Search Results for CTD
The time has finally come to start our exploration of Perth Canyon and so we left dock early this morning to get a first glimpse of what lies ahead. However, as mentioned in a previous post, not everything always goes according to plan – and in our case we are still missing one part for … Continued
Well, not just passing, but collaborating in a very unique way.
As you may have noticed, there is a lot of high-tech experimental equipment and instruments on an oceanographic research cruise.
Marine Technician Jimbo (Paul Duncan) has spent all night, every night, for 24 nights keeping the Falkor’s multibeam sonar operational and recording data. The sonar sends “pings” of sound to the sea floor. The pings bounce back. The length of time between sending and receiving can be converted to depth. Each pulse sends over 400 … Continued
With the discovery of big plumes and active venting on the seafloor during CTD tow-yo 6 we really hit the jackpot out here on the Mariana back-arc. This led to further investigation of the site with the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Sentry. The result was a beautiful high-resolution bathymetry map [FK151121_sentry_bathy.jpg] and an even more-detailed photographic … Continued
Like a bloodhound on the scent, the recent discovery of our first new vent site energized our exploration efforts. Our next target site was on Map 5, which shows two shallow “saddles” separated by deep basins. These high points correspond to places along the Mariana Back-arc where an enhanced supply of molten magma over hundreds of … Continued
Lots to tell you about today. We started off with a CTD coming on deck from the furthest north point we have been to (and also about as unpromising as can be) since we started our latest search. Then, because Casey and the Nereus team needed to do some engineering work on the back deck … Continued
This morning at 0800, Falkor arrived at the entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait on her way offshore. There was a little fog, but everyone was pleased to find relatively calm seas in the 2-meter range. The acoustic Doppler current profiler ran all night during the steam from the Straight of Georgia, through Haro Strait, … Continued
Take a breath, now take another… for one of those breaths you have a phytoplankton to thank. About half of the world’s oxygen comes from the photosynthesis of oceanic microscopic plants, called phytoplankton. These plants grow so fast that if there wasn’t some control on their population, they would turn the oceans into a green … Continued
Once the LRAUVs Opah and Aku rendezvoused with the Falkor in the center of the eddy, it was time to switch them from survey mode to tracking and sampling mode. Our target eddy feature, the Deep Chlorophyll Max (DCM, discussed here), is indicated as a bright red/orange color in the data visualizations of Opah’s sensor … Continued
