|
Expedition
to the Mariana forearc
Mar.
23 - May 4, 2003
Day
26, April 17th
(click
on any image for the larger version)
|
Day
26
Each
Jason dive
is called a lowering and gets a number even if the “dive” is just
a dunk in the ocean. The dive that didn’t happen last night was
number 35. You can see that Jason-2 is just a kid—he’s only been
down 35 times.
|
| While
Medea and Jason were back on the deck for repairs, we set a course
to continue collecting data for mapping the area around Big Blue Seamount.
By 1100, Medea’s camera was repaired and Jason was on his way back
down to Big Blue. Patty had
dreams of bubbling mud pots on the summit of Big Blue because this
area has so much evidence of activity. She was a bundle of activity
in anticipation of seeing the break-away core and the potential of
bubbling mud. |
Bubbling blue mud joke |
| Although
the navigation is very accurate, it can still take a while to find
targets in the deep sea. Jason is good, but it is slow, so it takes
a long time to cover any distance, especially if you are looking for
one very small target. Four hours later we found the hole made by
the break-away core. The lip of the core pipe went much deeper than
expected and had sunk about 2 feet deep into the mud but the plastic
bucket lid used as a marker was very visible. The bucket lid had been
tied to the core pipe before it was deployed. |
Medea brought back on deck for repairs. |
There
was no visible water flow from the hole made by the break-way core
pipe. The party hat (benthic barrel) was placed over the hole in
hopes of concentrating any water flowing up from the bottom of the
core pipe. While waiting, Jason was used to collect 8 push cores
of sediment and mud at intervals of 25 meters from the pipe hole
across the diameter of the summit vent. Returning to the core hole,
Jason took a water sample, collected the party hat and returned
to the surface.
|
|
The
chemists were non-stop action as they gathered the samples and made
for the lab. The mud from the push cores was packed into small bottles,
spun at high speed in the centrifuge, the pore water decanted and
the chemical analysis started immediately. This is time consuming
and exacting work but the lab had a party atmosphere. The music
was loud and the voices of the chemists filled the air with enthusiasm
about expected results.
|
Mud sample bottles |
Meanwhile,
Nathan and I
are standing a watch in the computer room across the hall collecting
sonar data as we head back to Quaker Seamount. This watch is not
very exciting—we just look at the computer screens to be sure the
data is being recorded. Nathan was showing me his pictures of a
trip to New Zealand which he had stored on his laptop. He went on
an amazing field trip with a group of university students and a
professor to study the volcanic activity of New Zealand. It was
then he realized he had a picture of bubbling mud pots from that
trip. One thing led to another and soon we had colored it blue,
printed a large copy and labeled it, “Jason Lowering # 35.” Remember
dive #35—the lowering that didn’t happen? We posted it near the
entrance to the computer room and waited for the unsuspecting to
pass by.
|
|
Everyone
got a good laugh from our bubbling blue mud pots but Patty was the
best. She did an incredible double-take before she gave us that,
“You kids,” look and shake of the head that teachers and mothers
are famous for.
Science
Summary - Day 26, April 17th
Science
Objectives, Day 26:
The
twenty-sixth day of the cruise, Apr. 17, we will perform a second
lowering on Big Blue Seamount in order to find and observe the break-away
corer and to perform a transect of push coring across the summit
of the largest mound on the summit of Big Blue.
|
Return
to the Daily Update Page
|
