Today I would like to take you on a visual journey through the sampling process described yesterday. It has taken a bit of time to get all the pictures collated…the price of up to date blogging is pictures tend to lag behind. So to go with yesterdays blogs description, here is a dive in colour.
1) Pre-dive checks
...science kit check attached...check. We packed what we need! (by Chris Sweeting)
2) ROV checks
Smile your on camera ...and it works. The affectionately named bum cam gives a view aft so there is no excuse for reversing into things. It is particularly useful for going down hill as the front of the ROV can easily loose sight of the sea floor as it drops away out of camera shot. Note the drum of the suction sampler behind the camera with colour coded chambers to receive samples. You'll see that later again. The green thing with red circles is the doppler, part of the navigation equipment.
3) Thunderbirds are go
Over the side goes Isis. She is built in 3 layers. The red and yellow top provides the buoyancy, the middle houses the thrusters, hydraulics and electronics and the bottom is broadly science kit. At the front left you see the hose of the suction sampler. Centre is a white insulated bio-box on a swing arm. Its for stuff that is too big to go up the suction tube. On the right are a rack of niskin bottles...mini versions of the CTD water bottles that serve the same purpose, collecting water from specific locations. The front tool tray also has some titanium syringes for sucking up vent fluid, a big bio box, temperature probe and the ROV's emergency cutter. There is another swing arm bio box on the other side
4) Descent…for a little over 2 hours
Dave pilots the ROV down through the water column early in the dive. It is a great place to watch TV. 8 TVs and 12 monitors are wired into the ROV van which is made from two shipping containers bolted together and sealed to the drafts with plenty of expanding foam....
5) Talk amongst yourselves….this may take a while…sunrise rises during my water. It is light by 02:00.
Sun rise over the Southern Ocean...in this case it is a visual representation of time passing
6) A day at the office for those awake but not on watch
The plotting table...Huge print out maps are laid here for planning and it is the general office space for many during the day. The walls are covered with white boards including the messages for the day. The best one yet is "Wake me 15 minutes before discovering new vent sites on ext #***" Big screens in the main lab stop the small control van getting crowded with eager eyes allowing the watch and crew to do their job. In this case the upper TV shows the pilot's camera is looking at a large male crab in the hotter water while the lower TV is showing the science camera looking into a cluster of crabs in diffuse flow.
7) Waiting to receive samples
Isis is still coming on deck in the background as the group of scientists (all very warmly dressed) wait to be given permission to approach the vehicle and receive samples.
8) The sample grab
Diva gathering the chambers of the suction sampler after it has been slid out from under the ROV. The white chamber is full of vent snails. These have a symbiosis with bacteria which they host in their body. The bacteria use the chemical soup to generate their food energy which the snails then benefit from. In return they get a nice sheltered place to live
9) Samples galore. The catch of the day to be dispersed among all the various scientists and their respective research questions
The Kiwa crab (top) with the hairy chest and another shot of the vent snails (bottom) which are really slimy and produce a weak black/violet mucus. Lunch anyone? The whole lot smells of rotten eggs from the hydrogen sulphide which the vents produce and the bacteria use.
10) Sample sorting and allocation
- Kartin (top) sorts, labels and allocates samples. Note by the end the samples have a unique individual number
11) Sampling chain begins
Will takes a muscle sample (left) while Jane takes an equivalent of a blood sample.
And just to round off. The ROV is currently doing what is a last bit of exploration at a site on E2, north of where we usually dive. We have detected vent plumes but as of the close of my watch 04:00 on the 16th we have not found the vents responsible yet. Here’s hoping for a nice finish to work at E2. We have already overstayed the plan by 2/3 days but it looks like we still have ice to the south over E9 and the caldera. We therefore will up anchor…er …remove the auto park hand break and head south. At present we are only going as far as a ridge section called E5. This is a new section of ridge to me. No one has dived there ever, although way back almost 5 years ago now, the first cruise of the project dropped the CTD in the area and weak plume signals were detected. So a bit of truly new exploration until we can get to E9.
Chris