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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

After 26 days at sea, the T-Beam crew has sailed back into port along the Derwent River, and tied up on land. We never expected this work to be easy – battling with the constant barrage of storms headed directly from the southern ocean – the Tasman Sea did not disappoint.

Every day, the ocean’s tides create massive underwater waves known as internal tides that radiate around the globe with major impacts on the ocean’s heat budget and climate.

Like a domino effect, several things happen to seawater when it comes in contact with a volcano. When a volcano is not erupting and there is hydrothermal activity, hot water with very different chemistry from seawater rises up, just like steam would over a boiling pot. It spreads out and begins to create particles, or … Continued

What does Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting, the whirlpool galaxy, and billowy cloud traces all have in common? The answer is visual representations of fluid motion, something which is very difficult to see in water. However, over the next few weeks the scientists on board Falkor will try to do this exact thing, understand small … Continued

Today I present another look at my art process aboard the Falkor. This unique residency presented a fantastic opportunity to focus and also brought unexpected challenges. Overall it has been an excellent learning experience. From macrobiology to microbiology and chemistry Before this voyage, most my collaborations with marine scientists have been with biologists studying relatively … Continued

The science party and crew aboard R/V Falkor arrived at the first of sixteen stations on the expedition. The team deployed their first CTD rosette to look at oxygen levels in the ocean. Scientists and marine technicians gathered around the visual matrix to try and guess the amount of dissolved oxygen to be found. Everybody … Continued

During the Hydrothermal Hunt, we have been searching for new hydrothermal vents in a vast unexplored stretch of the Mariana Back-arc, a zone where we know submarine volcanism occurs (at least occasionally), providing the heat for seafloor hot springs and their weird-and-wonderful chemosynthetic ecosystems. A few days ago, we had only 2 segments still to go … Continued