Transcript ­ Dive 3343


Port Observer ­ John Sinton
Date: 2 February, 1999, Port Obs: John Sinton; Stbd Obs.: Cindy Van Dover;
Pilot: Blee Williams

Way Points (Net origin18° 41'S 113°26'W):
1 (launch) 4000 8580
2 3310 7770
3 3420 6550
4 2630 6000
5 2810 4790
6 2090 3050


Time Hdg Depth
0800 Alvin in the water
0858 >1000 Begin rotations to calibrate maggie. Spinning counter clockwise at 1 Deg/sec. Beginning with heading of 200
0915 Finished doing maggie spins.Three complete rotations. Begin driving ahead. Drove ahead for one; drove astern for one minute. Drove up for one minute.
0918 Finished driving up. Now driving down. Finished maggie calibration.
1006 Bottom in sight. Lobate lavas with fairly uniform, relatively thin coating of sediment, maybe 1-2 mm thick. Age 1 to 1.5.
1012 More bulbous pillows; sediment cover fairly light; no pockets. Pillows are budded.
1013 anemones on pillows
1015 very glassy pillows with buds and anemones. Sediment coating is a fine dusting with some very small pockets.
1019 224 looking for place to sample. No real sediment pockets just uniform dusting
1021 223 external 35 mm camera rep rate set at 30 sec.
1023 333 attempting to sample on glassy, budded pillows.
1025 326 first sample attempt failed.
1030 2689 Sample 3343-1: X=4023 Y=8518 Depth=2689 m. Horn (bud) from pillow flow.
1033 finished sampling; ~15 cm horn-shaped bud from pillow. Very glassy lava. These pillows more bulbous than were we first came down. Pillows here have diameters of 1 m or more. Much ornamentation (budding). Sample put in basket compartment 1A.
1035 310 turning to go SW toward WP 2.
1036 234 2686
1037 224 2687 Still in dusted, budded pillow flow. Some striations on pillows.
1039 222 2685 Swinging around slightly to go up slope to right. Good pillow flow with a lot of relief. Very glassy and heavily budded. Definitely striated. As we head 243, flow direction appears to be from right to left under sub.
1039 2682 Pillows becoming flatter, more lobate, less budded. Anemones, holothurians. Moving into definite lobate lavas.
1042 244 2681 flows vary from pillows to lobate, but mostly lobate lava here.
1043 242 2679 collaps pit with sheet flows in it. Main lava type is lobate with local collapses. Lobate lave becoming very flat, almost sheet flow. Collapses range up to about 2 m across. One pit larger probably 5-10 x 10-15 m in size. Bottom has a sheet flow in it. There are bathtub rings all around the margins.
1045 241 Sediment dusting may be decreasing. Lavas are transitional between lobate and sheet flows. Lots of small collapse structures and some of them are pretty big. It is elongate with a strike of crudely 290. Local area of jumbled sheet lava and then back into relatively low relief lobate lavas.
1047 242 2676 gently coming up slope. Alternating lava forms from striated pillows up to 1 m in diameter to more lobate lavas. Mostly heavily budded pillows. Blee sees some turbid water and amphipods in the water. Anemones
1049 250 2674 maggie reading about 31000 over most of this area.
1051 248 2674 south of Animal Farm by ~200 m so turning to 324 to get there
1056 327 2673
1057 327 2673 Some lobate lavas here, lightly dusted with sediment. Locally collapsed
1059 327 2670 Large collapse down in front about 3-4 m with sheet flows below. Kind of looks like lobate lavas are on top of sheet flow but not real clear. Some bathtub rings. Increasing anemones and spaghetti worms. Another drop off ahead of us. Descend to much flatter sheet flow.
1102 309 2669 Dropping down onto smooth sheet flow. Entering Animnal Farm. Can see animal populations here and there. Lots of anemones and spaghetti worms. Sheet flow locally tilted. Crabs, gastropods. Some mussels. Broken shells. Some cup-like things. Some orange anemones. On a very flat sheet flow, locally wrinkled.
1108 319 2676 Cluster of anemones, broken shells, snails, crabs, spaghetti. Beautiful anemone field on sheet flow.
1109 292 2672 Some turbid water and animal concentrations increasing. Major anemone field. Mainly flat sheet flow.
1114 283 2675 X=3523, Y=8433, attempting to sample mussel beds.
1120 283 2675 sampling with stock pot.
1124 2675 Sample 3343-2: Biological sample, taken with mussel pot.
