Image Archive

During our nightly meeting in the ship's library Photo by Montgomery Taylor

Sketch of “Castle” Hydrothermal Vent (International District, Axial Seamount) Sketch and photo by Montgomery Taylor

Leaving Newport on Leg 3 Photo by Nancy Penrose

VISIONS '13 Leg 2 Team

ROPOS enters the Pacific with a medium powered junction box attached to its underbelly. Photo by Marisa Gedney

Beautiful soft corals inhabit the hard carbonate substrate of the 60 m tall Pinnacle structure west of the major seep sites at Southern Hydrate Ridge. This site, at a water depth of ~ 550 m, hosts numerous white and orange bacterial mats, marking sites of weak venting of methane-rich fluids. The almost pummice-like structure of the pinnacle provides ample places for animals to live - small shrimp are extremely abundant. The Pinnacle is likely the fossilized 'throa'/plumbing system for a more ancient seep site that once inhabited this area.

First day on the VISIONS'13 Expedition, leaving the Ballard locks on the R/V Thompson.

Julie Nelson collects water from the CTD water cast after it arrives back on deck. Photo by Judy Twedt

Claire looks on as Owen and Danny use a buckets to scoop up salps from the ship. Photo by Judy Twedt 

ROV dive logger, Judy Twedt, sits behind the ROPOS pilots, scientists, and engineers and archives the events of the dive.  VISIONS '13, Leg 2 Photo by Mitchell Elend

Hagfish, corals, lobster at Southern Hydrate Ridge.Credit: UW/OOI-NSF/CSSF.

ROPOS begins its descent into the deep, observed by a local albatross at Axial Seamount. Photo credit: Mitchell Elend

The R/V Melville  cast off on July 15, 2013, from the UW dock, headed for Station Papa to deploy OOI infrastructure. Photo by Mike Mulvihill.

A Deep Sea Skate slowly swims by at the summit of Axial Seamount, 5000 ft beneath the ocean's surface. A small spider crab sits atop an old lava flow to the left of the skate. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF; V13.

ROCLS gently sets down on the seafloor in preparation for deployment at an ~ 5 km long extension cable to the Central Caldera site at the summit of Axial Seamount. Over 15,000 feet of cable is hosted on the drum. Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; V14.

The ROV ROPOS follows the Remotely Operated Cable Laying System (ROCLS) to the seafloor, keeping it in its vision as it descends 5000 feet beneath the ocean's surface to the seafloor. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF

An empty cable drum rests on the seafloor at the end of the installation of ~1800 feet of cable from near Primary Node PN3B to a site on the eastern side of the caldera at Axial Volcano.Photo Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF.

A rattail fish, over a meter long, swims slowly in a collapsed zone at the summit of Axial Volcano. Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF, V13.

The Remotely Operated Cable Laying System (ROCLS) shown deployed at the summit of Axial Seamount near Primary Node 3B (water depth ~ 5000 ft). The drum holds ~ 2000 ft of cable that will soon be deployed. Once a small section of the cable is secured to the secondary node (in distance, on left), ROPOS will latch into the top of ROCLS and "fly" through the water column, deploying cable underneath it as it travels. Photo Credit NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF.

Pressure data were collected in real-time from 8000 ft beneath the ocean's surface to the ship, through a junction box on the seafloor powered by the ROV and providing communications from the seafloor to the ship through its fiber-optic cable. This was the first end-to-end test of the junction boxes, extension cables, and instruments.

it is always a good day at sea when the waters are calm and the skies are blue.

A fish at 8000 ft beneath the surface investigates ROV operations at the summit of Axial Volcano. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF

View of the front porch of ROPOS showing a connection from the RSN Interface Box on ROPOS to an extension cable that is 1800 feet in length connected to a Secondary Junction Box (another power and communications outlet on the seafloor). The connector with the orange handle is "wet-mateable", meaning that it can be unplugged and plugged in on the seafloor.  When disconnected, it is placed in a parking position to keep the connectors clean and safe (stand with red handle to the right).   Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF

A pressure sensor deployed on the seafloor is powered up for the first time through fiber optic cables, sending data live to the ship >8000 feet above.   Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF

The medium powered Junction Box (MJ01A) is connected to > 1800 feet of extension cable deployed by ROPOS on the seafloor at the base of Axial Seamount. A pressure sensor inside the node is awaiting deployment for follow-on testing. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF

Deployed at the base of Axial Seamount, this secondary node was used as an anchor during the deployment of 600 m of extension cable and during testing while ROPOS dowloaded data from a pressure sensor and current meter. (credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF)

Applied Physics Lab engineers (from left to right) Tim McGinnis, Jesse Dosher, and James Tilley look over tests results as ROPOS connects to a secondary node on the seafloor and sends real-time data back to the surface. Photo by Ed McNichol