Expedition to the Northern Galapagos Islands

Wrap-up

2010-06-18T00:40:00.000-07:00

We are nearing the end of our cruise, so we thought we should wrap it up for you. Here are summaries from the majority of the science party. This post will be edited many times as people continue to get their parts uploaded, so check back soon!

Dennis:

FLAMINGO yielded a rich variety of basalts, which I will be studying for the next couple of years. While on the cruise, I have been removing glass fragments from all of the rocks we collected and mounting them in epoxy disks. Later this summer I will use an electron microprobe to determine the glasses' chemical compositions. These data will allow me to estimate where the magmas initially formed, how they were modified as they ascended through the Nazca and Cocos Plates, and what drove their eruption. I am especially intrigued by the rocks with tons of feldspar crystals and where the feldspar came from. Also, these rocks are notably poor in olivine; they are among the olivine-poorest lavas I've ever seen in the oceanic setting.

Chris Sinton:

During the cruise, we took slabs of rock from each of the dredge hauls for radiometric dating. I will be using this material after the cruise to determine the eruption ages of the lavas using the 40Ar-39Ar method at the laboratory at Oregon State University (OSU). A critical step before the analysis is to carefully prepare the rock samples. So I will work over the summer to crush, sieve, pick, and clean the material. After that, I only need about 100mg of material, but it first needs to be subjected to radiation at the research reactor at OSU and then given a chance to cool down. I expect that I will have some meaningful data by spring of 2011. The ages will then be incorporated into the geochemical and geophysical information to better understand the evolution of the Galapagos region.
It has been a wonderful cruise with a great scientific and ship crew.

Mark Kurz:

During the post-cruise analytical program I will help with geochemical
measurements, particularly the noble gases and radiogenic isotopes in the
basalts. I am most interested in the submarine glasses that we collected.
These glasses trap magmatic gases when the hot lava flows erupt onto the ocean
floor and are chilled by the cold sea water temperatures. We will start with
helium, which is isotopically distinct between the Galapagos Spreading Center
and the Western Galapagos volcanoes, and will provide an indicator of hotspot
influence. I look forward to working with some of the undergraduates from
Colgate who were out on the ship and will follow up with lab projects.
Personally I learned a lot on the cruise. It was fantastic to see the new map
of the Northern Galapagos seafloor, from multibeam bathymetry and sonar, and
then to collect rocks using the new maps. Although dredging is a fairly crude
method, it is very efficient, and it is always fascinating to see what comes
up. There were many surprises, including the recovery of crustal and upper
mantle rocks in some of the dredges.

I also learned a lot from the undergraduates; their enthusiasm is contagious. I
have never been on a such an undergrad-dominated cruise and it was very
interesting and educational. I enjoyed most of their antics, particularly the
new bird sounds.

Eric Mittelstaedt:

I have worn many hats during the FLAMINGO cruise and each of these hats has come with a name: Way Point Man, Mother Hen, Gravity Man, Wog, and eventually Shellback. Each of these alter egos reflects a role I played or work I performed during the cruise. Now that the cruise is over, I will lay down many of these roles and when I enter a phone booth to turn into “super scientist” working with two data sets collected during the cruise: gravity and magnetics. Processing and modeling of the gravity anomalies will provide information on the crustal thickness, seamount volumes, and sub-crustal thermal structure of the lithosphere. Along with the chemistry, this will help to answer one of the key questions we hope to answer; how the plume gets to the ridge axis. Variations in the magnetic signal will be modeled to reconstruct the tectonic evolution of the area. These models will tell us if the ridge-like, linear features east of the transform fault are indeed fossil spreading centers or are created by other processes.

Alison Koleszar:

I had a great time on the FLAMINGO cruise with all of the fantastic crew, students, and scientists! We were lucky to find volcanic glass on many of the samples, and that glass will be very useful for studying the chemistry of the lavas erupted on the seafloor. I plan to measure the water and carbon dioxide concentrations in the glass samples that we collected. By studying these volatile elements, we can learn a lot about the source of the magmas that supply the volcanoes in this part of the Galápagos (do the magmas come from the upper mantle, the Galápagos plume, or both?). Additionally, volatile elements drive volcanic eruptions so it’s important to understand how they behave in the lavas erupted on the seafloor.
Thanks to everyone onboard for making this a great experience, and thanks again to Karen for inviting me to join in!

MR1 Sidescan, EM122 Multibeam and TowCam Data Sets from MV1007
(written by Dan Fornari)

The map based and seafloor imagery data sets collected during this cruise will be used to carry out numerous scientific objectives related to understanding the development of the Wolf-Darwin lineament and its association to the Galápagos plume and Galápagos Spreading Center. Prior to the cruise, we had only a very crude idea of the detailed structural and bathymetric features that have developed in this region. We now have sidescan imagery at 10 m spatial resolution and bathymetric data at 60 m spatial resolution and ~10 m vertical resolution. This information will allow us to relate both large-scale features (kilometer to 10s of km -scale) and smaller volcanic and structural elements that can give us clues about how the terrain formed and provide a context for the geochemical studies of the rocks that have been dredged. The TowCam seafloor images were collected over specific features and prominent acoustic reflectivity patterns seen in the MR1 sidescan data. The correlation between the bottom photographs and the sidescan backscatter will help us in our geological interpretations and producing integrated maps of the volcanoes and intervening seafloor in the northern Galápagos.