1123 275 2675 finished sampling mussels; looking for place to take rock sample. =3523, Y=8433, Depth=2675. Sampling sheet flow at Animal Farm. Samples encrusted with organisms. Maggie reading = 31126.
1131 2675 Sample 3343-3: Sheet flow sample. X=3523; Y=8432
1134 277 2675 Finished taking samples 2 and 3. Heading off to WP 2.
1141 215 2672 Still in biological field. Small worms and anemones.
1142 Dense field of enemones and mussels. Not much shimmering water. Animals appear to prefer more broken up lava to the smooth sheet flows. Flows variable here from very smooth to more wrinkled and locally jumbled. Edge of the field has snails.
1143 201 2673 Moving out of the main biological zone and beginning to see lobate lavas, still with pink anemones on it. Lobate lava locally collapsed. Not obviously a different flow. Looks more like different form of Animal Farm flow. Collapses show that the crust of the lobate lavas are very thin.
1144 284 2672 Jumbled and wrinkled (folded) sheet lavas ­ mostly jumbled. Very glassy and quite jumbled.
1146 202 2671 Lobate lavas. Maybe sitting on top of sheet lava(?). This is a fairly small area that gives way again to sheet lavas. The sheet lava is extremely smooth about 6-7 m across in channel running left to right below submarine. Then back into jumbled sheet flows
1147 204 2670 Jumbled sheet flows.
1148 205 2670 bottom may be sloping away slightly. Lavas vary from some very smooth sheets to highly jumbled sheet lava. Wavelength of folds in jumbled sheets mainly on a scale of centimeters to decimeters. Jumbled sheet flow areas are like levees that bound the smooth and lineated sheet flow channels running left to right below us. Channels here typically 6-7 m across. Far margin of one of them transitions into longer-wavelength wrinkles about 2-3 m across and then back into a very flat, lineated sheet flow channel. This one is about 15 m across. Far side is more jumbled sheets and then back into another flat, smooth, lineated sheet flow channel.
1150 201 2672 Fine dusting of sediment, 1 mm or so. Some biological concentrations in cracks
1151 Back into jumbled sheet lava. Few crabs. Some local lobate lavas with collapse pits in them a couple meters across.
1152 205 2671 Moving off axis, lavas becoming increasing bulbous, here have transition from lobate to budded pillow lavas, back into more sheet lava. Rapid transitions between lava types. However there definitely is less sheet lava here and more lobate. Some lobate lavas are locally collapsed, with vertical dimensions of ~ _ m.
1155 201 2670 Almost to WP 2 (~150 m). Lobate lavas. Haven't seen sheet lava for a while. Fine dusting of sediment and some white staining on the rocks. These are relatively flat lobate lavas, with vertical dimensions of ~ 30 cm; no buds but rather quite smooth surfaces.
1157 284 2669 Spaghetti worms draping the surface, anemones. Some turbid water.
1158 204 2670 Glassy lobate lava with lots of sphaghetti worms
1159 203 2671 Small step down or collapse gives way to sheet flows below. Very flat sheets running left to right below submarine. (Sub heading 201). Sheet flow is locally lineated. Some spaghetti worms around. Sheet flow is very flat, about 20-25 m across. Far side is lobate lava maybe lying on top of sheet lava. Also a lot of jumbled and broken lobate lava along the far margin. Then move into extremely jumbled sheet flows.
1201 205 2671 Mainly jumbled sheet flows which step down to a smooth and lineated sheet. Lineations strike about 10 o'clock to submarine. Some 1 m wavelength folds but mostly jumbles with pieces up to 1 m in size, down to much smaller pieces. Some wrinkles have wavelengths of about 10 cm.
1203 2670 Turning south toward WP 3.
1204 177 2669 Jumbled sheet lava. Then into lobate lava, locally collapsed with pits up to 2 m deep with bathtub rings.
1207 266 2671 Near margin between sheet lava and lobate lava.
1211 268 2671 Sample # 4. X=3352, Y=7653. Folded and platy piece of aphyric lobate lava about 25 cm long. Glassy rind 1 cm or less.
1216 223 2670 Lobate lavas. Finished taking sample #4. Locally collapsed down _ m or more. Can see bathtub rings in margins of collapses.
1217 185 2671 Larger collapses with pillars up to ~1 m high. Lots of crabs and spaghetti worms, also some bacterial mats (?). This one is kind of a linear collapse with lots of small pillars, ~1 m high. The collapse (fissure) may be deepening to south.
1219 185 2670 Come out of collapsed area into more in tact lobate lavas, still with lots of spaghetti worms around and a number of crabs. Some smaller collapses come into view.
