Visions 22 Live Video

September 16, 2022 14:43 local (Pacific): Following the MARUM (University of Bremen) sonar recovery at Southern Hydrate Ridge around 0600 this morning, all dives and all operations for Leg 5 are complete! The Thompson is now making its way back to Newport and should be back at the NOAA dock this evening for a well-earned rest.

September 15, 2022 23:06 local (Pacific): It has been a busy day out on the Thompson with VISIONS’22. ROPOS has completed two dives at two different locations: R2258, the final Shallow Profiler Mooring dive at Slope Base (2900 m), and R2259, the inspection of the Deep Profiler at Endurance Offshore (600 m). The Thompson is currently on the way to a third location, Southern Hydrate Ridge, for a third dive with ROPOS (R2260), to recover the MARUM Overview sonar, which has stopped collecting data. 

September 15, 2022 13:44 local (Pacific): ROPOS completed dive R2256 and was on deck at 00:37 this morning.  Dive R2257, deployment of the PIA(Platform Interface Assembly) quickly followed with ROPOS in the water at 02:23 and back on deck at 04:09.  It was a very busy night, early morning.  ROPOS  was back in the water at 05:10 for dive R2258, Deployment of SPA(Science Package Assembly) and Mechanical leg and anchor inspection.  This dive is almost complete and will wrap up the first complete turning of the Slope Base Shallow Profiler Vertical Mooring(installed in 2014).

September 15, 2022 0:13 local (Pacific): ROPOS is currently ascending and about to arrive at the surface completing dive R2256 to the seafloor of Slope Base.  The EOM cable was inspected and all is fine.  The ROV was successful in plugging in the mooring to LV01A.  After completing their post and pre dive routines,  ROPOS will be back in the water for dive R2257, deployment of the PIA(Platform Interface Assembly).

September 14, 2022 15:23 local (Pacific): ROPOS is currently descending to the seafloor at Slope Base (2900 m) on dive R2256. They will inspect the EOM anchor of the Shallow Profiler mooring, which was redeployed yesterday (into this morning). If possible, the ROV will also plug the mooring back into LV01A, and inspect the platform at 200 m during the ascent.

September 13, 2022 14:15 local (Pacific): The Thompson departed the NOAA dock in Newport at 1445  Monday Sept 12 and arrived at Slope Base at around 1900.   ROPOS was in the water at 1942 for dive R2255, deployment of MJ03A. The ROV was on back on board at 0242 Sept 13.  

Early this morning operations were underway to deploy the new Shallow Profiler Vertical Mooring, beginning with recovery  of the 28" float on the mechanical leg. New releases were put on and the float redeployed, followed closely by the platform and EOM cable. Cable and attached floats should be completely deployed by around 200o tonight. 

September 11, 2022 17:00 local (Pacific): Yesterday and today were spent demobing from Leg 4 and mobilizing for Leg 5. The Thompson will depart tomorrow afternoon at 1445 to start Leg 5 of VISIONS’22. First stop, Slope Base for the deployment of secondary node MJ01A with ROPOS. Next item on the list, deployment of the Slope Base Shallow Profiler mooring.

September 9, 2022 10:42 local (Pacific): Unfortunately, the weather is still not cooperating and the next few days will be too blustery for deck work or ROV dives. The current plan is for the Thompson to return to Newport, offload the mooring gear, and mobilize the new mooring equipment for installation on Leg 5.

September 8, 2022 20:52 local (Pacific): We spent the day working on the recovery of the mechanical leg of the Shallow Profiler Mooring at Slope Base. However, mooring ops and ROPOS dives are currently on hold due to weather and some difficulty getting the mooring anchor to pull free from the seafloor. We are working on secondary Leg 4 priorities and preparation for Leg 5 operations.

September 7, 2022 16:50 local (Pacific): The Shallow Profiler Mooring Platform surfaced at 0906 and was on the back deck by 1044.  The platform was relocated to the starboard aft deck in order to make way for the recovery of electrical cable, complete with 94 removable floats.  The cable should be all on board by around 2000.

September 7, 2022 08:50 local (Pacific): The decision has been made to go ahead with the recovery of the Shallow Profiler Vertical Mooring at Slope Base.  The acoustic releases have been signaled and the crew and engineers are standing by waiting for the platform to surface.