Gretchen:

Now that the cruise is wrapping up, we’ve been thinking back on everything we’ve done. We’ve collected an impressive amount of data, so I’ll try to put it in perspective for you. We have produced 300GB of electronic data (including maps, gravity and magnetic data, pictures, and more) and collected about 95 five gallon buckets full of rocks. That’s about 30 beer kegs worth of rocks! We also fully mapped an area of about 42,000 square kilometers. That’s a bit bigger than the area of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined! The picture below is to scale.

I will not be doing my own project on samples or data from the cruise, but I will be helping the students process their samples for geochemistry in our lab at Colgate University. We will be dissolving rock samples in a series of acids and running them on an ICP-mass spectrometer to determine the concentration of trace elements in the rocks. From these data we hope to be able to better determine how the various features we’ve seen are related to each other, and how they correspond to the spreading center and the plume beneath the Galapagos.

Overall it’s been a great trip. We were able to do more dredges than we had initially hoped, and found many interesting features on the sea floor that we still have yet to fully understand. Living on a ship for 5 weeks has also been a fun and interesting experience (after the first few days of sea-sickness anyway).

I also just updated the Instrument page with descriptions of the last three instruments, so check that out too: Instruments Page

Schlitzer:

As you can see from Gretchen's post, there is no shortage of work to be done. But the cruise represents much more than just a time to collect samples, as least for a junior geologist, such as myself. Taking the seminar to prep for the class gave me a better understanding of geology, as it provided a practical application for what I had learned in Mineralogy and Petrology. Working with dredges taught me how to process rocks, something I had only heard about before. But, most importantly, being a part of this cruise allowed me to witness everything that went into making it, and understanding how complex it is, and how much work was involved from the senior scientists and crew to make this happen. The cruise presented lessons in working together, as well as the necessity of of volunteering when asked. I consider this cruise a formative experience, both as a person learning to work together, and as an aspiring geologist, working with some of the top scientists in the world.

And, of course, there are some people to thank. To my Mom and Dad, for all of the love and support you have given me both during and before this cruise. All of the other scientists, and the crew, thanks for making this cruise a great experience that has gone as well as it has. And finally, thanks to Karen Harpp, to which none of this could be possible. From writing the grant, to establishing all of the logistics for the trip, as well as making me a geology major and inviting me on this trip, Karen has made this incredible trip a reality.

Will Cushman:

Almost forty days at sea and I’ve learned quite a bit. My bowline tying skills have been honed by the onslaught of dredges the past two weeks; I can now (fairly) confidently understand and interpret sonar and bathymetric maps; I have learned a bit about writing code to produce maps on GMT; but mostly I have learned that the problems we came to the Northern Galapagos to try to sort out are a lot more complex than what I first considered. Most of these problems stem from the central question that has driven the cruise – how is all this unique and confusing volcanism in the Northern Galapagos related to the interaction between the hot spot under the main archipelago, and the spreading center to the north? I’ve become particularly interested in the volcanic lineaments in the western part of our survey area, including the Wolf-Darwin Lineament and the newly-christened Cheerio-Nubbin Lineament (CNL). How do these lineaments related to the hot spot and spreading center, as well as to each other, both structurally and geochemically? What can these relationships tell us about the larger regional processes at work in the Northern Galapagos? I plan on exploring these questions in my research at Woods Hole and Colgate in the coming months with the guidance of Karen, Mark Kurz, and Dan Fornari, and am excited by the prospect of contributing to the understanding of the Northern Galapagos lineaments and presenting my findings later in the school year.

Overall, the cruise has been an amazing experience -- one I'll definitely not forget. Thank you to the trip organizers and advisers, especially Karen, Dan, Dennis, Eric, Allison, Mark, and Chris. Also, thank you to the Melville crew, you guys are awesome.

Caitlin Mello:

Hola compañeros,

So, after over a month our time aboard the Melville has drawn to a close. The past 40 days have been a fantastic and unique experience, and even though I’m excited to be getting off the ship, I’m a little sad to have seen them go by so quickly.

We’ve definitely made good use of our time though. As you can see from Gretchen’s post, we’ve compiled detailed bathymetric and sonar maps of a region the size of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island combined as well as collected thousands of pounds of rock samples from dredges. Not too shabby.

This coming summer, I’ll be working at Colgate and using the data and samples we’ve collected to develop my senior thesis, due next May. My plan is to investigate the anomalous area east of the transform fault and explore the possibility of “ridge jumps”—in which the spreading ridge changes location, leaving behind tell-tale faulting scars on the sea floor. I was intrigued by this area because it pretty much up-ended everyone’s expectations. Rather than seamount lineaments, like we see to the west of the transform fault, this region is a mosaic of constructional volcanic provinces punctuated by regions of faulting. It’s definitely one of the more complicated areas we’ve looked at, and it’ll be interesting trying to sort it out. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be able to present a preliminary hypothesis about how this unique terrain formed at AGU in California this December.

Besides the impressive collection of data this cruise has given us, it’s also afforded a lot of hands-on opportunities that I can’t imagine having elsewhere. I’ve operated an A-frame, snorkeled with seals, improvised an iron out of a hot plate and hung out in a hot tub heated by the engine-cooling system on deck under an amazingly starry sky. So, I just want to send a big thanks out to the scientists, crew and fellow students who not only made this cruise possible and successful, but also a lot of fun.

¡Gracias!