1220 182 2670 Area of broken lobate lava with much staining on the rocks and an area of active diffuse venting with shimmering water. Quite a bit of brown hydrothermal sediment, stained rocks and diffuse hydrothermal fluid flow. Lots of stuff in the water. Excellent diffuse flow area at X=3375; Y=7548.
1221 Lots of diffuse flow and shimmering water all around us. Lots of crabs. Brown sediment coating on all rock surfaces; lots of junk (bacteria?) in the water. Some shrimp.
1224 south 2671 Spaghetti woms, crabs and dandelions, bacteria.
1225 177 2670 Lobate lavas, lot of fish. Still in region of diffuse flow. Almost exclusively lobate lavas, not very broken up.
1227 186 2670 Scattered life. Minor collapse in lobate lava. Lava forms getting lower relief, almost sheet lavas as we proceed. Locally lobate lavas on top (?) of sheet lavas. Still spaghetti worms. There are a few buds on the lobate lavas but mostly rather smooth surfaces with dusting of sediment on all surfaces; no sediment pockets.
1229 186 2670 Mostly lobate lavas, mostly unbroken. Some pillows also around. Relief on lava forms now up to _ m or more, locally up to almost 2 m. Local relief mainly about 1 m. Transitional to pillows, not yet striated, but some are budded and pillow diameters up to 2 m. Pillows generally poke up through surrounding lobate lavas.
1231 182 2671 Some good pillows here, but still dominantly lobate lava. Restricted pillows.
1232 184 2670 Now seeing some collapses in lobate lavas. Collapses mainly about 1 m in diameter. Series of collapses running parallel to submarine.
1233 181 2668 Larger collapsed areas in lobate lavas with sheet lavas in the collapsed areas. One collapse pit has a pillar about 2 m high, then back into uncollapsed lobate surfaces.
1235 181 2669 Lobate lavas with some small collapses. Relief on flow is mainly about _ m, locally 1 m, except for collapses which can be >1 m. Thin crusts on most collapsed lobate lavas. Sediment dusting is quite thin.
1236 184 2670 Good fissure-like structure striking approximately 200 with jumbled sheet flows in it. It is filled mainly with wrinkled, locally jumbled sheet lavas. Over a small rise is rather smooth, locally folded sheet lavas. Looking to sample smoothly folded sheet lavas.
1239 2672 Folded sheet flows, locally lineated.
1244 2672 Sample #5: Blade-shaped, folded sheet lava. X=3454, Y=7059. Pure glass, tear-shaped in cross section.
1250 180 2669 Finished sampling. Continuing to WP 3. Maybe not yet quite to the axis. Came out of sheet lavas, into mainly unbroken lobate lavas.
1251 182 2671 Some budded pillows but varying to lobate lavas. Some truly striated pillows 3 m long by 1 m high with longitudinal striations. Then back into mainly lobate lavas.
1253 183 2671 Mostly in lobate lava, locally transitional to budded pillows.
1255 183 2671 Good lobate lavas, fairly flat, about _ m local relief. Some local sheet flows, but mostly lobate lavas.
1256 184 2671 Coming into some folded sheet flows, locally mixed in with lobate lavas in places.
1257 183 2673 Small collapse containing sheet flows below a lobate surface. Sediment cover seems a bit heavier here, but maybe just flatter surfaces.
1258 Good glassy lobate lavas.
1301 210 2674 Lobate lavas. Starting to see accumulations of several mm on flatter lava surfaces.
1302 212 2675 Most lobate lavas and pillows, with some bulbous pillows with buds and longitudinally striated. Pillows several m across. Some pillows appear to be on underlying lobate lava surfaces.
1305 233 2675 Still heading for WP 3. Mostly pillows with a few lobate lavas. No sheets for some time. Mostly transitional between lobate and pillows.
1306 238 2675 Just past WP 3, turning for WP 4.
1309 232 2675 Lobate lavas with sediment on it. Some accumulations in pockets; some larger, more bulbous pillows look like squeeze outs in lobate lavas.
1310 2675 Looking for place to sample.
1318 2676 Sample #6: X=2473, Y=6226. Bud from pillow.
1320 235 2675 Heading for WP 4. Sample #6 from pillow but there are lobate lavas around. Moving out over more lobate lava. Local relief mostly less than _ m. Sediment cover appears to be decreasing. Some shallow collapses.
1322 236 2673 Collapsed lobate lavas with folded sheet lava down in them. Pillars 1-2 m high. Uncollapsed surface is lobate but down in them is folded sheet lavas.
