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One of the first things we did once we arrived at West Mata volcano was resurvey the seamount with R/V Falkor’s multibeam sonar system. We knew from previous repeated bathymetric surveys that West Mata has had frequent eruptions during the last decade, as we shared in our last blog. The last survey was in March 2016, so … Continued

West Mata is a Restless Volcano. West Mata Seamount is one of only two submarine volcanoes in the world where an active eruption has been directly observed on the seafloor. An expedition in November 2008 discovered evidence that West Mata was actively erupting while exploring the water column in the area for hydrothermal plumes – but the … Continued

Aloha everyone to day one of our cruise blog.

Today we pen our last blog and offload the R/V Falkor.

During the first of three student cruises, the team aboard RV Falkor answered questions about whales’ decision-making process about how and where whales feed in the deep sea,while providing invaluable at-sea experience for students.

Every great ship needs a Holodeck. Not for entertainment, but for science. Star Trek‘s fictional Holodeck can create matter virtually (in our case, it would be scientific data) which can be seen, touched and interacted with. Unfortunately, real technology is not as advanced as we know it from TV, so for now we skip the touch. But … Continued

When a new dive starts, a huddle of scientists and engineers watch the ROV be gently lowered into the water. Once in, cameras reveal a bright blue ocean, rapidly moving from sky to navy blue as the ROV dives down. We are diving deep here, far past the last trickles of light from the sun. … Continued

After my first science expedition last summer, it was clear I would pursue more opportunities to return to the open ocean. The adventure of exploring uncharted territory, the collaborative spirit of working side-by-side with scientists, the sense of community where every member has purpose and value in daily operations, the challenge of creating art on … Continued

Dr. Lam Nguyen-Ngoc leans over his microscope. He is soon joined by fellow marine planktonist Hai Doan-Nhu, and they both smile. The news spreads fast and soon most of the scientific team pays a visit to their workstation in R/V Falkor’s dry lab. No matter how many times they have to load the images again, they … Continued