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Daily Log VISIONS14
Welcome to the VISIONS '14 Log. Follow our 84-day, 7-leg expedition on the R/V Thompson. The goal of this cruise is to complete installation of the OOI cabled observatory. Here, daily updates will be provided, as well as a look-ahead at follow-on operations.
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 moori
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 a
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 an
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 of
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 t
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, an
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 o
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 a
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 Adventur
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 ...
Package Delivered
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Today was an especially exciting day for the Oregon State portion of the Ocean Observatories Initiative, the Endurance Array. Today we delivered the Benthic Experiment Package to the seafloor. ...
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 ...
Deep Profiler Installed and
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
The end of Leg 2 was an exciting time indeed with the successful installation and connection of the Deep Profiler mooring at the base of Axial Seamount near Primary Node PN3A. Following its recovery back onto the R/V Thompson on August ...
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 profilers
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! ...
Axial Base Camp
Tuesday, August 05, 2014
Continuous ROPOS dives since we arrived at the Axial Base site. We deployed a junction box, surveyed the cable routes, and are now in the process of laying the cables between the nodes and the eventual deep profiler and HPIES deployment locations. ...
Slope to Seamount
Monday, August 04, 2014
After reaching the Slope Base Site, deployments of junction boxes and cable laying proceeded. As the weather started to pick up again, the decision was made to proceed to Axial Base and continue the deployments there. ...
VISIONS 14 Leg 2 Begins
Saturday, August 02, 2014
The R/V Thompson left Newport to start Leg 2 on August 1, 2014, heading for the Slope Base site. We deployed a Low Voltage node (LV01A) and conducted a couple of CTD casts. ...
End of Leg 1 Start of Leg 2
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Greetings from Newport, Oregon! After a very full and productive first Leg, we arrived in port yesterday right on time at 1000 and were busy almost as soon as we hit the dock. The ship is currently a hive of activity as more instruments and cabl ...
Steaming In Completed Our Wo
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
With many smiles and good spirits, we are steaming into Newport Oregon, set for arrival at 1000 am tomorrow. We have completed all our tasks that we set out to do. ...
International District Compl
Sunday, July 27, 2014
With good weather, we are making rapid progress in completing all major tasks planned for the summit of Axial Seamount during Leg 1. Yesterday, upon completion of the Central Caldera geophysical Site, we made a full court press on a major hydrot ...
Central Caldera Complete
Saturday, July 26, 2014
It has been a marvelous, exciting, intense past 24 hours with the successful installation of the 4.7 km extension cable that will connect Primary Node 3B with the Central Caldera geophysical Site. Giora Proskurowski and Skip Denny, working with ...
Installing the Central Calde
Friday, July 25, 2014
With great diving weather, the ship has been abuzz with activity preparing for dives to the Central Caldera geophysical site. Last night the medium powered J-Box MJ03F was installed on Dive R7124, and a broadband seismometer and low frequency hy ...
Installation Complete At Int
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Alas, yesterday the weather gods were angry and so last night we were hove to, waiting for the seas to calm. Luckily the winds dropped and we were able to get the ROV into the water again. ...
Installation Complete At Eas
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Today is an exciting day -- it marks completion of instrument installation at the Eastern Caldera Site at the summit of Axial Seamount. This site is one of three key geophysical sites on the volcano as part of the OOI-RSN cabled observatory funded by NSF. ...
Intense Activity on the Thom
Monday, July 21, 2014
The past day and today have been incredibly busy with four ROV dives to the seafloor. The ROPOS team was highly efficient with some vehicle turn-around-times of <3 hrs. Most vehicles take much longer than this. ...
Installing J Boxes and Instr
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Today has been an intense, very exciting day - it is only 1815, and ROPOS has already made two trips to the seafloor in the International District vent field during Dives R1717 and R1718. ...
Completing the Cable and Jun
Saturday, July 19, 2014
In the wee morning hours, ROCLS unexpectedly became stuck in soft sediment when it was unlatched from ROPOS at the end of the 1-km cable lay. Surprisingly, there was a bit of a slope, and this, plus the soft sediment, caused ROCLS to sink down ...
Preparing to Install Cable a
Friday, July 18, 2014
Today's activities focused on preparing to lay nearly 4000 ft of extension cable onto the seafloor and to deploy a junction box at a depth of 8530 ft beneath the ocean's surface at the base of Axial Seamount (Site PN3A). ...
Diving in the International
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Last night's weather conditions, with sustained winds of up to ~30 mph over the past 24 hours, precluded the launch of the ROV ROPOS. These winds are not atypical of the NE Pacific ...
Weather Day in the NE Pacifi
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Yesterday's Dive (R1712) went very well: we completed all of our tasks. The ROV ROPOS came on deck at 2115h. In preparation for the next dive at PN3A, a junction box was moved to the ROV working platform, and a cable drum was readied for installat ...
VISIONS14 Leg 1 Arrived at A
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
The R/V Thompson arrived at the summit of Axial Seamount at ~ 2 am on July 15 to begin operations. During the previous day, ROPOS was completely tested and safety meetings were held among scientists, engineers, the ship crew and the ROPOS team t ...
Steaming to Axial Seamount
Monday, July 14, 2014
Today has been spent in preparation for the upcoming dive (Dive R1712) at the summit of Axial Seamount. Safety meetings were held among the ship, ROPOS, and science party teams, operational plans were discussed, and equipment readied fo ...
Nearly 25 years of dreaming.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
.... planning, and strategizing. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. ...
Loading and Mobilizing in Se
Friday, July 11, 2014
Lots of work is under way as the Thompson is loaded and ROPOS mobilized for the VISIONS 14 expedition, which is scheduled to sail on Sunday, July 13. ...