September 7, 2022 07:40 local (Pacific): After a day of weather watch, the decision has been made to potentially go ahead with the mooring recovery.  The Thompson will head to the Shallow Profiler Mooring and a final decision will be made after breakfast. 

September 6, 2022 16:50 local (Pacific): We arrived on site at ~1600 local.  The weather conditions are such that sending ROPOS  into the water with a package underneath is not possible.  We are now under a two hour weather watch and will reevaluate the situation at 1800.  

September 6, 2022 12:50 local (Pacific): The Thompson began Leg 4 of VISIONS22 today, leaving Newport at 10:35 and heading for Slope Base. The plan is to Deploy MJ01A (dive R2255), weather permitting, and then begin recovery of the Shallow Profiler Mooring the morning of Sept 7, again, weather permitting.

September 5, 2022 20:45 local (Pacific): It has been pretty busy on the back deck of the Thompson since arriving in Newport yesterday morning.  Leg 3 instruments, materials and supplies were offloaded and Leg 4 materials and equipment began onloading. This morning the Forslund crane arrived and loaded the two winches necessary for the recovery of the Shallow Profiler Mooring that is the main focus of Leg 4. The ship is scheduled to depart tomorrow morning at 10:00 to kick off Leg 4.

September 4, 2022 10:24 local (Pacific): The Thompson has arrived back at the NOAA dock in Newport, OR, which ends Leg 3 of the cruise. Demobilization has begun, and mobilization for Leg 4 (which will turn the 2-legged Slope Base Shallow Profiler mooring) will begin soon. The plan is to head back out to sea on September 6th.

September 3, 2022 22:34 local (Pacific): The last dive was a success, the CTD has been recovered and water samples have been processed and readied for analysis. We are now headed back to the Newport Sea Buoy and should arrive back in Newport tomorrow morning. All Leg 3 OOI operations are complete, and we managed to do some additional prep work for Leg 4, deploy the FETCH acoustic array, and recovered samples and equipments for other PIs as well. 

September 3, 2022 17:20 local (Pacific): The Thompson is currently holding position at the Oregon Offshore site (about 4 hours west of Newport), where we will launch the last ROPOS dive of this leg at around 1730 tonight, which will deploy the recently recovered Slope Base Shallow Profiler pod in place of the nonfunctional one at this site that was recovered earlier this afternoon. After that we will conduct a verification CTD cast to 200 meters, and then head back to Newport to end Leg 3.

September 3, 2022 11:10 local (Pacific): ROPOS is back on board after completion of Dive R2252 and the Thompson is headed for the Oregon Offshore site to deploy the science profiler assembly just recovered from Slope Base.  

September 3, 2022 09:27 local (Pacific): ROPOS is currently unplugging and readying the science profiler assembly of the Slope Base Shallow Profiler for recovery (Dive R2252), which will end our operations at this site. Once that assembly is onboard, we will ready it for deployment at the Oregon Offshore profiler site, which will be our last stop on Leg 3.

September 2, 2022 10:43 local (Pacific): With all work at Axial Caldera completed, the R/V Thompson is currently heading back to Slope Base to start a series of dives that will recover infrastructure to be replaced on Legs 4 and 5.  First up will be the recovery of the MJ01A Junction box, followed by the Slope Base Shallow Profiler Platform Interface Assembly and Science Pod Assembly.  Estimated time of arrival at Slope Base is 14:00.

September 1, 2022 08:13 local (Pacific): The 4-Fetch Axial Acoustic Array is now fully deployed, and the PIs for that project are seeing acoustic links between each transponder pair! The final tripod ended up deployed slightly north of the cabled tripod, instead of south, because the initial site didn’t have a suitable stable spot for deployment. The Thompson is now at the ASHES vent site, and ROPOS is preparing for our final dive at Axial Caldera, which will recover some PI equipment, insert three temperature probes into hydrothermal vents, and collect some biological and water samples for other projects.

August 31, 2022 21:00 local (Pacific): ROPOS is currently on dive R2247, surveying a site to the SE of Central Caldera to find a flat deployment location for the fourth acoustic FETCH tripod.

