef has sailed as a Co-Chief Scientist), Mike Vardaro (Leg 2), and Katie Bigham (Leg 4). Katie will receive her Ph.D. in 2022 from the University of Wellington, NZ. This cruise provided her a strong early career foundation for becoming a future Chief Scientist. James Tilley was the lead engineer and Larry Nielson led shore support.
COVID safety protocols significantly increased cruise complexities, which included the verification of full COVID vaccination status for all ship and science party members, ensuring that all participants sheltered-in-place, and the arrangement of COVID tests spanning both Washington and Oregon testing sites. The RCA team is highly appreciative of the exceptional support that the UW Marine Operations group provided to ensure our safety, the dynamics of crew changes, and modification of dock-side logistics in response to IT Integrity and E/V Nautilus operations.
[media-caption path=”https://oceanobservatories.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PD01A_20210821_084428_recovery-scaled-1.jpeg” link=”#”]The Slope Base Deep Profiler Mooring comes aboard the R/V Thompson. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington, V21. [/media-caption]Highlights: During the four Legs, just over 200 RCA Core and PI instruments were recovered/deployed, the Platform Interface Assemblies and Science pods on all three Shallow Profiler Moorings were turned, Deep Profiler vehicles were turned at the Oregon Offshore and Axial Base sites, and the Deep Profiler mooring was turned at Slope Base. Of particular note, the southern cable line was repaired, resulting in the return of full operational status for Primary Nodes PN1C and PN1D, providing communications and data flow once again to/from the Oregon Offshore and Shelf sites.
Over the 37 days of staging, mobilization, and demobilization for the four Legs, twenty 48 ft trailers transported 394,000 pounds of RCA equipment to and from Seattle, WA and Newport, OR. Onboard staffing included twenty-one RCA scientists and engineers, 13 ROV Jason crew, 16 students, 1 postdoc, and an artist, as well as two research scientists. During the 30 at-sea days, including two to aid in the recovery of the Ocean Exploration Trust ROV Hercules and Argus vehicle from the Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, the R/V Thompson transited ~1775 miles, 49 Jason dives were completed traversing a total of~ 125,000 meters of the water column, seven CTD casts with water sampling were completed spanning maximum cast depths of 200 m to ~ 2900 m, and two EM302 bubble plume surveys were conducted over methane seep sites at Southern Hydrate Ridge and Pythias Oasis. Finally, a new, highly active methane seep area was discovered east of the novel Pythias Oasis vent site, which has been continuously venting since its discovery in 2014.
PN1B: During Legs 1 and 2, significant and dynamic coordination was required to ensure that the R/V Thompson and C/S Integrity operations (lead by APL Engineer Chuck McGuire) were tightly coupled and that shore cranes and trucks were in place for mobilization and demobilization of both the RCA cruise gear and that associated with the recovery-repair of Primary Node PN1B. Three dives (August 5: J2-1342, and August 10-11: J2- 1342, and J2-1354) were dedicated to disconnection of cables, preparation of PN1B for recovery, and recovery of a ½ frame deployed by the Integrity, which was utilized for installation of the recovery line. The R/V Thompson-ROV Jason operations went well. Although the replacement PN1B installation could not be completed, the cable Segments 2-3 were joined and then successfully installed on August 23 – reinstating power and communications to Primary Nodes PN1C and PN1D. Unfortunately, the Southern Hydrate Ridge site will remain offline until next year, when PN1B can be reinstalled. However, joining of the segments allowed 76% of the instruments to go live again that had been offline since August 2020, as well as the Shallow Profiler and Deep Profiler moorings and BEP at the Oregon Offshore site, and the BEP and other seafloor instruments at the Oregon Shelf site.
VISIONS’21: Once again, live streaming of video and updates on the cruise were provided on the interactiveoceans website as part of the UW- RCA VISIONS’21 engagement efforts and highlights were provided on Instagram and Twitter. The 16 undergraduates that participated on the cruise worked four-hour shifts in the ROV control van, they learned how to process and analyze CTD samples, and they helped with cleaning of recovered RCA equipment (a big hit). Their enthusiasm permeated the team and their hard work contributed significantly to the cruise. We were grateful to have a resident watercolor artist onboard who shared aspects of the cruise and seafloor and biological observations through her eyes. The students shared their experiences through blogs and for many it changed their lives – a few examples of their impressions:
I found this to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and [it] offered me a broader perspective of how much preparation and consideration goes into the planning and execution of the research projects being facilitated through the OOI VISION’s expedition. It opened my eyes to the full circle of science.
