September 7, 2024
As our final day aboard R/V Atlantis comes around, it’s seems appropriate to express my appreciation for many of the regular encounters I’ve had and the people I’ve interacted with in the past 2 weeks. I am a person who often does not engage in conversation unless prompted to. This is not the result of a dislike of conversation, it’s just not something that comes as naturally to me as it does to others. It is exceptional to me to feel as immediately at home and comfortable in a place as I have aboard the R/V Atlantis.
To the regular movie watchers, sports fans, and tv bingers in the lounge- I appreciated your company immensely. This was probably the first place I had any real interactions with the crew, while I was sea sick and suffering a migraine in transit. That interaction set a positive tone for the rest of the cruise and the lounge remained the room I felt most welcome in.
Thank you to the people who kept us all fed and greeted us by name each day. Possibly the hardest thing to accomplish these last two weeks was not blogging about how good the food is.
I don’t know how you all stay so friendly and on top of things, but It’s endlessly impressive. As Douglas Adams wrote in his six-book trilogy Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- so long and thanks for all the fish. (P.S. after you get that book club going, Hitchhiker’s Guide could be a serious contender for the next book. I love it.)
Thank you to the researchers, engineers, and SSSGs (I hope this is the right number of S’s) for always either:
a.) having an answer to every question or
b.) knowing someone who knows someone with an answer.
I never felt stupid for having asked a question, and each of you is a treasure trove of advice and stories. I am very grateful for the lab and research techniques I’ve learned while here, as well as the anecdotes learned while chatting over bagels and bagged chips at 2 am. It’s amazing how a task such as guiding the CTDs onto the deck can go from intimidating to breezy just based on who’s instructing.
To everyone working in the Jason control van I appreciate that going to watch never felt like a chore, even on the 12 pm to 4 am watch. The environment you’ve created in that room is so friendly and relaxed, I often felt like I was sitting down to banter with buddies despite only knowing you for a couple of weeks.
To the other students and student mentors, you’re all such exceptional people. It makes me a bit sad that I’m not properly enrolled in the class attached to this cruise, and therefore likely won’t see many of you again. I hope all of your projects and various dreams and degree pursuits go smoothly. I’m sure you’ll all be successful in anything you do.
I’m not even gone yet and I’m already wishing I could come back.
September 4, 2024
The biology surrounding the vents is spectacular, nearly every marine phylum is present in some capacity. From echinoderms to cnidarians to annelids, just about the only typical marine resident not obviously present are photosynthetic algae- an absence that makes a lot of sense when considering the lack of sunlight at depths of over 1500 m.
Certain organisms such as the sulfur-utilizing worms and mat forming bacteria occur in huge abundance and seem to thrive anywhere vent flow can be found. Others such as brittle stars and seaspiders are commonly present, but hard to detect under the thickets of tubeworms. Some organisms such as the rattail fish and spider crabs can be found at many of the vents, but generally in small quantities.
Something that fascinates me in particular about the ecology of these vents is trying to understand what eats what. One encounter early on that stood out to me was watching brittle stars flee from an approaching anemone. The anemone appeared to be actively hunting them. I wonder how either organism can detect the other.
Many of the organisms we saw down there are likely grazers, scraping bacteria off the rocky surfaces by whichever means available to them. Many more are filter feeding, such as the aforementioned tube worms.
On another dive, we came across a sheet flow littered with little white clams. I am fascinated by these clams. They were neither buried nor tucked away, instead they sat in the open and filtered water through very small siphons encompassed by a pale red mantle that barely, if at all, protruded past the lip of the shell. Littered among them were empty clamshells, likely belonging to the same species. What is eating the clams? Are the little snails living atop them boring holes through their shells? It certainly happens elsewhere, but I didn’t see any holes. Were they dying of infections or starvation, then being scavenged as they decomposed? Perhaps by the nearby crabs? Were they being eaten by seastars, the bane of bivalves everywhere? If so, why are there so many sitting in an open area, easy prey, and where were all the seastars?
Nearby sat a large sculpin, absently eyeballing Jason. I’m making no accusations as to the death of the clams, but it looked awfully guilty amongst the empty shells.
September 1, 2024
The seafloor surrounding the vents of Axial Seamount is surprisingly widely varied in structure. Formed and reformed by lava, many of its features are the results of the interaction of hot lava flow meeting cold ocean water, gas release, and the flow rate/viscosity of the lava. The varied topographies created by this lava flow are referred to as sheet, pillow, and lobate. Each of these containing the story of a moment preserved when the lava flow ceased forward motion and cooled.
I am not a geologist but, for the sake of anyone wondering what these terms depict, here is my understanding:
Sheet flows are the result of the fastest flows like a river. Flat, relatively smooth, and often quite wide, this flow results in a topology similar to what someone might like for a table or other practical work surface. Sheets tend to be streaked with small lines indicating the direction of the top-most layer of flow. At Axial Seamount the sheet flows are sometimes covered in large white bacterial mats, giving them the appearance of a snow-covered highway.
Pillow lavas resemble large packing peanuts made of rock. There can be many of these formations across an area. The outer-most layer of a pillow flow has a texture that appears like the crust of an oven-baked loaf of bread. These pillows are often built upon other pillows and generally are the result of the lowest rate of flow of the three. Deb described the process as resembling toothpaste being pushed from a tube.
