Cruise: The Secret Lives of Whales
On the first of three student cruises, the team aboard Falkor answered questions about whales’ decision-making process about how and where whales feed in the deep sea.
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Cruise: The Iron Eaters of Loihi Seamount
AUV Sentry will be used at Hawaii’s underwater volcano, Loihi Seamount, whose base remains largely unexplored. The team will survey and sample the seamount to better understand the dispersion of hydrothermal fluids from Loihi to the Pacific Ocean.
Log Post: The Small Things that Count
And just like that, three weeks has come to an end. As the science team starts to pack up their equipment and explore the data collected, they get their first taste of the water profiles for this region. It seems like just yesterday we were leaving Majuro, Marshall Islands, to begin an 11-day time-series at the equator, but the time has gone by in the blink of an eye.
Cruise: Visualizing the Deep off Uruguay
The Rio de la Plata drains into the Atlantic Ocean, delivering sediment-rich contents from the Paraná and Uruguay Rivers, each fed by myriad streams and tributaries. The mixing of fresh water with the nutrient-rich seawater upwelled along the continental shelf fosters remarkable biodiversity. Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems, or VMEs, are critical yet fragile habitats that support a diverse array of species, and human activities pose a significant threat to these ecosystems. Currently, there is only one reported VME in Uruguay. It is home to cold-water coral reefs formed by Desmophyllum pertusum, a slow-growing coral that grows throughout the Atlantic Ocean; experts suspect this ecologically important animal is threatened and in decline. Scientists believe there are more vulnerable ecosystems, but have not had access to the technology needed to describe deep-water areas in Uruguayan waters.
Log Post: Data Storytelling
In September of 2024, Artist-at-Sea Jill Pelto joined the Fire & Ice: Volcanic & Glacial Interaction expedition led by Dr. Sebastian Watt, University of Birmingham, UK. Pelto is an artist and science communicator based in Washington. She was intrigued by the opportunity to study the underwater effects of a 2008 volcanic eruption that dramatically transformed the landscape and lives of the people of Chaitén, Chile.
Log Post: Mission Possible: Supercomputing at Sea
The 25-day Reef Connections expedition in the Timor Sea has just completed. Its successful conclusion marks the third cruise this year to use Falkor’s high performance supercomputer. In January, Schmidt Ocean Institute installed a cluster of interconnected high-performance computers on board Falkor, making her the first research vessel with a supercomputing system available to scientists … Continued
Person: Claudia Morales
Claudia Morales Garrido is a master’s student in Oceanography at the University of Valparaíso and the Catholic University of Valparaíso, supervised by Dr. Manuel Castillo. At the same time, she is part of the Laboratory of Physical and Satellite Oceanography (LOFISAT) at the University of Valparaíso as a data analysis technician for oceanographic and satellite … Continued
Cruise: High Seas and Seamounts of the Nazca Ridge
8 July - 9 August 2024 #NazcaHighSeas Lush forests of deep-sea corals and sponges host animals and organisms that defy imagination. Many endangered or threatened species like sea turtles, blue whales, and sharks travel here to feed on the abundant nutrients upwelling from the deep. The 8000-meter-deep Atacama Trench, the Southeast Pacific Oxygen Minimum Zone, … Continued
Cruise: Microbes in Oxygen Minimum Zones
Expedition dates: April 12 - May 15, 2024 Oxygen Minimum Zones, or OMZs, are areas in the water column with less oxygen, primarily due to naturally occurring physical and biological processes within the Ocean. The core of the OMZs is anoxic, making them inhospitable to most large animals, yet microbes have adapted to live and … Continued
Cruise: Unexplored Seamounts of the Salas y Gómez Ridge
Expedition dates: Feb. 24 - Apr. 4, 2024 The Salas y Gómez Ridge extends off the coast of Chile to Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, in the Central Pacific. Created by volcanism, these underwater mountains provide essential habitats for deep-sea organisms, supporting some of the highest marine endemism globally. Many of the species … Continued
