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About 65 million years ago, an asteroid or comet crashed into a shallow sea near what is now the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. The resulting firestorm and global dust cloud caused the extinction of many land plants and large animals, including most of the dinosaurs. Today at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San … Continued
In recent years there has been growing attention paid to the accumulation of plastic waste in the ocean, but the focus has been on relatively large chunks of plastic. But very little research has yet focused on the concentrations of miniscule, eroded bits of plastic that are invisible to human eyes yet could pose significant … Continued
On November 1-2, 2013, at the Royal Hawaiian Resort in Honolulu, Schmidt Ocean Institute will hold its first research symposium. The theme will be: “Accelerating the Pace of Ocean Science Through Technological Advancement and Open Sharing of Information.” The symposium will bring together our collaborators, advisers, and thought leaders from the United States and abroad … Continued
Today is our last day at sea. We are steaming along, and will arrive in Victoria, British Columbia by tomorrow morning. This has been a very challenging, but certainly rewarding trip. Our team managed to accomplish quite a bit, which is surprising given that we were weathered out for almost 7 of our 10 days … Continued
Today was going to be the day. I could feel it in my bones and my stomach. In the past 12 hours, I had not been thrown out of my bed while trying to sleep, and I hadn’t needed a death grip on the safety bar to take a shower. Come Wednesday evening, the forecast … Continued
Typically on a research cruise as the weather permits, the sub goes down, the samples come up, they get processed, and the samplers get turned around. Then the whole process is repeated: down, up, process, prepare, all times 10 or more. If you’re lucky, you sleep a little. It can be exhilarating, but it’s also … Continued
The weather is finally calming down, so it looks like we may be able to wait it out and get ROPOS back in the water. In the meantime, enjoy this guest post from Lisa Zeigler Allen, our virologist. Exploring Subseafloor Viruses Viruses are the most abundant and ubiquitous biological entity on our planet, and they … Continued
Weather, weather, weather. It has been a major topic of discussion throughout this cruise. We had weather that prevented us from coming out here as early as planned, and then major weather that pretty much blew us out of the water. So where does this weather come from? This time of year in the Northeast … Continued
Mother Nature never ceases to amaze me, whether by her amazing underwater volcanoes beneath the surface or her ability to whip up a gale at the surface in mere minutes. We’ve had some experiences with both in the last 24 hours, and the situation promises to get even more interesting. Last night we squeezed in … Continued
Today was quite a day, and I’m still in the midst of it, so this might be short. When last I wrote we had just completed our first successful dive at Marker 113, collecting samples for viruses, microbiology, and chemistry. By midnight, due to hard work by both the ROPOS crew and our science team, … Continued