1324 236 2671 Consistent very glassy lobate lava dusted by sediment; local sediment accumulations a few mm thick. Locally collapsed, consistently with sheet flows under the collapsed rim.
1324 236 2670 Coming into sheet flow area, locally lineated, elsewhere folded and wrinkled. Sheet flow locally broken up and/or folded. Then back into unbroken lobate lava.
1326 233 2668 Coming up a bit. Here in collapsed lobate lava; collapses less than _ m deep. Come over a little step into jumbled sheet flow area with some broken plates of folded sheet flow and lobate material. Then into a very smooth and lineated sheet flow with lineations running from lower left to upper right below the submarine. Collapse on starboard side. Good sheet flow to port. Very flat and lineated. Probably crossing the axis with lots of collapses, bathtub rings. Fairly large fissure here. Measured depth is 12 m below us.
1329 2667 Mesotech shows bottom something like 12 m below us. Being recorded. Bottom now about 10 m below us. Bathtub rings all around us. Appears to be shallowing to SW. Sheet flows in bottom, locally quite jumbled. Maybe some dead worms out stbd side.
1331 235 2675 Now down near bottom of fissure. Some dead worms here. Coming to far wall on stbd side. Beginning to climb up tilted sheet flow slabs at depth of 2672 m. Sheet flows are tilted down into fissure on SW side.
1332 237 2667 Have come up out of the fissure. Some collapsed lobate lavas with spaghetti worms on this side. This lava looks less sedimented than that on the east side. Locally a good fresh sheet flow. Lots of spaghetti worms around as we pass into gently folded sheet flows. Then another collapse zone
1334 Crossing a collapse zone dropping down below us. White, yellow and red staining on rocks. Definitely looks younger on this side. Mainly sheet flows, some are folded, some are broken, some are jumbled.
1336 236 2668 Very jumbled sheet flows here; but also lots of collapsed lobate lavas around.
1336 Coming onto another step down, 1-2 m, with lots of folded sheets and broken plates and bathtub rings.
1340 2677 Bottom of fissure, preparing to sample.
1344 2677 Sampling folded sheets in axial fissure.
1346 2677 Sample #7. X=2924, Y=6111. Tabular piece with glass on both sides. Sample is 3-4 cm thick, 10-12 cm long.
1349 2676 Finished sampling.
1351 Very flat sheet flow here. This flow ramps up to right with some cracks and breaks. Some plates are tilted and appear to mantle underlying bathtub rings near the margin. Very large slabs of tilted sheets as we climb up out of the channel like structure. As we come out into an area of wrinkled and jumbled sheet flows. Then into smoothly folded to lineated sheet flows, which strike from about 7:30 to 8 o'clock below the submarine.
1353 252 2669 Very flat and lineated sheet flows. Very flat surfaces without much sediment. Some folds and waves but mostly very flat.
1355 250 2671 Mostly gently folded sheet flows. Almost lobate in places. Some more extensively folded sheet flows coming down from 10 o'clock. These give way to some beautifully lineated sheet flows.
1357 251 2673 Going down hill a bit. Excellent channel structure with folded and lineated sheets locally almost braided sheets. Also some very smooth sheets here. Got it all!
1358 252 2675 Somewhat more irregular here, becoming more jumbled. One flow is 7-8 m across, striking oblique to heading. It has a folded to jumbled margin with flat, lineated to braided channel. Some margins have the beginning of lobate surfaces but this are intermixed with jumbled sheet flows.
1402 171 2678 On our way to WP 5. Seeing lobate lavas here.
1403 Back into very flat and lineated sheet flows. This channel about 6-8 m across then back into lobate lava margin
1404 171 2677 Back into braided sheet flows giving way to some flatter sheets. Back and forth every couple of meters.
1407 171 2671 In very flat sheets, with local folded and almost jumbled sheets on channel margins.
1408 169 2671 Coming up slightly in wrinkled and folded sheet flows. Long axis of folds is from left to right below submarine. Down a little hill of slightly folded sheets to a region of very flat sheets then back again to folded sheets. Back up the other side is mostly folded and wrinkled sheets.
1411 171 2668 Repeated pattern of flat sheets in the bottoms of channel-like lows. Some up to 15-20 m across. Typically have folded sheet margins. Some folds are out in channels. Some channels up to 30 m across.
1413 170 2669 Came out of a region of jumbled sheets in a region of lobate lavas then back into folded sheets. Some broken, gently folded sheets then back into more lobate-like lavas.
1415 172 2670 Very flat sheet flow area here. Fine dusting of sediment. Almost not even lineated. A few folds locally present.