This has truly been one of the coolest experiences I’ve had …. after 4 quarters of zoom classes and online labs, I’ve been so happy to finally get a feel for oceanographic research out in the field and to work with the instruments I’ve been learning about for a year and a half.
As a kid, I watched documentaries about the deep sea and imagined myself descending into the depths with the camera, sometimes sitting in a cardboard box “submarine” that I made. Being here and getting to work in the Jason van feels like accomplishing some part of that dream, and I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to come on this trip. I’ve also come away with a better idea of how data are collected at sea, and in speaking with the scientists onboard I’ve gained a better understanding of how one goes about getting into the field.
Externally Funded Projects: The 2021 program was also another successful field season for turning, and installation, and recovery of instrumentation, and for science programs funded outside of OOI. This work included:
- The turning of NSF-funded CTDs at the ASHES hydrothermal field and at the Eastern Caldera sites, as well as installation of a new CTD at Central Caldera at the summit of Axial Seamount (W. Chadwick, Oregon State University – OCE 1928282 “Phase 2 of Enhancements to the OOI Cabled Array at Axial Seamount”). [1-day]
- The reinstallation of the University of Bremen-Germany-funded cabled overview multibeam sonar for imaging of all methane plumes at Southern Hydrate Ridge (G. Bohrmann and Y. Marcon -University of Bremen – Sonar monitoring of natural release of methane greenhouse gas from the seafloor – A contribution to the understanding of global change), the 4K camera, and turning of a CTD. [1-day]
- Installation of an NSF-funded new Pinnacle ADCP at the Central Caldera site to provide, for the first real-time, monitoring of currents throughout the entire ~1500 m water column (D. Manalang and D. Kelley, University of Washington – OCE 2129943 “RAPID: OOI-Industry Partnership to Install a Cabled 45 kHz ADCP at Axial Seamount Caldera”). This effort is in partnership with Teledyne Marine.
- Recovery of a NSF-funded self-calibrating pressure sensor at the geodetic-focused Central Caldera site (William Wilcock, University of Washington – OCE 1634103 – “A Rotating Tiltmeter for Marine Geodesy: Development and Testing at Axial Seamount on the Ocean Observatories Initiative Cabled Array”).
- A NSF-funded dive to complete site characterization, based on an ~ 1 m resolution bathymetry Sentry map, of the Pythias Oasis ridge. The dive focused on a “gully” that runs parallel to the ridge and s significant depression at the termination of the ridge (D. Kelley, University of Washington – OCE 1658201 “Collaborative Research: Pythia’s Oasis – Access to Deep Subduction Zone Fluids”). Pythias Oasis is venting fluids unlike any yet discovered in the world’s oceans. They are likely sourced at/near the plate boundary. Evidence of additional sites of seepage were discovered. [1-day]
- Three dives funded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (D. Kelley, University of Washington – M21AC00009-00 “Arctic Marine Mineral Exploration – Ramen Laser Spectroscopy Validation”) at the ASHES hydrothermal field in support of the NASA InVADER program. Major and gas-tight vent fluids and several sulfide samples were recovered, and a couple microbial incubation experiments were deployed [1-day].
Recovery of the ROV Hercules and Argus Vehicle: On August 26th, the Ocean Exploration Trust ROVs Hercules and Argus became detached from the tether on the E/V Nautilus working east of the Main Endeavour Field (MEF) on the Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge (2220 m). After a flurry of phone calls and Zoom meetings, the R/V Thompson, RCA, and OET (Expedition Lead Allison Fundis) teams came together for a community effort to recover the vehicles. The R/V Thompson transited ~ 10 hrs north to the MEF where there were two Jason dives to facilitate the September 2 successful recovery of the vehicles back onboard the E/V Nautilus. The effort required extension of the RCA cruise by two days, and it was a weary team that pulled back into Newport on September 3. Demobilization was complete on September 4th.
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