Lobate structures are an intermediate between sheet and pillow. Often, they are larger than pillows but smaller than sheet. The formation of these structures is the result of an intermediate flow speed as well. Lobate flows are low relief mound-shaped, not as regular and flat as sheet flow, but also not as contorted and bulbous as pillow flow. The outermost layer is often textured similarly to sheet flows with the exception of added folds and dimples.
All of these flows can be meters thick or more. Often, they are not the first flows formed in an area, meaning they are built upon other similar structures.
Many of the structures are mostly or partially hollow and thus subject to collapse, opening up holes that range in scale from pore sized to big enough to drive Jason through. At the bottom of a collapse will be chunks of rubble known as talus. There are also many geologic features not fully described by these examples of flow, such as the many columns that are littered about. As a result of the many possible variables, no two spaces in the caldera are exactly alike.
August 29, 2024
Catalogue of Impractical Ideas-
Most of these ideas are new concepts for me, the processes involved are a work in progress. I think there is value in sharing the brainstorming process. Please bear with me.
Sediment:
Describe the distribution of particle sizes in deep ocean sediment samples as a percentage of a sampled mass.
How – Sift sediment at increasingly small mesh size increments, weigh each against the total mass of the sediment.
Why – Background data, may be useful when applied to sediment deposition, profiling benthic organisms.
* No sediment cores to sort. No sieves.
Describe the percent of a sample of sediment that is of organic origin.
How – WIP
Why – Determining the ratio of biogenic to lithogenic particles in a sediment provides hints about the background of that sediment and can be helpful in establishing cause and effect relationships regarding sediment transport and the ecology of an area.
Sediment transport and deposition is responsible for the formation of many geographic features and the composition of that sediment can have a major role in determining the organisms that can inhabit it.
* This appears to be very hard to accomplish. I’ve been told there are ways to do this for carbon, that are complicated on their own. That leaves other elements with significant organic presence (silica and calcium primarily) unaccounted for. This is still a project I would like to pursue, but this is probably not the time or the place to do so.
Microbe:
Plankton image catalogue–
How – Painstakingly peruse plankton under microscope. Photograph.
Why – It is important but tedious work to account for the species present in an area. A photo catalogue seems like a practical way to document the species present without necessarily being able to identify all of them- something that becomes increasingly hard as the size of an organism decreases.
* Not possible on the ship due to not having access to a microscope. Probably not possible to collect and fix samples for future use due to likely needing formaldehyde to fix the samples. The lab at my community college wants to avoid storing or using formaldehyde where possible. If I could preserve the samples without formaldehyde this might be doable.
Watches 2 through 4:
The room is dark while Jason is diving to preserve the crew’s vision. The tasks being performed at the various stations all occupy a good chunk of the operator’s attention and can become tedious and frustrating, especially when sleep deprivation sets in. Despite this, the vibe of the room remains friendly, no one taking their frustrations out on anyone else. Everyone acts methodically and with a level of coordination. There is often music playing that ranges in tone from your dad’s favorite 60s band to Brat summer. Sometimes, on long descents and ascents especially, the video of the ocean displayed on the monitors takes on a sort of window media player audio visualizer aesthetic. People are often joking, and a 4-hour watch passes quickly.
Being in the Jason control van is a lot like how I’d imagine it feels to be to be in the control room of the various extraterrestrial rovers. NASA has the bigger budget sure, and the distance might be a little greater, but the intensity of the environment is comparable and the number of people who can say they’ve participated in either is low. It never stops feeling like an experience to be proud of.
August 27, 2024
Our first full day aboard the RV Atlantis began with dressing ourselves in lobster suits. At around 8:45 am. We – members of the science team, rallied in the Main Lab for a fire drill and to review safety training. There was a brief rundown of safety procedures detailing fire and man overboard responses, then we sorted ourselves by bunk and proceeded outside. Outside, a headcount was performed, and the procedure for abandoning ship was described. The typical attire for abandoning ship is an immersion suit, a suit designed to protect its wearer from the elements first, and to look like a lobster second.
We- the students of Leg 3, struggled our way into the big red sleeping bags that are our immersion suits. Strapping our ankles into the hospital sock textured booties and our wrists into the gloved lobster claws. The lobster suit is designed to keep water out, and it is designed to keep your head above water, and it is designed to keep water out of your head which is ideally above water. To accomplish this feat, the lobster suit is made of an insulating waterproof fabric, the likes of which catches exposed hair and skin at any opportunity.
The lobster suit also zips from waist to temple and features a strap directly across the nose, to guard against spray. I do not love being in the lobster suit. It is claustrophobic and becomes sticky with sweat immediately. However, I am very glad that it exists.
Watch 1: 12:00pm – 4:00pm
The first watch in the Jason control room was exciting and stressful, but not overly complicated once I got past the initial load of information. The main important tasks to log can be fairly far apart and in the time between it’s somewhat up to the logger’s discretion what to log. At first I thought I might log all of the biology I saw, I was under the impression there only would be occasional glimpses of life. What I saw instead was a near endless stream of living things from start to finish. From barely discernible plankton and small swimming crustaceans near the surface, to the screensaver-like barrage of shimmering ctenophores at nearly every depth after. My favorite of this watch was a squid, who hung around just long enough for us to get a fairly good look at them before waving goodbye.