Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space

Follow UNH professor and researcher, Karen Von Damm, and her crew on leg 6 of voyage 7 on the R/V Atlantis, a Woods Hole Research Vessel. The following log is Karen Von Damm's e-mail from the R/V Atlantis . . . Click on the images for a full view.

Research Log
East Pacific Rise; 9-10°N latitude

Monday, January 28, 2002
The plan for today was to go to another area of venting at 9 38.8°N. In order to do this, we put out transponders here 2 days ago. The weather, however, is not cooperating. High winds blowing since yesterday continue - although the skies are sunny. The A-frame on Atlantis has been having some problems, and we decide because of the wind and resulting waves, that it is not safe to launch Alvin today. The divers for today are disappointed - hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 29, 2002
Another blowing day - and no dive.

Wednesday, January 30, 2002
The weather is good enough to dive today. Given that we have already lost 2 dives, the dives need to be reordered. If we only had onedive left, where would we go and what would we do? This must be today's dive. So we're off to the Hole-to-Hell area to resample five of the vents we have previously sampled on this cruise to see if there is short term temporal variability in their chemistry and temperature. We also deploy our long term recording temperature probes, so we can evaluate longer term (year) variability, at least in temperature, since we do not yet have the technology to leave any chemical sensors in vents for these kinds of time scales.

Thursday, January 31, 2002
Today is also good enough to dive, so today we do our second most important remaining objectives. Today Alvin goes to the 9 46'N vent area to resample some of the vents there, to sample some of the other vents there that we haven't yet sampled this cruise, as well as to put out a long term recording temperature probe.

Friday, February 1, 2002
The evening before we lost the two dives to weather, we had set another transponder net, to go to some vents we haven't sampled since 1994. Since we now have accomplished our most critical objectives, we finally make the dive to 9 39'N, to vents we call "B"and "C". We find that B vent is now extinct - the first vent we have previously worked on that we have found to be no longer active on this cruise. However C vent remains active, so we sample it. When we et the samples into the shipboard lab, we find that the vent fluids here have become very salty fluids - by far the saltiest we have sampled yet this cruise. C vent has changed a lot during the past 8 years!

While the sub is still on the seafloor, we call the transponders back from this area, and they are back on the deck of Atlantis long before Alvin is. Once Alvin is back on deck, we head south to 9 30'N, an area we have not yet been to. The transponders - with new weights and tethers - go back over the side, and we have the final net we need in place. The ship is driven around for several hours, surveying this net in, and we are set to dive here tomorrow.

Saturday, February 2, 2002
Today is another dive to an area rarely visited - K vent. The weather is a little more blowy, so after a half hour weather delay, to see if the weather will improve or get worse, Alvin is indeed launched. Some of the vents, like K and C and F don't have much in the way of biological communities, so it is mostly the chemists and not the biologists who are interested in them. This means they get visited and sampled much less frequently. However, these sites without tubeworms, etc., are also of interest to the microbiologists too. K vent is active, and is sampled. On a cruise last fall a temperature spike was found in the water column, not too far from K vent. So once this dive is done with their planned work at this vent, they drive off to the southeast to do a little exploration to see if they can find the source of this temperature spike. The deep ocean is isothermal over large areas, so temperature spikes found with autonomous vehicles, or on temperature sensors on other sampling gear dangled from ships on wires, may mean a new vent is in an area. The sub goes to the area, but nothing is found that might indicate the origin of this temperature spike.

Meanwhile, the transponders are called back by Atlantis, and when they and Alvin are back on board, we leave this area and head north again.

Sunday, February 3, 2002
Today will be our last dive in the 9 46-47°N area. We resample some other vents, to see if they are varying temporally, as well as to try to get better samples. Some interesting biology was noted in this area on a previous dive, and some additional biological samples are collected. The vents sampled today are ones that we believe had not been sampled before this cruise, so its important that we document them well. We release the three transponders we had in this area. When they are back on Atlantis, we head north, to our last dive site, and slightly closer to San Diego.

Meanwhile shipboard, this has been an exciting day. There has been a heated ping pong competition on board for most of the cruise. Today is the final. Many assemble in the main lab to watch the match between the captain and Eric Olson, one of the members of the science party. It's the best 3 out of 5 - the captain wins the first game, Eric the next two, the captain the 4th, so it comes down to the 5th, and final game. In a close, and exciting, match the captain wins. In the evening, people try to catch the Super Bowl on intermittent radio signals. Atlantis is based in Massachusetts, and many on board are Patriots fans. There are many happy people on board at the end of the Super Bowl.