August 31, 2022 16:50 local (Pacific): There is so much that has happened since the dive to swap temperature probes for Dr. Bill Chadwick last night. After completion of the dive, the Thompson transited to the Western flank location to deploy the third FETCH tripod (Dive R2245). At 10:00am, a 45 minute outreach event organized by "exploringbytheseat.com" was hosted on the Thompson by Chief Scientist Mike Vardaro with UW student worker Andrew Paley. Video of the event is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K–RlkjMjLo. Next came a transit to the International District in order complete a dive (R2246) to reposition the RAS/PPS vent cap and deploy a new temperature sensor into the "El Guapo" vent for Dr. Bill Chadwick. This dive was also successful and ROPOS was at the surface at 1656.  The Thompson  is currently transiting to just South of the Central Caldera to survey an area for deployment of the fourth and final FETCH.

August 30, 2022 21:06 local (Pacific): The Thompson is currently almost finished the post-dive transit to the Trevi vent location to swap out a temperature probe for Dr. Bill Chadwick (Dive R2244, scheduled to launch around 2200). The second FETCH deployment went very smoothly, and it is currently sitting in a stable location at the Eastern edge of the Axial Caldera.

August 30, 2022 16:44 local (Pacific): ROPOS is on descent to the seafloor on the Eastern flank of the caldera (dive R2243), where we will deploy the second FETCH sonar unit, which is battery powered. The ROV should reach the bottom (1475 m depth) in about an hour.

August 30, 2022 12:3o local (Pacific): The fluid sampler has been deployed and the HD video camera has had its face washed, i.e. lens and lights removed of biofouling.  Dive R2241, deployment of the first of four FETCH tripods (an acoustic instrument that monitors volcanic activity) has been completed as well.  ROPOS is currently deploying a seafloor CTD for PI Dr. Bill Chadwick. After the conclusion of this dive, the Thompson will transit to the Eastern Caldera to deploy the second FETCH unit.

August 29, 2022 18:38 local (Pacific): After completing operations at Axial Base, we have now moved into the caldera of Axial volcano for the next series of dives. ROPOS has just launched above ASHES vent field, a hydrothermal vent site where we will turn a fluid sampler that measures hydrothermal chemistry and clean off the HD video camera that is pointed at the Mushroom chimney (a black smoker covered in chemosynthetic animals and bacteria). We should be on the seafloor in about an hour.

August 29, 2022 09:15 local (Pacific): The ROV just landed back on deck following dive R2238, which swapped out LJ03A and some attached instruments. The next (and last) dive at Axial Base (R2239) will be to plug in a seafloor tidal pressure sensor (PREST) which has been soaking for a year in preparation for today’s plug-in dive. That dive should launch around 1100.

August 28, 2022 23:35 local (Pacific): The Axial Base HPIES has been successfully turned, and ROPOS has just launched with a low-power junction box (LJ03A) and attached tripod hosting a CTD, oxygen sensor, and an optical attenuation and absorption spectrophotometer. They are now beginning the two-hour descent to the seafloor.

August 28, 2022 16:41 local (Pacific): ROPOS is currently on descent towards the seafloor at Axial Base (2600 m), where it will retrieve the Horizontal Electrometer Pressure-Inverted Echosounder (HPIES) instrument. The HPIES was deployed earlier today by using the ship’s crane to lift it over the side, and then releasing it to free-fall to the seafloor. ROPOS will use an attached beacon to locate it, then carry it over to the nearby node to plug it in and retrieve the old one using the belly winch of the ROV.

August 28, 2022 10:58 local (Pacific): We have now successfully completed all Deep Profiler turns! Now we’re conducting a CTD cast to collect verification water samples at Axial Base, and ROPOS is removing the clamshell used to deploy and recover the Deep Profiler vehicles. Next we’ll begin a series of Axial Base seafloor instrument deployment dives, including turning the Low-Power Junction Box LJ03A at this location.

August 27, 2022 14:10 local (Pacific): Good afternoon.  ROPOS completed Dive R2234 at approximately 23:30 last night with a follow on verification CTD.  After completion of the CTD at ~0400, the Thompson started the transit to Axial Base.  We are about half way through the transit now and should arrive at Axial Base at ~ 2200. We have some strong winds and some big waves so it has been quite the ride.

