Central Caldera Complete

July 27, 2014

Skip Denny's dragon brought good luck on a ROCLS cable installation during VISIONS'14. Photo Credit: Debbie Kelley, University of Washington; V14.

ROCLS with 4.7 km of extension cable, which was laid on Axial, from Primary Node PN3B to the Central Caldera. Photo credit: Christina Ramirez, University of Washington, V14.

The ROCLS cable drum with >8000 ft of electro-optical cable is lowered on the R/V Thompsons trawl wire for deployment near PN3B. ROPOS will launch shortly, and acquire the drum with a sonar at ~ 600 ft beneath the surface. Near bottom, an acoustic release will free the drum to rest gently on the seafloor so that ROPOS can latch into it and begin the cable installation at Axial Summit. Photo credit: Mitch Elend, University of Washington, V14.

The ROCLS cable drum a few meters above the seafloor as it is being lowered by the R/V Thompson's trawl wire. The drum contains >15,000 feet of extension cable. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; Dive 1727; V14.

Keith Shepherd, ROPOS Operations Manager, and ROPOS Pilot Kim Wallace, guide the R/V Thompson into position to deploy the ROCLS drum onto the seafloor at 5000 ft water depth to begin installation of the 4.6 km extension cable. ROPOS later will latch into the ROCLS drum and begin the cable lay. Photo credit: Mitch Elend, University of Washington, V14.

Giora Proskurowski, a Project Scientist with the UW RSN Team, prepares a Remote Access Fluid Sampler (front) and microbial DNA sampler for installation in a diffuse flow site at the vent called 'El Gordo' in the International District hydrothermal field. The instrument is designed by Dr. David Butterfiled and NOAA-PMEL and the UW. Image Credit: Mitch Elend, University of Washington; V14.

Central Caldera Complete!!

It has been a marvelous, exciting, and intense past 24 hours with the successful installation of ~15,300 ft of extension cable that will connect Primary Node 3B with the Central Caldera geophysical Site. Giora Proskurowski and Skip Denny, working with the ROPOS Team, were instrumental in this complex installation over rough topography. The installation was completed this morning, and with many smiles and sighs of relief, congratulations were expressed to all who helped with this task – especially the ROPOS Team.

Their work was not yet complete, however, — they spent the next few hours connecting the junction box (MJ03F), and installing the broadband seismometer, low frequency hydrophone, and the bottom pressure-tilt instrument. This was a great area to install such an array because, here, the seafloor is a massive, flat lava flow…making installations a bit easier.

This marks the last cable run at the summit of Axial Seamount, which is a major achievement for the OOI-NSF state-of-the-art submarine volcano observatory. With completion of cable installation, the ROV is now being switched to its "naked" configuration i.e. removal of the entire ROCLS system from the underbelly of the vehicle. ROPOS will still host it's special and important latching system, however, as we have a junction box to install on Leg 1, as well as a mass spectrometer, both of which will latch underneath the vehicle for safe transport to the seafloor.

It has been beautiful weather today – sunny skies, blue seas and fair winds to see us through the installation. Tonight work continues on deck to ready the Remote Access Fluid Sampler (RAS) and microbial DNA sampler (PPS) for deployment over the side of the ship on a cable into the International District Hydrothermal Field. Tonight ROPOS will dive into the International District Hydrothermal Field (Dive R1728) and install a digital still camera, the RAS-PPS, and a hydrothermal fluid chemical sensor.

Students are working feverishly on completion of their projects, which range from docuementing life in the deep ocean, cabled observatory instrumentation and science that the sensors address, the societal and scientific importance of the OOI-NSF cabled observatory, and developing exploration tools for high school and undergraduate students using the Graphical Information System (GIS) to examine the distribution of microbial and animal communities at vents and methane seeps.

Finally, Christina Ramirez completed a wonderful video about instruments exploring the deep sea — we hope that this makes you smile.