Ally:

As the cruise wraps up I am filled with mixed emotions. I am both sad and excited, sad that I have to leave the ship, but also excited to get back to school and start processing data. I have learned so much these past five weeks and have had such a great time. As the only student who is an environmental science major not a geology major, I came into the trip not really knowing much about the field, but everyone has been so helpful that I have learned a lot, both about mapping and about rocks. I became more comfortable with my mapping skills and had many chances to practice interpreting both multi-beam and side scan data, both of which will help me with my final capstone. We also had a chance to see a wide variety of rocks from our many dredges, 47 to be exact! Chipping glass late into the night will something i'll never forget! While aboard I also finalized my ideas for my senior thesis, I am going to look at a seamount that is located to the southeast of Marchena Island, I chose this seamount because the samples collected from it look like they may have been subaerial at some point. I will look at both the age and chemical make up of the rocks to find out more about this mount, as well as look at how the currents around it affect the kind and amount of wildlife that live there and how this in turn affects local fisheries. I am excited about this topic and can't wait to see the results. I plan on presenting my research at AGU in December with the rest of the undergrads. All in all this cruise has been a very fun learning experience and I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to attend.

Marques:

My Galapagos adventure is coming to an end today, after more than a month at sea. When looking back on how long I’ve been on this boat it doesn’t seem to feel too long. Coming into the trip I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t know what being at sea really meant either. After this past month I’ve grown closer to many people on the boat, making relationships that hopefully with grow further down the road. This trip was a great experience for me to understand what it’s like to study marine geology; this is something that interests me now. Being able to interact with decorated geologist was great, not only did it provide excellent instruction but it also provided me with an insight into what their jobs entail. I admit at times I really wanted to get away from the boat for a bit, but that was merely cause I couldn’t, watching the sea day in and day out gets a little old. The most interesting scientific thing to me, encountered during the trip, has to be the terrain of the seafloor east of the 91 west transform. Before embarking, the current bathymetry showed an area of simple a few large seamounts east of the transform. Our study now shows us that this area is full of ridge parallel faults, many in which seem to be related to past ridge jumps, along with various clusters of smaller cones. Once back at the University of Idaho, I will be working with Dennis Geist to process the glass collected during dredging, this will give insight to the major element composition of the rocks. Overall I’ve enjoyed this trip immensely, being chosen really means a lot to me. I would also like to thank the chief scientist Karen Harpp and all the other scientist aboard the ship for provided me with this experience.

Mike Carbone:

As expected, the research cruise went very well. Every undergrad, including myself, just finished up interpreting and presenting maps of areas throughout the study region. This final exercise produced much discussion between the students, and even between the experienced scientists on board. Although this part of the journey has ended, I am looking at this end as a beginning. This area of the world presents its complexities more and more as it is studied. Thus, our research on the Galapagos must continue in order for our team to develop a more complete, and accurate understanding of the region, ultimately extending our very interesting journey that begun on the Melville. Similar to most of the undergrads on board, this summer I will be conducting my research on the newly acquired data of the Northern Galapagos at Colgate University. I am looking forward to continuing my research alongside such recognized scientist (Karen Harpp and her science team), and am very thankful for such a brilliant opportunity.

Krista Moser

We are finally back in port and all though I am excited to see land again I am going to miss the Melville and everyone on it! It was a great journey full of a lot dredging, mapping, interpreting, a couple late nights, and a lot of early mornings (thank god for yoga, expresso, and the patience of all the people around me seeing as I am such a morning person!). This cruise has taught me a lot of things like how to interpret areas of the sea floor using bathymetry and sonar data. It also taught me how to properly dredge, analyze rocks, cut rocks with the rock saw and my all time favorite thing to do-chip the rocks for glass. I hope to use this experience and all that I have learned to merge geology, education and a little biology in order to develop a lesson plan and package for my senior thesis. There is still a lot of defining and fine-tuning to do but I am very excited to get to continue to work with Stuart Banks and form new connections with teachers from the Galapagos. I have also learned a lot about blogging from this trip and would like to thank the other undergrads on board for helping me maintain the blog, it couldn’t have been done without you guys, ya’ll rock!

I would also like to thank all the “elders” on the trip Karen (for allowing me to tag along on this amazing adventure), Denny (for putting up with me and Carbone/ introducing me to the wonderful world of yoga), Eric (for being a good/patient mother hen), Mark (for putting up with bird squawking noises), Alison (for helping me make through the 12-4 shifts), Dan (for putting me in the position to be the brunt of many waxing jokes, never seemed to have gotten old) and finally Chris (for being a cool older wog). I would like to thank all of the crew who helped make the cruise what it was, we’ll miss you guys! Lastly, thanks for reading, its been fun.
Adios Amigos!

Cam McKee:
Today I stepped on solid ground for the first time in two weeks and it felt great. However, it also marked the end of our trip and of a very special opportunity that we, the undergrads, have been given. Its not every day that you get the chance to live at sea for a month and learn how to map and dredge the ocean floor. While that alone was a great experience, its even more important to me that we got the chance to be involved in actual field work and to do science. We were fortunante enough to be very successful on this trip and are returning with a ton of data that will be used for years to come. Over the course of the cruise, I have become particularly interested in the morphology of the seamounts that we've studied. When I get back to Colgate, it is this aspect of our data that I'm hoping to work on and eventually present at the AGU conference next fall. All in all, this has been a fantastic and unforgettable trip and experience and I consider myself very lucky to have been involved.

Before singing off for the final time, I would be remiss if I didn't thank the people who, though their time and hard work, made all of this possible. So to Karen, Denny, Dan, Eric, Marc, Chris, Allison, the awesome crew of the Melville, Scripps, WHOI, and Colgate, thank you so much.

I also want to give a quick shout out to my family and friends back home and at school. I love you guys and can't wait to see you all again real soon... but first I'm gonna go lay on the beach for a couple days!