August 26, 2022 23:10 local (Pacific): The Slope Base Deep Profiler has been attached to the mooring cable, and dive R2234 is nearly complete. ROPOS will grab the beacon from the top float of the mooring and then return to the surface. Once aboard, we will launch a verification CTD cast to collect water samples, and then we’ll leave Slope Base for Axial Base, an 18-hour transit!

August 26, 2022 12:36 local (Pacific): ROPOS is currently on Dive R2233, cleaning the cable of the Slope Base Deep Profiler using a circular brush. Not the most dynamic activity, but necessary to enable the profiler vehicle to climb the cable effectively using the traction drive. Once we reach the base of the mooring (at 2900 meters) ROPOS will recover the 2021 vehicle and then return to the surface. The following dive will deploy the 2022 vehicle.

August 26, 2022 08:55 local (Pacific): The Oregon Offshore deep profiler has been fully turned and the wire and dock cleaned of biofouling (Dive R2231) and the beacon recovered from the top float (R2232). We just recovered the verification CTD cast and are processing water samples as the Thompson makes the transit to Slope Base for the next set of profiler dives. 

August 25, 2022 23:51 local (Pacific): Dive R2230 successfully deployed the new Deep Profiler vehicle onto the mooring wire, and the shoreside team confirmed that it is operational and sending back data. However, one of the ROV lights came loose (possibly after shark impact!), so the crew are recovering ROPOS early, making repairs, and then starting a new dive to clean the wire and recover the 2021 deep profiler vehicle.

August 25, 2022 17:00 local (Pacific): The Thompson has arrived on station at Oregon Offshore. ROPOS will conduct a test dive in the next 20 minutes to test the ballasting and operability of the newly installed clamshell configuration that is used for the Deep Profiler swaps. After completing this dive, ROPOS will turn the Deep Profiler at this site.

August 25, 2022 12:48 local (Pacific): We’re on our way! The Thompson has pulled away from the dock in Newport, and Leg 3 has begun. Next stop: Oregon Offshore deep profiler.

August 25, 2022 08:05 local (Pacific): The Thompson is nearly ready to depart! This morning we have a safety meeting for the new science crew, and then the VISIONS students will get a tour of the ROV and control room to get familiar with the work they’ll be doing to log events during dives, and the technology we use to accomplish our tasks. Then, in the early afternoon, we’ll be leaving the NOAA dock for our first Leg 3 operations (test dive and Deep Profiler swap) at the Endurance Oregon Offshore site!

August 24, 2022 09:49 local (Pacific): Mobilization for Leg 3 was completed yesterday in record time, and now we’re tying things down, the ROPOS crew is reconfiguring the vehicle for Deep Profiler deployments, and we’re expecting a new crew of UW students to arrive later today. Everything is on schedule for a departure around midday tomorrow!

August 23, 2022 13:04 local (Pacific): The Thompson has arrived at the NOAA dock in Newport, ending Leg 2 of the cruise! Demobilization from Leg 2 and mobilization for Leg 3 will commence shortly. The next set of deployments and ROPOS dives will begin on August 25th.

August 23, 2022 09:15 local (Pacific): CTD cast at Oregon Offshore has been completed and we are now headed for the Y buoy at the entrance to Newport. We will be heading in to the NOAA dock at 10:30 local.

August 23, 2022 00:31 local (Pacific): We have completed a Pinnacle survey dive (R2228), which was the last dive of Leg 2! We are now headed to the Oregon Offshore site (600 m) to perform one final verification CTD cast, and then Leg 2 will be complete and we will head back to Newport, OR.

August 22, 2022 13:57 local (Pacific): Following the photomosaic surveyor Southern Hydrate Ridge, the ROV ROPOS was back in the water.  Dive R2226, Installation of FLOBNM101 (Mosquito) at SHR began at 10:56 local.  The Mosquito was landed near the CAT, probes deployed and tracer successfully injected.  ROPOS returned to the surface at 1318 local.  The Thompson is now  transiting to Pinnacle, a site on SHR, to perform an echosounder survey of the site.

August 22, 2022 08:47 local (Pacific): The ROV is back on the surface following the end of the photomosaic survey at Southern Hydrate Ridge (R2226). The ROPOS team will now reconfigure the lights and camera settings back to standard, and then we will launch dive R2227 to deploy a fluid sampling instrument called a Mosquito ("Multiple Orifice Sampler and Quantitative Injection Tracer Observer"). 

