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Expedition
to the Mariana forearc
Mar.
23 - May 4, 2003
Day
23, April 14th
(click
on any image for the larger version)
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Day
23 THE THRILL OF DISCOVERY
At
the beginning of this expedition almost everyone onboard answered
a short questionnaire about their work. These are posted on the
website. One of the questions was, “What is your favorite part of
what you do?” I quote parts of some of the responses:
“The
thrill of new discoveries.”
“The
act of discovery. “
“Learning
about discoveries.”
“Discovering
new and unique…”
“New
discoveries…”
“Discovering something brand new…”
Today
I got a taste of that feeling and Patty’s right—it’s better than
chocolate. In fact, chocolate doesn’t even come close.
How
can I even begin to describe the thrill, the excitement, the adrenalin
rush?
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Dr.
Seuss chimney formation, entire patch |
Quaker
Seamount abounds with faults and blue mud indicating it is probably
an area of active mud flow. Jason was launched at 0000 and reached
the sea floor summit of Quaker at 0200. For the next four hours
Jason flew over the sea floor stopping to pick up rocks and take
sediment samples using push cores—nothing super exciting. My watch
started at 0800 and the timing was perfect. Within 15 minutes we
spotted the most unusual chimney formation ever seen in the Marina
forearc. Nowhere has anything like this ever been seen before. There
were 8 of us in the control van and each of exclaimed, almost in
unison, “Dr. Seuss!”
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Look
at the pictures. Is this not something from the imagination of Dr.
Seuss? Did he travel here before us? I wish he was still alive to
see his art work come to life. The entire formation covered an area
about the size of a ping pong table and was about 6 feet tall. Some
of the thin, spindly chimney structures were up to 3 feet tall.
Although we were unable to see active flow the scientists have evidence
that these are actively forming chimneys. You can see broken pieces
at the base of the structure indicating that it is breaking and
reforming. The very white tips of the thin chimneys indicate recent
growth.
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Dr.
Seuss chimney formation, close-up |
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We
were at the site for 2.5 hours taking pictures, getting chimney
and rock samples, and push cores of the sediments from the sea floor
surrounding it. We were totally in awe the whole time and extremely
disappointed when the dive was stopped due to worsening weather
conditions. Typhoon Kujira (means “whale” in Japanese) was heading
towards Guam, and even though we are 500 miles to the north, we
are feeling the effects. In the control van my partner and I have
very specific jobs. Tom F. is in charge of making sure the 4 DVDs
are continuously recording from Jason’s two video cameras. I am
at the video monitor “grabbing” still pictures and labeling them
whenever a scientist yells, “Grab this,” or when ever I see something
interesting. Once back on the ship, Nathan is at the computers selecting
pictures to print. Everyone on the ship is excited about the discovery,
full of questions and wanting copies of the pictures. My copy will
get framed and have a place of honor in my home… classroom (looks
like I’m going to need two). This story is longer than average.
I will tell you more tomorrow. I am delighted to report that Typhoon
Kujira is expected to pass 160 miles to the south of Guam late tonight
or early in the morning. Since Guam is my home I am especially happy
to have received this news.
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Science
Summary - Day 24, April 15th
Science
Objectives, Day 23:
The
twenty-third day of the cruise, Apr. 14, as we were able to launch
Jason2/Medea at about midnight we will run the survey as long as
possible hoping to keep it on the bottom for at about a day to explore
the summit flows and some prominent fault scarps visible on the
DSL-120 images of the summit region of the seamount. If the weather
precludes continuing the lowering, we will core the summit at sites
of apparent active upwelling of fluids if such are discovered on
the bottom. We plan to leave transponders on the seamount if the
vehicle has to resurface and use the transponder net to navigate
the core.
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