1416 2670 Came out of very flat sheet area into region of jumbled sheets. Drop off collapse to port side. Drops down 4 m. First of axial fissures. Floored by jumbled sheets.
1419 176 2669 Margin has bathtub rings. Far side has lobate lavas. Then another collapse out in front of us. Surface between collapses is lobate lava. Then it drops 2-3 m in steps to next fissure with lots of bathtub rings all around the sides. Tilted slabs of broken lobate lavas mantle the margins.
1421 2669 Very flat slabby sheets that break up into large plates about 5-8 cm thick.
1422 177 2669 Fissure collapses with bathtub rings and pillars 1-2 m high. Lots of sphaghetti worms around edges of collapsed areas.
1423 180 2667 Here there are lobate lavas.
1424 180 2668 Region where there used to be hydrothermal activity with quite a bit of brown sediment around. Several pillars up to 2-3 m high at most. Lots of local collapse but surface is lobate lavas. Maximum collapse depth is 2-3 m here.
1427 2669 Pillars 1-2 m high, locally with connecting tops. Bathtub rings everywhere. Surface is lobate but mostly collapsed with rubbly bottom.
1429 182 2668 Lobate surface with some collapses from 1-2 m across, dropping down 1-2 m. Crabs around edges of collapses. Surface is definitely lobate, relatively unsedimented.
1431 184 2669 Lobate lavas. Fairly young looking lava. Some spaghetti worms around. Fairly intact but a few local collapses.
1433 2669 Lobate lavas with a few collapses down about 1 m. Beginnings of buds in places.
1435 189 2669 Lobate flow field. Finely dusted with sediment.
1444 2672 Sample #8: X=2826, Y=4801. Slabby piece of lobate lava.
1452 201 2671 Finished sampling, moving off toward WP 6. Here in recently sampled lobate lava field.
1455 205 2672 Mostly lobate lavas but some slightly elongate pillows. Then into some smooth sheet flows, locally broken.
1456 204 2672 Drops off into a flat sheet area 3-4 m across, then back into jumbled sheet margin. These give way to smoother sheets with some folds.
1459 2676 Beautiful braided sheet flow (Dog Hair!) These give way up slope to some more folded sheets and then into lobate lavas transitional to pillow lavas. Some buds.
1502 204 2677 Mostly combinatin of lobate and sheet lava. Sheets are folded sheets which give way in low-lying areas to flat sheets. These are lineated in most places striking about 10 o'clock to submarine. Far side is lobate lava stepping up about 50 cm.
1504 201 2679 Lobate and pillow lavas here, locally heavily budded, bulbous pillows about 1 m in diameter.
1505 201 2680 Came across a small collapse with sheet flow in it. Here are smooth, slightly folded sheet flow. Far wall is tilted sheet slabs. Also some braided sheets here.
1506 205 2682 Mostly sheet flows here, some very flat, most are lineated.
1507 205 2680 Sheet flows, some are flat some are jumbled. Low-lying areas are flat.
1509 204 2679 Back into lobate lava, locally collapsed. Some folded sheets mixed in. Step down in front of us has folded sheets in it. Many broken plates and bathtub rings around.
1510 206 2679 Rise of lobate lava gives way to very jumbled sheet flows then back up to lobate rise. This steps down again with very jumbled sheets in the bottom.
1514 2679 Settling down in sheet flow area for sample #9.
1515 2679 Sample #9, X=2676, Y=4154. Weakly folded sheet flow from fissured area.
1521 207 2677 Finished sampling. Here in sheet flows.
1523 210 2678 Moving between lobate and sheet flows. Moving out into a slightly braided sheet flow but most here is very flat sheet flow running about 10 o'clock. Margin is folded sheets then 2 m of flat sheets then back into broken up sheet flows.
1524 211 2678 Jumbled sheet flows which give way to flat sheet channels about 10 m across. Flat sheets are lineated running about 9:30 to submarine. Sheet flows locally braided.
1525 206 2678 Just back into some lobate lava with about _ m of relief on them.
1526 208 2679 Lobate lavas give way to folded sheets then back to lobate lavas.
1527 209 2677 Consistent lobate lavas here. Some are budded in what look like small ooze-outs. Mainly flat lobes about 30-40 cm thick. Small collapse down about 1 m. Some folded sheets on the surface near the collapse (not down in it) but mostly lobate lava here. Then another smallcollapse, back to lobate, with a larger collapse out in front of us.
1539 2679 Sample #10: X=2568, Y=3903.
1540 weights away, beginning ascent.

PAU