August 22, 2022 00:34 local (Pacific): ROPOS continues to run the photomosaic survey of Southern Hydrate Ridge, which involves pointing the camera at the seafloor and flying back and forth across the area of interest, making sure that speed and altitude and pictures per second allow for enough overlap to stitch the images together into a map of the area. This activity (R2226) will probably continue into the mid-morning of the 22nd, followed by the deployment of a Mosquito fluid sampler at the same site.

August 21, 2022 14:20 local (Pacific): The Thompson is currently headed back to Southern Hydrate Ridge for another echosounder/multibeam survey, followed by a ROPOS dive (R2226) to conduct a photomosaic survey of the seafloor and infrastructure at SHR.

August 21, 2022 08:00 local (Pacific): ROPOS is on its way back to the surface following dive R2225, which replaced a malfunctioning seismometer at Southern Hydrate Ridge. Both R2224 (MARUM CTD deployment) and R2225 were a complete success, which ends our scheduled work at this location. Once ROPOS is back aboard and secure, the Thompson will head for the Slope Base site (2900 meters depth) for a deep CTD cast to collect water samples.

August 20, 2022 18:25 local (Pacific): Dive R2223 finished at 1620, after recovering the FLOBN-M "Mosquito" flow meter and surveying active vent locations and the MARUM Instruments.  Dive R2224, to deploy the MARUM CTD, is next up and ROPOS has just entered the water.

August 20, 2022 08:57 local (Pacific):Dive R2222 has just finished, and ROPOS is back on deck with the recovered fluid sampling instruments and the MARUM CTD. The next dive,  Dive R2223, will involve  the recovery of  another uncabled fluid sampler, FLOBN-M, aka "Mosquito" from Einsteins’ Grotto, followed by a site survey of the area.

August 20, 2022 03:05 local (Pacific): Dive R2221 is complete and Dive R2222 is underway deploying uncabled fluid sampling instruments and a CTD deployed by the MARUM group from University of Bremen. We will also do some additional surveying of the site and existing instrumentation before returning to the surface with the instruments in the tool basket.

August 19, 2022 20:57 local (Pacific): After completing the echo sounder survey, The Thompson moved to the first dive location at Southern Hydrate Ridge. ROPOS was launched and is conducting Dive R2221, which includes turning Low Power Junction Box LV01B, configuring LJ01B for seismometer testing, and collecting rock and water samples for student projects.

August 19, 2022 13:29 local (Pacific): ROPOS has successfully recovered the Oregon Offshore BEP (LJ01D), and the Thompson is now en route to the Southern Hydrate Ridge site, where we will conduct an echosounder survey to look for bubble plumes, a sign of natural methane venting from the seafloor.

August 19, 2022 10:05 local (Pacific): Dive R2218 (to swap out the BEP) and R2219 (to swap out the bioacoustic sonar) at the Oregon Shelf site were successful, and the Thompson has now moved to the Oregon Offshore site (600 m depth). ROPOS is descending towards the seafloor on dive R2220 with the Offshore BEP to swap out that package and clean the camera.

August 18, 2022 18:49 local (Pacific): The Thompson departed the NOAA dock at 1800 (local time) and is steaming towards the Oregon Shelf site, where we will start dive operations with R2218, to swap out the Benthic Experiment Package (BEP).

August 18, 2022 09:52 local (Pacific): The Thompson is fully loaded for Leg 2, all personnel are onboard, and we are preparing for departure later this evening, at which time we’ll head to the Oregon Shelf site (80 m depth) to start operations.

August 16, 2022 17:10 local (Pacific): The Thompson has arrived back at the NOAA dock in Newport, which ends Leg 1 of the cruise! Leg 2 personnel will arrive soon, and we’ll start offloading gear and reloading for the next set of deployments, which begin on the 18th.

August 15, 2022 16:58 local (Pacific): The last ROPOS dive of Leg 1 (R2217) was successfully completed this afternoon, after which the Thompson collected ADCP (water current) data near Central Caldera to help verify some seafloor measurements. The ship then began the transit back to Newport around 1600. 

