Back on land and two weeks left!

August 28th, 2010

I survived the research cruise! It was such an awesome experience to be working at sea (I did not even get seasick). We deployed 24 broadband OBSs and 10 short-period OBSs and conducted some bathymetry surveys. Ship life is 24/7 and quite unique. People sleep at all times during the day and I worked 4 am - 8 am and then 4 pm - 8 pm each day. I must say I probably will not miss waking up at 3:30 am each morning but I do feel strange walking on a steady surface. Working a shift meant writing logs every fifteen minutes noting our depth, latitude, longitude, heading, ship speed, wind direction, wind speed, sea and air temperature, and any cool bathymetry or important events. Sometimes we would have to wake up our computer tech to deploy the magnetometer or wake up the OBS crew thirty minutes before we reached a station. We also edited some multi-beam bathymetry data and helped pick point for bathymetry surveys. On my shift, we were usually deploying an OBS which involved writing down the OBS serial numbers, noting any conditions or problems that may have on impact on retrieving the OBS a year from now, finding the OBS's initial descent rate, and calculating an ETA to the bottom of the ocean. We would have to communicate with the bridge and let them know when to raise the bow thrusters and start moving again. After each OBS successfully landed on the sea floor, the ship would start a diamond shaped survey around the OBS to make sure communication with the instrument was clear. At the end of the survey, the OBS crew would send a disabling signal that put the OBS into sleep mode.

We returned to one OBS site at the very end of the cruise to try retrieving it so we could take a quick look at the data. There had been an earthquake on 08/23 the instrument should have recorded. The OBS is recovered with an acoustic release. Once we returned to the deployment site, the OBS crew transmitted a a "hey, wake-up" signal. The OBS sent a return pulse and by timing how long it took the OBS to respond, we could estimate how far away it was from the shift. A code was then sent to make the OBS release from its anchor and float to the surface. I think the best part was everyone running to the bow to see if they could spot its little flag rising to the surface.

After looking at maps of all of our stations and digitizing faults, it was exciting to actually visit the site and know that we were filling in several gaps in the gravity and magnetics maps. Some of the faults had never been mapped to 100-meter resolution before! On the fun side of things, I saw dolphins, seals, whales, and porpoises! I loved climbing down into the bow dome which has these underwater windows. Of course to get there meant climbing down this shaft and doing a ninety degree ladder switch, but it was well worth it! Most of our trip was cloudy but we did catch a few gorgeous sunsets and the moon rising over the water. I will certainly miss all of the interesting people and friends I made on the trip.

While on the ship, I wrote my AGU abstract so could Monica could edit it. I still have a lot of work to complete! In the next two weeks, I will continue developing on my velocity model for the uppermost mantle and crust in the Channel Islands region. My project will follow me back to Rowan and I hope I can complete everything for AGU!