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Science at sea is, above all else, a team effort. Scientific activities performed on Falkor require the ship’s crew and science party to work hand-in-glove; from ROV dives to CTD casts to work boat operations, every task is carefully choreographed to ensure objectives are met effectively, efficiently, and safely. And like a good dance routine, … Continued
Today we are on station at the eastern corner of South Scott lagoon examining the connection between the lagoon and the open ocean. By taking continuous oceanographic samples at the one site we can estimate the net pumping, driven by the tide, of open ocean water into the lagoon. At South Scott Reef lagoon there are … Continued
Today, 25 April 2015, marked the 100th anniversary of the historical event whereupon the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed on the beaches of Gallipoli, Turkey. Falkor’s crew and visiting science party took time in the morning to commemorate the selfless heroism of the troops that sacrificed their lives so that, not only … Continued
To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld “There are known knowns… there are known unknowns… and there are unknown unknowns”. Today we went searching for unknown unknowns — that is “bumps” in old admiralty charts of the seafloor that indicated seamounts or shoals on the shelf break north of Scott Reef. Little was known of these features before … Continued
Today Falkor visited Vulcan Shoal, the second of four submerged or ‘hidden’ reefs that will be surveyed during the cruise. This oval shaped shoal 7km in length and 3km wide, rises steeply from depths of around 180 meters and has a relatively flat plateau at the top around 24 meters. At Vulcan Shoal, the research … Continued
The Sahul Shelf is a very large extension of the northwest Australian continental shelf reaching north and northwest then deepening steeply into the Timor Trough. At the western margin of this region lies Ashmore Reef, Scott Reef, and the Rowley Shoals, which represent fantastic coral reefs of classic nature with steep rocky drop offs covered … Continued
The goal of today’s field project was to deploy instruments that will help us understand and predict the temperature of the water in coral reef habitats. This project is motivated by the connection between elevated sea temperatures and coral bleaching. Corals are sensitive to high temperatures, and will expel symbiotic algae if water temperatures are … Continued
I started my PhD this year at University of Western Australia (UWA), working with Ryan Lowe who is also currently on Falkor. I am collecting data to investigate the nutrient dynamics and productivity of Scott Reef, and how this relates to the physical oceanographic processes over the system. Modelling has shown that open ocean water … Continued
“All models are wrong. Some models are useful” – George E.P. Box, Mathematician Predicting the ocean physical environment – the tides, currents, water temperature, etc., requires a mathematical model capable of capturing the important physical processes. Luckily for us, Isaac Newton discovered many moons ago that force equals mass times acceleration that in turn led to … Continued
During this Falkor Cruise, in addition to Scott Reef, we will be exploring other deeper coral reefs in remote areas of the Timor Sea. The extent of these deeper reefs, also known as shoals, form a very significant network of coral reef habitat between Indonesia and Australia. We have only recently started to document the … Continued