August 15, 2022 11:25 local (Pacific): After completion of dive R2215 at 2301 last night, the ship transited to the International District in Axial’s Central Caldera for dive R2216. More samples of diffuse flow will be taken for PI R. Anderson. ROPOS was back on deck at 0634 this morning.  A short transit to the Ashes vent field in the Eastern Caldera followed and at 0854 ROPOS was back in the water for dive R2217, turn of another CTD for PI Bill Chadwick.

August 14, 2022 16:10 local (Pacific): ROPOS is back aboard and the ship is moving back to Eastern Caldera for dive R2215, a CTD recovery and redeployment. The vehicle will enter the water with the tool basket latched below containing the CTD tripod and cable for a roughly 5-hour dive to connect the new instrument and recover the current one.

August 14, 2022 11:45 local (Pacific): Dive R2213 is complete and the Thompson is moving into position for Dive R2214, which will head for the Anemone hydrothermal chimney in the ASHES vent field to do some additional water sampling for Dr. Anderson’s microbial work.

August 14, 2022 09:10 local (Pacific): Dive R2213, a sampling dive with Dr. Rika Anderson’s group using the Universal Fluid Obtainer (UFO) installed on the ROPOS porch to sample fluids and particles for microbial analysis, began at 0259 this morning.  Sampling is complete and ROPOS is on its way to the surface with the samples.

August 14, 2022 01:03 local (Pacific):  With R2212 back on deck after the turn of the CTD tripod and retrieval of the A0A we are now headed back towards the Eastern Caldera for a sampling dive with Dr. Rika Anderson’s group using the Universal Fluid Obtainer (UFO) installed on the ROPOS porch to sample fluids and particles for microbial analysis.

August 13, 2022 16:27 local (Pacific): ROPOS is back on board after a successful dive to turn the Vent Fluid and DNA Sampler instruments (RASFL/PPSDN) and collect fluid samples for a microbial DNA PI project. The Thompson is now en route to the Central Caldera site, where dive R2212 will be launched to swap out a CTD tripod, deploy an Acoustic Array cable for a PI project, and recover a different PI instrument, Dr. William Wilcock’s A0A calibrated pressure sensor (which self-calibrates to remove drift).

August 13, 2022 8:25 local (Pacific): Dive R2210, replacement of the TRHPH sensor was successful.  The temperature probe was placed into a vent that was producing fluids at around 300° C.  ROPOS returned to the surface at 0051 local.  The next dive, R2211, began  at 0506 and is still underway at this time.  Diffuse Fluid samples are being collected from several Hydrothermal Vents in the Caldera.

August 12, 2022 16:42 local (Pacific): The Thompson has arrived at Axial Caldera, and ROPOS is descending towards the International District vent field (~1500 meters deep) with the replacement Hydrothermal Vent Fluid Temperature and Resistivity sensor (TRHPH). They will survey the site and swap out the sensor before returning to the surface to prepare for the next dive.

August 12, 2022 14:36 local (Pacific): The verification CTD cast was successfully concluded, and the Thompson is now headed for the International District vent field in the caldera of Axial Seamount. The next dive (R2210) will be to replace the Hydrothermal Vent Fluid Temperature and Resistivity sensor, which measures the chemistry of the mineral-rich fluid plumes that emanate from cracks on the seafloor.

August 12, 2022 08:30 local (Pacific): We arrived at Axial Base at 0200 this morning and quickly got to work on the Axial Base Shallow Profiler with 2 dives in rapid succession (R2207 and R2208).  We will be launching ROPOS within the hour for the last dive here (R2209) to complete the turn of the shallow profiler instrumentation, followed by a verification CTD cast, before moving on to the Axial caldera.

August 11, 2022 08:22 local (Pacific): We have successfully completed the turn of the Endurance Oregon Offshore Shallow Profiler infrastructure. We’re one hour into our 18 hour transit out to Axial Base, with an estimated arrival of 01:30 on August 12. Once we arrive, we’ll swap out the Axial Base Shallow Profiler infrastructure before starting work on the seafloor sensors.

August 10, 2022 21:53 local (Pacific): Dive R2204 was completed at 18:41 this evening. Dive R2205 began at 20:51 with ROPOS attached to the replacement Platform Interface Assembly. In addition to installing the replacement platform, ROPOS will recover the Science Pod installed in 2021 and will replace it with a new one on the next dive.