Peace

Chief Scientist Karen Harpp:

Yeah, this is long. Hey, I’ve been quiet the whole cruise, after all…

First, to answer the question we were asked to answer for the blog, I’m going to be making sure that the rocks we collected on the cruise get analyzed for major and trace element compositions as quickly as we can this summer, and that the students who all helped with the cruise get to work on their own research projects. Everyone is returning to Colgate to dive into their research projects. We will all be working together (like a well-oiled machine…) to analyze the dredged rocks by x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), make thin sections for petrographic analysis, and interpret the data. The chemical data will let us answer a bunch of questions critical to our work: how much plume material is mixing with ridge material, how deep the magma was generated, how much magmas have cooled before erupting, how the chemistry changes along the volcanic lineaments or in the transform fault, whether the big structures in the east fossil ridges reveal anything about the history of the Galapagos Spreading Center…and much more. All the students will also be using the sidescan and bathymetric maps we made to put their data in context as they try to answer these kinds of questions. This is a pretty lofty goal for one summer, but this team is up to it…with a little help from ice cream and greasy burgers at Gilligan’s for fuel, no doubt. Our goal is for every student on the cruise to get to present their project results in a poster at the AGU conference in San Francisco in December, which will not only give everyone the experience of going to a major scientific meeting, but will allow the rest of the scientific world to hear about what we’ve been up to floating around in the Pacific for the past month!

And now for the wrap-up…

Whenever Eric and I would meet at conferences and talk about the northern Galapagos, we’d always end the inevitably frustrating conversation by saying, “we REALLY need more data, hey, we need a cruise!” Then the other one would say, “yeah, like that will ever happen…” But after a bunch of years, the declaration from Dan for us to WRITE THAT PROPOSAL NOW YOU GUYS, and then the help from a great team of colleagues, we still can’t believe that it actually happened (yes Gravity Man I am speaking for you too).

SO, I want to express my profound thanks to everyone involved in this cruise for all of their hard work, good humor, advice, patience, and enthusiasm during the months leading up to it, all the work with the seminar, and throughout our time at sea. Special thanks to our Galapagos science team, Eric, Denny, Alison, Chris, Mark, and Adam, and a special thanks to Dan for your patience showing me the chief scientist ropes (not to mention building an entire TowCam at sea…). Congratulations to the all the students for a spectacular job, and thanks for all of your hard work, great attitudes, sleep deprivation, and enthusiasm. We are grateful to the HMRG folks for helping us hit a few sharks with sonar bursts (and make some incredible maps), and to Marshall for coming all the way to Costa Rica to help build the camera in the tropical heat. We also very much appreciate the enthusiastic participation of Stuart and Angela from CDRS, as well as Miguel and Carlos from INOCAR; we look forward to ongoing collaborations with each of you and your institutions. We are also grateful for the help from folks at SIO dealing with logistics and technical issues. Finally, a huge thanks to the captain and crew of the R/V Melville, for your impressive, skillful, and enthusiastic efforts helping us achieve our scientific goals, not to mention your willingness to dredge sideways and for bringing enough food to feed all of us, even when Carbone was on the boat.

And yeah, Eric, it’s YOUR turn next time. Can’t wait.

And a quick shout-out:

I want to send my love to my family, Dode, Bonnie, Thew, Jerome, Midge, Pete, Vern, all the animals, and especially Zekie and Dessa. Thanks for all your support with everything. See you guys soon, DDAIWD, and GTT! xo

And that pretty much wraps things up on the Melville, thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of you summer!

June 17, 2010

2010-06-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

So we're scheduled to finally make it back to land by 3 o'clock tonight, but we're still not sure when we'll be able to get off the ship. We spent most of today finishing up packing and cleaning the ship in preparation for unloading everything tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll be docked at Puerta Caldera, but we're not sure for how long. Everything has to be offloaded and stored temporarily until the next cruise is finished. When the next cruise is over, our equipment, rock samples, etc. will be picked up and taken back to San Diego where it will be shipped to wherever its final destination may be. There's a chance we can go to shore tomorrow in Puntarenas, but it all depends on how long it takes our equipment to be offloaded and the next science crew's equpment to be loaded onto the ship.

In other news, the last of the map sections were presented today by Cait, Will C, Ally, and Will S. There were some really interesting debates on specific aspects of the maps and many questions still remained that will have to be sorted out as time goes on. In a meeting with Karen and Dan, some other students also worked on finalizing the projects they will be working on for the remainder of the summer and beyond. They also discussed some students potentially spending time at Woods Hole working with Dan and Adam Soule on specific aspects of their projects. Krista, Ally, Cait, Will C, and Gretchen are still diligently working on putting together the Flamingo Cruise t-shirts and began distributing them to people today.

All in all, despite all the fun we've had on the ship and everything we've learned, most people are ready to get back to land and return to family and friends.

May 16th: PACKING!

2010-06-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hey blog-followers,

We’re getting down to our final days aboard the Melville and
lab-cleaning operations are underway. We’ve got a lot to get packed
before we disembark on the 19th, but with our dredging and mapping
operations over, we’ve got some time to set aside for packing and
cleaning up. It’s hard to imagine what the lab will look like with all
our stuff moved out.

Today we continued presenting our geologic maps. Cam, Nick and Marques
talked about their work and got some helpful critiques from the
elders. One of the main goals of producing these maps is to be able to
define distinct geologic structures present in the sonar and /or the
bathymetry. For some of us, these skills will be hugely useful in
interpreting features and preparing maps for our final presentation.

It’s definitely not all work though: Chief broke out his suped-up
potato gun and we had some fun firing leftover potatoes off the boat.
We also scored a tour of the engine room and an overview on some of the mechanics of the ship. In the afternoon, some of us were also lucky enough to see dolphins swimming along the bow.

