Visions15 Blog
A Fine Field Season It Was
Friday, August 14, 2015
The Cabled Array VISIONS’15 cruise is now complete – it was an amazing 35 days at sea onboard the R/V Thompson using the remotely operated vehicle ROPOS for the first Cabled Array Operations and Maintenance cruise f ...
Old School Oxygen
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
The last leg of VISIONS'15 has been focused on servicing parts of the OOI Endurance Array. We are using many of the same technologies deployed at Axial Volcano and Hydrate Ridge to make observations in the Coastal Ocean. The Endu ...
A Roller Coaster of a Ride
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
The term “roller coaster” invokes images of violent undulating motions that peak and ebb and almost certainly force objects in directions that may be resisted but rarely overcome. But the term is also often used ...
The End of One Leg Start o
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Today marks the end of Leg 2, and beginning of Leg 3 for the Cabled Array VISIONS’15 cruise. It has been a wonderful run so far. Over this past 26 days, the Cabled Array Team working with the R/V Thompson and ROPOS crew have recovered and ...
First Eyes On the Axial Er
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
At 1933 PST July 26, 2015 after descending ~1840 m beneath the oceans surface, the remotely operated vehicle ROPOS and the University of Washington Ocean Observatories Initiative Cabled Array team set first eyes on the April 24th, 2015 ...
Back to the Volcano
Saturday, July 25, 2015
The R/V Thompson continues to have incredibly busy days as she and her crew finish operations and maintenance for the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Cabled Array. We are in our final days of Leg 2 of this three Leg expedition. Yes ...
What Happens in the Deep O
Friday, July 24, 2015
Yesterday and today, the team from the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab (APL) has been working long hours on Deep Profiler Moorings that feature an instrumented wire crawler connected to the Internet. These crawlers are designed to p ...
Out to Sea We Go
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
After spending two days with our “feet on the ground,” the R/V Thompson once again pulled away from the dock in Newport, Oregon to begin the second Leg of the NSF-OOI Cabled Array VISIONS’15 expedition. The port call w ...
A Breather Before Leg 2
Monday, July 20, 2015
The R/V Thompson sailed into Newport, Oregon yesterday morning under much calmer seas than she had experienced the previous two days. It is always an exciting time to come through the channel, under the beautiful Yaquina Bay bridge, and ...
Busy Days on the RV Thomps
Thursday, July 16, 2015
The R/V Thompson has been a hive of activity the past 24 hrs with dives at the methane seeps at Southern Hydrate Ridge, the recovery of science pods on the Shallow Profilers at the Oregon Endurance Offshore site, a dive at the Shallow W ...
Methane Seeps and Life
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
For the past two days we have been working at one of the best know methane seep sites known called ‘Southern Hydrate Ridge’. It has been studied for numerous years by geologists, chemists and biologists because it hosts extensive bac ...
From Volcanoes, to Full Oc
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Over the past few days, we have traversed some of the most extreme environments on Earth. Yesterday, we left Axial Seamount after finishing work at 280°C hydrothermal vents teaming with novel life. From there, ROPOS documented for t ...
Axial is Fired Up
Sunday, July 12, 2015
For the past two days, ROPOS has been delivering and recovering instruments to the International District Hydrothermal vent field at Axial Seamount. Work at this site is complete, except for on instrument that may go in tomorrow. ...
Spiders of the Deep
Friday, July 10, 2015
After completing work in the ASHES hydrothermal field, the R/V Thompson transited across Axial caldera to the International District hydrothermal field. It is here that a diverse, cabled underwater laboratory is installed to monitor and ...
ASHES Vent Field is Lit
Thursday, July 09, 2015
Today we had a fantastic dive in the ASHES hydrothermal vent field that hosts multiple, small metal sulfide chimneys encased in rich biological communities. The main goal of the dive was to install and recover a high definition camera at the act ...
Shallow Profiler Installat
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
Last night the team had a chance to finally get some much needed sleep during a 16 hour transit from the Slope Base site, to the base of Axial Seamount. Axial is the larg ...
Operations Never Before Do
Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Starting last night about midnight, our “day” became very busy with three rapid dives with the ROV ROPOS to recover and reinstall instrumented science pods on a 12 foot across, 7 ton platf ...
Steaming and Sleep
Sunday, July 05, 2015
Today was a quiet day for some of the Cabled Array Team. Many of us have been working very long hours getting ready for this expedition. So, we took opportunity of the ~36 hr steam to Slope Base to catch up on some much needed sleep, being ... ...
The Mission Begins
Sunday, July 05, 2015
Leg 1 of the Cabled Array, VISIONS'15 expedition is now underway. Under blue skies, the R/V Thompson departed the University of Washington, School of Oceanography dock at 0700. For the next ~ 1.5 days, this global class research ship will ...
Lauren Kowalski's Blog
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
My sense of time is completely skewed aboard this vessel. Because operations are 24 hours everyday of the week, there is no distinction between days of the week. ...
Students At Sea VISIONS 15
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Students will participate in VISIONS'15 as part of the UW Sea-Going Research and Discovery course (OCEAN 411) ...
