Our First Look at Primary Node 3B

July 10, 2013

Primary Node 3A is installed at the base of Axial Volcano and connected to the backbone cable, which is connected to a terrestrial shore station in Pacific City, Oregon. This node provides 10,000 volts of power and 10 Gbs bandwidht for real-time communication. The node is located >300 miles off the coast. Photo Credit: Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF

A medium power Junction Box (MJ01A), was deployed on July 10 near Primary Node 1A at the Slope Base. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF

ROPOS goes into the water in the early morning of July 10, prior to descending 2600 m (~7800 ft) to the seafloor. Directly latched below the vehicle is the medium-powered junction box, MJ01A. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF

In the wee hours of the morning (July 10), we got our first look at Primary Node 3B since its installation by L3 MariPro in the summer of 2012. On deck, ROPOS latched into the secondary junction box, MJ01A, and under calm seas the ROV descended with it, safely latched to its underbelly to a depth of 2609 m beneath the oceans surface. The J-Box, was deployed on the seafloor 50 meters away from the Primary Node and then ROPOS flew over to the Primary Node to get our first glimpse. This Primary Node, is located at the base of Axial Volcano and will support two instrumented water column moorings next year that rise ~2600 m into the overlying ocean, as well as geophysical sensors to provide real-time detection of earthquakes far field, as well as more local earthquakes associated with migration of melt deep within the volcano. On the follow-on dive (Dive 1599), ROPOS will deploy ~ 600 m of cable from PN3A to the site where a secondary node, geophysical sensors, and the moorings will be deployed next year.