Also on the list of fun activities: tonight we’re watching another
movie out on deck. Chief has a projector set up so we can watch the
film projected onto a white wall.

Finally, we’d like to send some birthday wishes to Denny today!

Happy birthday!

Denny's birthday yoga on the bow

Everyone getting ready to dive into their bliss

Warrior one pose

Cushman shows off his flexibility

That's all for today ¡Adios!

Tuesday, June 15

2010-06-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Well today was full of mixed emotions; exciting as we finished our last dredge but also sad as the cruise winds down in its final days. Dredge 47, the base of Mount Schlitzky, was the last dredge, and it did not disappoint. The dredge produced only a few rocks, but they were of nice quality and so it was a great ending. After the dredge, which was located in the northeast section of our survey area, we finished the last bit of multibeam surveying in order to make our map more complete. After surveying for a few more hours, we are now in transit back to Costa Rica where we are set to arrive at Porta Caldera at 0800 Friday morning.

Dredge 47 being brought up on deck

Since scientists have a habit of deciding to be done and then change our minds and do just one more dredge, it is tradition for the wire to be cut at the end. At the daily science meeting, our Res techs held a wire cutting ceremony for the science crew. Chief scientist Karen Harpp had the honor, and challenge, of cutting through the thick metal cable, which she did with such poise. She now has a very cool wire loop to keep…and possibly make into a really huge necklace!

Karen as she attempts to cut the wire with the first pair of wire cutters
Chief Scientist Karen cutting the dredging wire
Success!

Other than dredging these past few days we have been working on an assignment where we were each assigned a different section of the area we mapped. We each got the side scan and bathymetry maps of our sections, over which we placed a layer of Mylar. We then interpreted the data shown on the two maps by looking at the different units or types of features there are and then inferring what these features mean on our maps and also what they mean for the whole survey area. Over the next few days at the science meetings we will be presenting our results. It is a really cool assignment and gives us Marques diligently working on his map. practice in interpreting the data we have collected which will come in handy for our senior theses.
Krista's map that she presented today

Although we are done dredging, there is still a lot of work to be done. The whole lab area and fantail need to be completely packed up and cleaned by Friday! So we will still have our watches, but only our day shifts, so it will be 8am-12pm, 12-4pm, and then the 4-8 watch will change to 10am-2pm. As a result, we are awake and working during the day, but can relax in the evenings and get back onto a normal sleeping schedule. We have a lot to pack up, we have many many buckets of rocks as well as tools, papers, rock saws, and just about every other office supply or tool you can think of, so the next few days will be a little chaotic! In addition to packing up everything from the lab we also need to compile all the data onto one hard drive and then make sure everyone has a copy. Thankfully Gretchen has offered to be in charge of the daunting task. As well as sharing data we are all also sharing pictures by compiling them onto one hard drive, that way we can all have pictures from the trip.

Monday, June 14, 2010

2010-06-15T07:26:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 14, 2010

Almost there! We just finished up our second to last day of dredging and only have a few more dredges to do before we start heading back to Costa Rica Tuesday evening. The past several dredges have produced a bit of a mixed bag, with a couple great ones with plenty of glassy basalts, a couple with hardly more than a few chips, and one haul of good-sized, but glassless rocks.

This evening Dan Fornari did one last Tow Cam survey as well – a pretty short one in which Dan, in addition to collecting glass samples with the waxed balls, tried attracting some ocean floor wildlife, using tuna for bait.

All pictures below: A few of the undergrads preparing their maps for tomorrow's science meeting

Between dredges we’re also collecting some final Multibeam, Mag, and gravity data while the undergrads work to complete our map analysis mini-projects. Each of us now has a clearer idea of what we’ll be focusing on for our theses, and the map analysis is meant to help us start working out how to process the data we’ve been collecting.

Tuesday will be our last day of normal watches, which means no more graveyard shifts starting Tuesday night / Wednesday morning. As we head back to Costa Rica, we’re going to have a lot of clean up and organization work to do, so we’ll stay on our day watches, but we’ll finally be able to sleep more than 6 or 7 hours at a time.

Sunday, June 13

2010-06-14T03:03:00.000-07:00

Today was an interesting and exciting day onboard the Melville. For us Pollywogs, the day began with an awakening at 5 AM, when we put on our attire (all of our clothes on backwards and inside out) and headed to the bow to perform our wog anthem. This was followed by a measuring of the ship’s length (in fish), and a cleaning of the entire ship. The day’s festivities culminated in our court appearance to King Neptune, where we were duly punished by crawling through old food for our illegal crossing of the equator, and then became shellbacks!

In other news, dredging has progressed beyond the original expectations. While the ceremony was going on, several shellbacks took the pollywogs’ responsibilities for the day and continued working. There were originally 40 dredges planned, and with 36 hours left of dredging, we have completed 40 so far.

Today, we also passed by the islands Pinta and Marchena, albeit much farther away than previous times.

Finally, Ally would like to make a shout out to her sister, congratulating her on graduating college!

June 12, 2010

2010-06-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

Hello faithful blog watchers!

So the dredging continues as the science team gears up for the home stretch aboard the Melville. With only a few days of dredging left before heading for Costa Rica, everyone has been working as efficiently as possible to get as many dredges and TowCams in as possible. Today we successfully completed four more dredges and are currently getting ready to start dredge 36!

Drew Kerlee gets everyone ready for a rendition of Rattlin' Bog.

