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Check out the second video from one of our Student Opportunities participants, Jennifer Killinger. She takes a look at how Mixing Up the Tropical Pacific scientists on board Falkor are collecting oceanographic data with the CTD using Yo-Yo and Tow-Yo techniques.

How even ideal conditions at sea can be a challenge for a research vessel. The R/V Falkor is currently stationed at 1° North and 170° West, heading North, conducting a 10-day time-series, looking at small scale mixing throughout the Equatorial Pacific. Jennifer and I have been onboard for long enough to realize that conducting science … Continued

Dr. Mak Saito, chief scientist of the Life Without Oxygen expedition, opens the daily morning meeting with good news: “The water has been really interesting and we’re ahead of schedule. I’d like to add one more CTD cast station.” With everyone’s attention, he elaborates, “The O2 in the water is lower than we expected. We … Continued

After a first week of dodging a typhoon, hanging on during rough seas, and ironing out minor equipment problems, we are now reaching our stride and have made our first hydrothermal discovery in the Mariana Back-Arc. After leaving Guam, we have been proceeding roughly from south to north. To organize our search, we have divided … Continued

Scattered along the barren ocean floor lie uncounted hydrothermal vent sites—oases of hot, chemical-rich, life-nurturing fluids. These oases are a submarine version of Yellowstone National Park. Cold seawater in deep cracks is heated by cooling magma, becomes buoyant, and rises to the seafloor. Instead of forming a warm pond, as at Yellowstone, the hot fluid … Continued

So, we are at the halfway point of the trip already! As mentioned in my previous blog, we are off the coast of Exmouth (Western Australia) on a voyage aiming to document the biodiversity of the Ningaloo Canyons (Cape Range and Cloates). These submarine canyons are unexplored ecosystems, therefore this expedition has the potential to … Continued

Today’s work was a study in classic oceanography that took the team to the source of the lower-oxygen water that is the focus of the expedition—and it all came with some beautiful views. There are more and more whale sightings, and albatross are constantly skimming the surface of the waves, which remain reasonably calm. During … Continued

The science team continues to pore over the fire hose of data they’ve collected from CTD casts and the Moving Vessel Profiler (MVP). As they’ve begun to delineate places where upwelled deeper water seems to make it onto the continental shelf, they’ve had to constantly readjust plans in hopes of mapping out the most critical areas. In … Continued

Just before 7am, as the rest of the science team is still waking up, I dash around the wet lab, organizing bottles. I finish setting up some incubations right as the CTD rosette brings the next round of deep seawater onboard. I am tired after working through the night, but looking out at the morning … Continued

The term Saildrone brings to mind images from opposing ends of the human timescale: sailing – one of the oldest modes of travel – and drones – arguably the most rapidly evolving industry in modern transit. In a nutshell, this juxtaposition is the exact function and purpose of a Saildrone—combining the efficiency and sustainability of … Continued