Visions14 Blog
End of Leg 7
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Leg 7 of VISIONS '14 was only a single dive, to deploy a cabled surface-piercing profiler at the Oregon Shelf site. This successful dive concludes the entire summer of deployments on a high note. ...
Leg 6 gets underway
Thursday, September 25, 2014
The sixth and final leg of the UW RSN installation field season begins as the Thompson heads out into a Pacific that has been roughed up by a recent storm. ...
Calm before the storm
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
After two long and complex mooring deployments on Leg5, the Thompson is headed back to Newport to gear up for the next leg and to weather a huge storm brewing just offshore. ...
Reloading for the next moo
Thursday, September 18, 2014
After a successful deployment of the vertical mooring at Axial Base, the Thomas G Thompson returned to Newport, OR to reload the back deck for the next mooring deployment at Slope Base. ...
Leg 5a: A Blur of Activity
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
The engineering/science team and the crew of the ROV ROPOS and the R/V Thomas G. Thompson worked tirelessly and continuously for 30 hours to deploy a large and unique mooring at the base of Axial Seamount. ...
VISIONS14 Leg 4 Comes to a
Thursday, September 11, 2014
The main message for today's update is an overwhelming thank you to the crew of the R/V Thompson and the ROPOS team for their hard work.... ...
Fire Hose Of Methane Out o
Tuesday, September 09, 2014
During a long dive to Southern Hydrate Ridge last night and into the morning today, all of this site is now completely installed ...
Work, Weather, and Life in
Sunday, September 07, 2014
The past few days have seen the cessation of high winds and seas, so we have been able to resume diving. ...
Troubleshooting, Weather,
Thursday, September 04, 2014
The past few days have seen long days of work as we adjust and respond to ever-changing events associated with Mother Nature, two-ship operations, and installing some of the most complicated, technologically advanced systems ...
How Much Methane Comes Out
Tuesday, September 02, 2014
An important question for many researchers is "how much methane comes out of the seafloor? - we are striving to help answer this... ...
Imaging Einstein's Grotto
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Last evening, we again visited Neptunea's Garden, a vast expanse of Neptunea snails laying eggs that form yellow, woven-like stalks. It was a very busy night and today is more intense. ...
Success at Oregon Offshore
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Today marked a historic moment for the OOI-RSN, with the successful installation of a large instrument platform and shallow winched profiler... ...
Busy Days at Hydrate Ridge
Friday, August 29, 2014
The VISIONS'14 team of ship's crew, engineers, scientists, and ROPOS folks have been very busy the past 24 hrs. During this time, we saw the complete installation of all three extension cables at the summit of Southern Hydrate Ridge. ...
To Sea We Go
Thursday, August 28, 2014
The R/V Thompson left Newport partially hidden in the fog, on its way to the Slope Base Site near the foot of the continental margin. Onboard we have a new group of 9 undergraduate and graduate students from the UW College of the Environment, ...
Leg 4 Hydrate Ridge Advent
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Leg 4 of the VISIONS'14 Expedition departed Newport, Oregon, today after a packed 2.5-day mobilization. The R/V Thompson is once again "loaded to the gills" with cables, junction boxes, instruments, and mooring packages ...
Shallow Waters
Sunday, August 24, 2014
The end of Leg 3 is approaching rapidly, and we successfully met every goal for this leg of the VISIONS14 expedition, including some originally scheduled for Leg 2. We'll be back in Newport by morning. On to Leg 4! ...
Standing on Two Legs
Thursday, August 21, 2014
We have another first to report: the first deployment of a two-legged shallow profiler mooring at the Endurance Oregon Offshore site! The mooring operations were smooth, safe, and ultimately a complete success, thanks to a remarkable run of calm weather. ...
High Waves, Deep Methane
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Over the last few days, while waiting for the weather to improve, we spent nights doing water sampling and one extremely long sonar survey, and ROPOS Dive 1750 went to Hydrate Ridge, where methane gas naturally bubbles out of the sediment. ...
Endurance Required
Saturday, August 16, 2014
The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of ROV dive and deck activity at the Endurance Oregon Offshore site (600 meters depth). As of this evening, we have deployed the Benthic Experiment Package (BEP), Digital Still Camera, and Deep Profi ...
Leg 3 Begins
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
After the last two legs of the VISIONS '14 cruise, which took place at Slope Base and Axial Seamount, thousands of meters deep in the ocean, Leg 3 is going to take place in relatively shallow water. The Endurance Oregon Offshore site is 600 ...
The Golden Spike
Saturday, August 09, 2014
When construction of the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in the 1800s, a golden spike was hammered in to officially link the two coasts of the country. During dive R1741 last night we witnessed the ROV making a similarly historic connection. ...
The Best Laid Plans
Friday, August 08, 2014
Even on successful cruises, there are always unexpected events. In this case, the seafloor cable and profiler mooring sockets wouldn't cooperate, so we began to recover the mooring to diagnose and repair the problem. Work continues, and optimism endures. ...
HPIES and Cake and profile
Thursday, August 07, 2014
The day was dominated by an epic ROPOS dive to relocate the platforms deployed during yesterday's deck operations, plug them in, and collect samples, finishing up the work at the Axial Base site. ...
Unexpected sightings
Wednesday, August 06, 2014
After a long night of laying cable, the Axial Base site is ready for the HPIES and Deep Profiler mooring to be deployed and plugged in. And a student made a surprising sighting during a ROPOS dive! ...