In other Melville news, King Neptune's challenges for the polliwogs have officially begun as all the 'Wogs had to entertain the Shellbacks today with a talent show. As expected, the Wogs came through with a truly spectacular show that entertained the Shellbacks (even if they won't admit it). Despite the boos coming from the Shellbacks, the Wogs persevered to deliver comedy, drama, music, and much more. One group of crew members performed a thrilling adaptation of "Pop-Eye the Sailor Man" with the lyrics changed to fit the life of a Wog on the Melville. Another group of both scientists and crew, led by Cadet Drew Kerlee, had an excellent rendition of the Rattlin' Bog/Bog Down in the Valley-Oh. Will C then woo-ed the crowd with his appearance as Dan Fornari in a TowCam scene with help from Krista. Will shaved his beard (which he had been working on for the entire cruise) into a mustache, turning him into the spitting image of Dan, and went on to nail his role as one of the leaders of the science team. Then a group of scientists led by Eric and Gretchen, performed their take on the TowCam with an interpretive dance set to the music of Fantasia. Eric as Dan maneuvered Gretchen as the TowCam with an oversized mock winch control system, and she weaved her way through a maze of undersea rocks, coral, and whales until she crashed, causing one of her strobe lights to fall off. Then Eric again stole the show as he masqueraded as the Sir Mix-A-Lot of the Melville with the help of Krista, Cait, Ally, and Gretchen with a rendition of Baby Got Back he entitled Baby Got Rock. After that, Brian performed an interpretation of Red October on the Melville as dredges, TowCams, magnatometers, etc. were all being deployed complete with an excellent Sean Connery impression. To finish it all off, Cam, Will S, Marques, Mike, and Nick put together a dance routine for Denny and Dan to the tunes of It's Rainin' Men.

Eric as Sir Mix-A-Lot.

Brian receiving his Wog name from Brandi, King Neptune's correspondent on board.

Dan and Dan... or is that Will?

Denny and Dan get a show they won't soon forget.

All in all it was a great show, but the real show starts tomorrow as the Wogs have a lot left to do before they can become Shellbacks. Everyone was given a name that the Shellbacks will refer to them by until they no longer have to call themselves Wogs. Some examples of the names were Giggly Wog, Cowboy Wog, Stealth Wog, and Whale Lover Wog. For now we Wogs are being kept in the dark as to what plans are for tomorrow, and all we've been told is to make sure we get our sleep while we can. Hopefully soon we'll be able to fill you in on the details as full-fledged Shellbacks.

June 11th, 2010

2010-06-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

Whales, Wogs and Work, Oh My!

TGIF! If only we actually had weekends on the ship…

Taken this morning as some of the 4-8 watch was trying to stay warm in the chilly science lab

We’re continuing on our dredges and closing out the final leg of the cruise. It’s hard to believe that so much time as already gone by!

We’ve progressed eastward from the lineaments we’ve been focusing on, and earlier today we dredged a seamount within the transform fault. The Galapagos transform is unique because it runs oblique to the spreading ridges, whereas most transform faults are perpendicular to the spreading ridges. This obliquity causes the transform to grow wider and may be allowing magma to travel towards the crust, which may be causing the atypical volcanism within the fault.

The highlight of the day was probably the pod of pilot whales that were spotted near the ship throughout the day. They came pretty close a few times and some of us even managed to snap some pictures. There was a baby whale in amongst the pod.

The whales are dark gray with a bulbous head and a short nose. Pilot whales largely feed on squid so it makes sense that they would venture near the ship, as we often see squid in the waters underneath the A-frame when the floodlights are on.*

We also had another successful TowCam run today. We sent some more styrofoam cups down with the TowCam. We’re donating the cups to schools in the Galapagos to give out to local children.

Pictures taken from the TowCam of the bottom of the seafloor...

We’ve been collecting some biological samples along with the geologic data we’ve gotten. Our resident biologists Daniel Wagner and Stuart Banks search our dredges for sea creatures and plant life before we collect rock samples. Check out the biological overview that Dan put together at the end of this post!

We’re also drawing closer to the pollywog equator crossing ceremony. The wogs have been on their toes as decrees from King Neptune keep coming. Tomorrow we’ll have to perform before King Neptune’s Court and keep them entertained. Unfortunately, the shellbacks (i.e. people who have crossed the equator before) infiltrated our preparatory meeting by placing a hidden camera in the room. We found the camera and deleted the video, but rumor has it that they managed to listen in anyway...tomorrow will be an interesting day…

¡Hasta mañana, amigos!

*Information about pilot whales taken from “Short-Finned Pilot Whale” from the Sierra Club Handbook of Whales & Dolphins.

Brief overview from Daniel...

My name is Daniel Wagner and I am a graduate student in Biological Oceanography at the University of Hawai‘i. Together with Stuart Banks from the Charles Darwin Foundation, we are the only Biologists aboard the R/V Melville and responsible for documenting all marine life that is collected during this cruise. While the primary mission of this research expedition is to obtain geological information, the deep-sea is so scarcely surveyed that any record of life at these great depths is extremely valuable. So far we have been able to obtain samples of many different organisms including brittle starts, sea stars, sea cucumbers, stony corals, gorgonians and even fish. Many of these include organisms that have never been surveyed from the Galapagos Archipelago, and some of them are likely to represent new species. It has thus been a very exciting and productive cruise for the study of deep-sea biology, and we hope to continue to document deep-sea fauna in the remaining days of this cruise.

Sea star

Brittle star

Urchins

Fish
Sea Cucumbers

CRUSTACEANS...

STONY CORALS...

GORGONIANS...

