Entry 4

Yesterday was quite a full day. At 3, I did oxygen titrations with Orest Kawka from the CTD cast until dinner at 5. After dinner, I watched the dive as they discovered a huge methane seep in on the sea floor about 770 meters down. Then I did some work with Giora Prokurowski using the gas chromatograph, setting standards for the samples we ran later that night. When ROPOS finished the dive, we gathered the samples from the Niskin bottles they had on the ROV. I also gathered samples for the microbiology portion of my project from the ROPOS dive. Another CTD cast was done after the ROPOS dive. We collected more samples for the gas chromatograph from the CTD cast, and I collected more samples for my microbiology portion. After that, Giora and I ran the samples through the gas chromatograph, and then I preserved my microbiology samples with formaldehyde. I finished all that around 12:30 in the morning. I got up at 7 for breakfast, and later I will be helping Mitch Elend work with a ROPOS dive based on mosaicing. A great part of this cruise has been the food. The food on board is really incredible, and there is so much of it for every meal that I can eat as much as I want. Another really cool aspect of the cruises are the sunsets and sunrises. Since it has been almost completely clear these past few days, the sunsets and rises are phenomenal.