August 10, 2022 13:51 local (Pacific): Dive R2204 is underway, to recover the Oregon Offshore Shallow Profiler 200m platform instrument frame (PC01B). This is the first of a series of dives at this site, which will swap out all profiler and platform instruments.

August 10, 2022 13:36 local (Pacific): ROPOS is currently conducting a test latch into the Oregon Offshore platform assembly in preparation for Dive R2204, which will be the recovery of the Shallow Profiler 200m platform instrument frame.

August 10, 2022 08:05 local (Pacific): Transit to Oregon Offshore site is just about complete. ROPOS will begin preparations to swap out the vertical mooring shallow profiler science pod and platform.

August 10, 2022 04:50 local (Pacific): Extension cable has been successfully installed and power has been restored to Southern Hydrate Ridge!  After PN1B is secure ROPOS will ascend and we will begin our ~1hr transit to Oregon Offshore to start work on swapping out the vertical mooring shallow profiler science pod and platform.

August 9, 2022 21:21 local (Pacific): We are  currently descending on dive R2203 in order to complete the installation of PN1B Extension Cable

August 9, 2022 18:15 local (Pacific): ROPOS is back on deck and we are starting deck operations to spool the 500 meter extension cable that will connect the Primary Node to Southern Hydrate Ridge.

August 9, 2022 17:10 local (Pacific): ROPOS has left bottom- the next dive (Dive R2203) will be to install the extension cable.

August 9, 2022 16:12 local (Pacific): DIVE R2202 – ROPOS removed the recovery bridle from PN1B and is placing a navigaton beacon on the seafloor.

August 9, 2022 12:19 local (Pacific): ROPOS is in the water (dive R2202) and descending towards the PN1B primary node to deploy a beacon as part of the work to connect the extension cable to Southern Hydrate Ridge.

August 9, 2022 10:13 local (Pacific): The Thompson is at the Primary Node PN1B site and the ROPOS vehicle is being prepped to begin extension cable installation operations.

August 9, 2022 05:38 local (Pacific): ROPOS has completed dive R2201 with the successful turn of the Slope Base CTD tripod. We have started our transit to the PN1B site to begin operations to install an extension cable to connect the primary node to Southern Hydrate Ridge.

August 8, 2022 18:47 local (Pacific): ROPOS has entered the water on dive R2201! The vehicle is descending to the seafloor at Slope Base (~2900 m) and will be swapping out a three-instrument tripod (CTD, oxygen, and an AC-S spectrophotometer) using a tool sled latched below the vehicle. Total dive time should be about six hours.

August 8, 2022 16:01 local (Pacific): The Thompson is on site at the Slope Base seafloor node (LJ01A) and ROPOS is prepping for the first dive (R2201). The vehicle will descend to the seafloor at ~ 2900 m and swap out the existing tripod with three instruments (CTD, oxygen, and an AC-S spectrophotometer) for a new one.

August 8, 2022 10:15 local (Pacific): The Thompson has left the dock, and is heading to the Slope Base site where the first ROV dive of the 2022 RCA cruise will be to swap out a tripod assembly of instruments on the seafloor. ETA ~15:15 local time.

August 7, 2022 12:52 local (Pacific): Crane operations continue, students have begun to arrive at the ship, and mobilization of Leg 1 is on track for a departure on August 8th.

August 6, 2022 16:45 local (Pacific): ROPOS mobilization continued this morning with the loading of the LARS and the majority of the RCA equipment and supplies for the cruise as well as the instruments and infrastructure to be turned during Leg 1. After lunch, mobilization of ROPOS continued and the ROV was onboard by 1430. The ROPOS Team also successfully completed a 19,000 lb water bag test of the LARS system.

August 5, 2022 08:00 local (Pacific): Mobilization for the 2022 RCA O&M Cruise (TN407) aboard the R/V Thompson commenced at the NOAA MOC-P pier in Newport, OR. The first day concentrated on using the shore crane to load the ROPOS ROV equipment and installing the infrastructure necessary to mobilize both the heave-compensating LARS Crane as well as the ROV itself onto the ship. The last time ROPOS was loaded on the Thompson was back during the 2015-2016 RCA O&M Cruise, and it was exciting to see it happen again!

July 15, 2022 16:02 local (Pacific): The RCA team is busy finishing up final testing, inventories and packing in preparation to begin our mobilization on August 5th onboard the R/V Thompson.