Wednesday June, 10

2010-06-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

Day 26 out to sea and things are getting interesting,

Late last night, the boys of the 12-4 watch, in all their sleep deprived glory, decided to dress up in the rain jackets and boots we have here in the lab and pose for “prom” pictures. Below is what Alison so wonderfully captured for your viewing pleasure:

The boys looking tough
Nick, Cam, Marques, and Will in the classic prom pose!
no need for a caption...

Early this morning the 4-8 watch was lucky enough to spot a pod of whales swimming by the boat. They ran up to the bridge and used the binoculars to get a closer look. They were about 7 feet long and visible for 10 minutes before swimming off in the distance.

Later this morning we got a dredge with several small rounded black rocks. At first we were a little disappointed thinking we only dredged up a bunch of manganese, but then we began cutting the rocks open and to our surprise found some very interesting things. We think we have collected a set of rocks from the lower crust or the upper mantle. One type could be a dunite, which is made of olivine, but we won’t know until we get thin section (slides) for sure what kind of minerals we are looking at. Some of the other ones were made of the dunite with some basalt in the center. It is really rare to have rocks come up from so deep in the earth, so if these really are from the lower crust or upper mantle it will be really awesome! The dredge site was not a seamount, but a series of faults on the ocean floor.Cheif and Chris examining the puzzling rocks
Even the Captain got in on the excitement!

With all the rock collection that has been going on, the chisels we use to chip glass have become quite dull. In order to sharpen them, we need to use the grinder down in the machine shop. Ally has taken to a strong liking for this machine and shows the various chisel sharpening steps below:Step 1: Put on long sleevesStep 2: Put on face mask
Step 3: SHARPEN!!!!

King Neptune visited the shellbacks today and had them relay a message to the pollywogs: the ceremonies will be held this Saturday evening, and the pollywogs are expected to come up with skits and songs to entertain he shellbacks for at least 15 minutes. We are all frantically coming up with ideas of things we can do in order to please King Neptune’s Court and the shellbacks. There are a lot of pollywogs on the ship so we will have to get organized, and fast!

With only 8 more days left on the cruise, we are all beginning to come up with ideas and topics for our senior theses. We have all learned so much and been introduced to several new ideas while on this cruise that choosing just one topic will be tough. Some students are thinking of comparing the Wolf-Darwin Lineament to the Cheerio-Nubbin Lineament, by looking at the chemical makeup of the various rocks. Many ideas are being thrown around and topics will change as research begins in the lab, but we definitely have gathered a lot of samples to use for our future projects, and the sonar and bathymetric maps will be critical in the work as well.

Schlitzer's tongue after eating some blue candy!
The 8-12 watch monitors the dredge from under a warm blanket!

The link below is to a website that takes pictures from the cameras on the ship every 10 minutes, so click below and you can watch as we bring up dredges and hang on the quarter deck!

http://rtapps.ucsd.edu/hiseasnet/rtship/index.php?ship=melville

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

2010-06-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Today was another very busy day of dredging and processing rocks, but before all that started, Dan Fornari and the 12-4 watch finished another run with the Tow Cam early this morning. The Tow Cam’s latest target was a caldera just south of the Galapagos Spreading Center, and some wondered if its proximity to the spreading center might result in hydrothermal activity in the area. Sure enough, several Tow Cam photos revealed signs of geothermal – as evidenced by a rusty orange discoloration on the seafloor. Although the turbidity and temperature sensors on the rig did not indicate any current hydrothermal activity, Dan and others are fairly convinced that some sort of low-temperature activity has occurred in the caldera at some point – a pretty exciting and interesting discovery.

Below: Krista hard at work processing dredge 22

Aside from that, we’ve been making our way from dredge site to dredge site, pulling in four already today, with another one planned for later tonight. The day’s first three dredges were all successful, giving us plenty of rock samples and glass to chip away at. Unfortunately the dredge we pulled in a couple hours ago was our first dud dredge, leaving us with nothing but a pile of sediment. Despite the minor disappointment of a lame dredge, 22 successful dredges out of 23 is definitely nothing to complain about.

Below: Mike and Will working together chipping glass from dredge 22

At today’s science meeting Stuart Banks, from the Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos, gave us a presentation on all the complexities of trying to monitor and protect the biodiversity of the Galapagos Marine Reserve. It was sad to hear about species that have been threatend due to El Nino events and fishing pressure, but also very interesting to hear Stuart speak about everything that goes into monitoring and policy decision-making.

Below: Staurt Banks seen giving us a presentation on the biodiversity of the Galapagos Marine Reserve

In other news, Mike’s sunglasses that mysteriously disappeared were recovered, and Gretchen got covered in mud.

Below: Gretchen and others searching for rocks within a muddy dredge

Below: Gretchen posing by her dredge

Check out our interview with Melissa Turner, the ships 2nd Mate! Click here to view.

Tuesday, June 8

2010-06-08T17:28:00.000-07:00

Early this morning, Ally’s dredge produced one of the largest quantities of rocks in a single dredge this trip. After that, the Melville traveled to Wolf Island, where it was stationary as the GPS system placed on the island was recovered. The GPS was placed two days ago on the island, in the same place as it was in 2002. Also, Eric had placed a gravimeter there at the same time, and brought it back to run a second test during the recovery today. What is significant about his gravimeter is the precision it is capable of, with the side effect that as many variables as possible must be controlled for. For example, Eric placed his gravimeter when the tides at the island were the same today as they wre 2 days ago. Meanwhile, the Melville encountered a commercial diving boat, the Galapagos Sky, which, after its diving trip, had some of its crew members come aboard and tour the Melville. After the GPS was recovered, the Melville began traveling east to its next dredge site, the Cheerio, about two hours away. Following this, the ship will head north to the ridge, where a towcam will occur, as well as a dredge, at Gretchen Swarr’s dredge site, The Tea Cup.

