Dean Livelybrooks here, blogging in English

GREETINGS, ¡HOLA, BON JOUR, HALLO

I’m writing from the computer lab in the Research Vessel Atlantis.   We are at sea in the Pacific.  This is our offical blog. Among us there are English, Spanish, French and German speakers, and we will identify our language as we post.  There are 22 of us among the science crew on this cruise.

The clock just turned over to day 3 on the Atlantis.  To date we’ve recovered 3 ocean-bottom seismometers (OBSs) that have sat on the ocean floor off the coast of northern California, Oregon and Washington for the past year.  Our job on this cruise, leg 3 of the Cascadia Initiative is to recover the remaining 30 of the 70 OBSs deployed last year.  The next 3 cruises this summer will re-deploy those OBSs in the northern part of Cascadia to record until next year.

What’s “Cascadia” you may ask.  Its bounded by a spreading center on the west, a place where brand-new Earth’s crust is made and moves towards the coast.  To the east are the volcanoes created by this ‘oceanic plate’ moving below (or ‘subducting’) the less dense North American plate that people in the U.S., Canada, and part of Mexico live on.  Why study Cascadia?  It is known to have very large earthquakes, just like recent ones in Japan and Sumatra.  And just like in those places, Cascadian earthquakes (scientists call them ‘megathrust events’) can cause large tsunamis.

So we place seismometers and pressure gauges on the ocean floor to study Cascadia, with an eye towards improving our understanding of what could happen during the next big ‘megathrust event.’

Day 3 on the Pacific, cruising on the research vessel (R/V) Atlantis.  We’ve all had a long day.  First recovery this morning the mechanism for releasing a float tied to the ocean-bottom seismometer failed.  ROV Jason to the rescue however.  A bit of a ‘thunk’ with one of Jason’s remote-controlled arms and the OBS released it’s ‘pop-up’ buoy.  Reminded me of how my dad used to ‘fix’ our old-style TV when it malfunctioned, a whap to the side applied just so.

Our second recovery posed other challenges.  There were strong currents at the site, some 900 meters below the surface off of Waldport, Oregon.  The Jason crew had their work cut out for them to tie a rope on a spool to the OBS so that the rope would surface and we could haul the OBS to the surface.  Thanks to the expertise of the (crackerjack) Jason crew, problems solved, OSB recovered.

Hello everyone. It’s Katie blogging in English.

Its Friday morning at 00:47AM and I am currently working the graveyard/night watch (00:00 – 04:00). As Lexie mentioned, people that get sea sick is random and unfortunately, I was one of those people. I am happy to report that everyone who got sick seems to have gotten their sea legs and acclimated. Now that my health is back, I have been enjoying the delicious meals prepared for us – a huge upgrade from the saltine crackers I was living off of before. I also enjoyed observing the Jason recovering yesterday (Thursday 27th). I sat with several other people in one of the science labs watching the feed from the cameras that are mounted on the Jason. It is pretty amazing to see all of the wild life as the Jason descends throughout the water column. We saw a squid swim by the main camera, lots of clear gelatinous creatures, sea stars, crabs and various species of fish. The ocean floor at ~900 m at the station yesterday was quite soft and the OBS that we had to recover was slightly burried around its edges. We also noticed flakes of the white paint of the OBS on the sea floor – someone on the OBS team explained that the biofouling paint is designed to flake off when algae attaches and accumulates on the OBS. The recovery went successful and now we are currently in transit to our next station and hoping to begin another recovery around 05:30.

Hi everyone, this is Haley!  We just picked up J17B (another TRM Ocean Bottom Seismometer) using the Jason ROV and Medea’s assistance and we are on our way to the next one, M10B.  The water is extremely calm and smooth out here today and the weather couldn’t be better, lots of sun and not too much wind.  The trip is going by so fast, there is constantly something to do on the boat between filming, watching bathymety surveys, helping on deck, and trying to fit in sleep somewhere!

I have attached a picture of a grapefruit sized cluster of fish eggs that were attached to the antennae of the very first OBS we pulled up as well as a photo of a few dolphin friends we have made along the way, I’m surprised they aren’t out and about today!   I also attached a picture of the Jason being brought back onto the deck after a mission as well as an OBS elevator in the water.  Enjoy all!!

-Haley

Hey everyone, this is Jonás Cervantes

It’s day 5 of the R/V Atlantis cruise. Honestly, it feels like we’ve been out at sea for a little over a week, but at the same time it feels like we’ve barely left Astoria (Oregon).

The days just seem to slide into each other, not bothering telling you their names, nor their hours. All there is the work, the research and the seismometer recoveries. Each melding into the other, like some sort of sweet smelling, salty tasting stew.

I’ve been working on the educational outreach aspect of our mission. This means that I work on the video systems, multimedia presentations and the multi cast/live streams from the JASON. The last one is particularly fun, mainly because I get to see what lives at the bottom of the Pacific from a semi first person perspective. It’s also fun seeing a room full of physical science and engineering majors/professionals try to name the various animals that they see without having any particular background in biology. Futility has its entertainment values in specific conditions, I suppose.

The weather in the open sea has been amazing, I must admit. When I first set out, I had this image in my head where we’d be battling 40 foot swells and fighting the elements everyday. The first few days of sea sickness cured me of this fantasy.

Every morning after that has been more beautiful than the last. Calm seas so smooth that they look like the most reflective polymers; The sun so bright that its light seems to caress every cell in your body, like the beams were crafted just for you; The clouds so distantly soft that you almost want to pluck them from the sky and use them as a pillow; The wind so sweet that you can almost hear the songs that you want it to sing.

Sometimes I look at the water from the side of the Atlantis, and I have to resist every urge to jump into the water. The water laps at the hull of the vessel, every gentle touch acting like a siren’s song. If I were to jump in, I’m pretty sure that would be the end of the mission for me.

Overall, I’m appreciative of the experience. I’ve learned much about how research is conducted in the field, and it’s nice getting to know other people who have similar academic interests as mine. I’d recommend it for anyone interested.

Until next time

Jonás N Cervantes