Image Archive

Components of the core seafloor sensor packages associated with the OOI cabled observatory moorings

Components of the OOI cabled observatory deep water profilers

Components of the 200m platforms on the OOI cabled observatory moorings

Components of the OOI cabled observatory shallow water profilers

Deep water and shallow water profiling components of the OOI cabled observatory moorings

The R/V Thompson at sea

Secondary nodes will connect to the primary nodes and transfer power and bandwidth to sensor networks. They are scheduled for deployment in 2013 using an ROV. --Graphic credit: OOI RSN and Center for Environmental Visualization, University of Washington

The footprint of the OOI cabled observatory

OOI primary nodes 

Extension cables will connect the primary nodes to secondary nodes and then to myriad instruments and sensors. Over 22,000 m of extension cables were deployed with the remotely operated vehicle ROPOS during the VISIONS'13 expedition, July - August, 2013. 

Highly capable moorings such as those shown here use power and bandwidth from the cable to investigate water motion and a spectrum of other properties from the sea surface to the seafloor.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) just west of Washington and Oregon is of particular interest to experts assessing tsunami danger to the US and Canada. The CSZ stretches from Northern CA's Cape Mendocino to souther Bristish Columbia. 

The OOI cabled observatory will instrument Axial Seamount, the most magmatically robust volcano along the Juan de Fuca Ridge. It hosts active hydrothermal vent fields and abundant sites of diffust flow. The cabled observatory will be installed at the summit of the seamount to monitor the major volcanic and tectonic events that create the oceanic crust and that modulate heat, chemical, and biological fluxes through the seafloor. 

Hydrate Ridge is an important observatory site to define the temporal evolution of methane hydrate systems in response to seismic events, to determine material fluxes from the seafloor and impacts on overlying ocean chemistry, and to understand biogeochemical coupling associated with gas hydrate formation and disassociation. 

This screen shot is from the associated animation showing earthquakes from 1970-2010. Looking at frequency of large earthquakes, one wonders if they are increasing with time? Credit: University of Washington, Center for Environmental Visualization.

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Visions'11 Cruise Image

This incubator was deployed inside the walls of the black smoker chimney called Milli-Q in the Main Endeavour Field of the Endevour Segment.

Microbial colonization on the outside an incubator placed within the walls of the black smoker chimney called Roane in 2004.

Lithosphere to hydrosphere processes at Endeavour.

The Imax tower at Lost City rises three storys from the side of the active 6- m tall hydrothermal chimney called Poseidon.

Sully in 2004 was venting 356°C fluids. This vent, surrounding by beautiful tubeworms, is in the Endeavour Hydrothermal Field, north of Axial Seamount. Credit: University of Washington,

Secondary Node titanium pressure housing after machining.  Photo by Larry Nielson, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington.

Secondary Node titanium forgings ready for machining. Photo by Larry Nielson, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington.

Model of a Secondary Node. Drawn by Mike Welch, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington

Shown here is a temperature-resistivity probe attached to a data logger and left in place at a hydrothermal vent in Endeavour Field on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. This type of probe is now being adapted for installation on cabled ocean observatories.