In other news, the undergraduate scientists are beginning to discuss with the senior scientists their ideas for their research project. This is, by no means, a final decision; however, after all of this time on the boat and in class, it is more of a survey to learn what we, the students, find interesting.

The cliffs on the large caldera.

The entire large caldera. There's the Galapagos Sky!

The smaller caldera.

The entirety of Wolf Island!

Check out a new interview with Brandi Murphy

June 7, 2010

2010-06-07T22:21:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

Make sure to check out the Crew Corner for today's interview with Bud Hale!

Also, if you want a little more info on how the multibeam bathymetry sy stem that we've been using to map the ocean floor works, be sure to check out the update to the instruments page.

While today's overcast weather didn't provide the best sunbathing weather, it definitely didn't stop the dredging plan. After a successful TowCam tour of the base of Darwin Island late last night/early this morning, the dredging fury continued. Three dredges were completed today: the base of Darwin Island, the westernmost drip on the Wolf-Darwin Lineament (the feature furthest north on the lineament), and Nick's dredge of the northermost feature on the Cheerio-Nubbin lineament. The Cheerio-Nubbin lineament (CNL) is the name proposed by Ally and Will C. who believe their proposed dredge targets look like a Cheerio and a 'Nubbin', respectively, and form a linear feature with Nick and Krista's dredge sites that trends in a similar direction to the Wolf- Darwin Lineament. For now, the name has stuck and has become a favorite of the science team. Right now, Krista's dredge has just been put into the water so we'll have a fresh haul of rocks on deck in a few hours. Scheduled for tomorrow are Ally and Will's dredges, continuing down the Cheerio-Nubbin lineament.

Here are a couple images captured by the TowCam from last night. They show generally older features that have been nearly entirely covered by sediment.

Here are a few images of undersea critters that the TowCam happended to photograph as well.

Today is the birthday of Paul Johnson, a member of the HMRG team, who got off the ship in the Galapagos, but that didn't stop everyone here from celebrating anyways. Thanks to the exquisite culinary skills of our cooks, we celebrated with a delicious chocolate cake. Happy Birthday Paul!!

Here is Paul working on the MR1 towfish.

The delicious cake we had after dinner... don't worry, he's only departed from the ship.

June 6th, 2010

2010-06-06T20:43:00.000-07:00

¡Hola amigos!

The excitement of our Galapagos adventures has died down and it’s hard to believe we’ve only got ten or so days left before we begin our transit back to Costa Rica. We’ve been hard at work getting through the remaining dredges and tow cam surveys before then.

An additional aspect of our data collection includes the installation of a GPS unit on Wolf Island, which is part of the Wolf-Darwin lineament.

After breakfast today Karen, and Denny went to place the GPS unit on Wolf island, which will be collected either tomorrow or the day after and will tell us whether the island has moved in the last few years. These data will help test some theories we have about how these seamount lineaments form. In particular, displacement of the island could indicate rifting, which would support the theories that say the lineaments are formed as a result of fracturing in the Earth’s crust, which could be driven by excess magmatism or stresses originating from the nearby transform fault. The GPS unit is accurate to within about 5 – 10 millimeters. It’s pretty incredible that such accurate data can be collected remotely and from such remote locations.

Denny and Karen on their way to the island

Collecting data from the island

Some of the many birds and views from Wolf Island (pictures taken by Denny and Karen)...

Karen and Denny watching the tour boats cruising around the from on the island

While the elders were off putting in the GPS station, the crew and remaining scientists managed to score a scenic tour of the waters near the island. The island itself was definitely spectacular and it was absolutely covered with birds, visible from offshore, including boobies (no blue-footed ones though) and a few frigate birds, which sometimes puff up their red, balloon-like chests as a mating display..

Deploying the boat we used to take our tours around the island

The view from our tour boat

Students and crew members alike enjoyed the fresh air.

Tour 1 heading back

Captain Murray and Jeff supervising people getting on and off the boat
Will climbing down the ladder from the ship onto the boat (tour 2)

In our off-time, we also designed some styrofoam cups to send down with next tow cam survey. The cups will be placed in a mesh bag and attached to the tow cam. As the tow cam descends to depths of about 2500 m, the air in the styrofoam cups will be forced out by the intense water pressure, causing the cups to shrink...and ta-da! mini-cups. Arts and crafts, geology style.

Some of the cup designs...

That’s all for today...off to keep working on those dredges.

And don't forget to check out today's interview with Matt Serio!

Saturday June 5

2010-06-06T00:26:00.001-07:00

Today was the first full day back at work after our short, but thoroughly enjoyed, break in the Galapagos. Everyone is getting back into the swing of things as dredging is back in action! Our two new watch leaders, Chris Sinton and Mark Kurz experienced their first full watches, and thanks to their awesome watch group fell right into place. Today we did 3 more dredges, bringing our total up to 10. Dredge 8 did not produce as many rocks as the previous dredges, but the rocks that were brought up were covered in glass, which is one of the various forms of lava we need to collect for our studies. Dredge 9 brought up a lot of rocks of various sizes, and dredge 10 is currently in the water, but we have high hopes!

Carbone diligently looking for glass on the rock samples.

Will is really excited to finally be working with rocks!

We also planned 10 more dredges, including several dredges designed by various students on the Cheerio-Nubbin Lineament. We had to redesign some of the dredge angles due to the change in current. Dennis and Dave discuss possible dredge routes.

We are all getting excited as the time for our personal dredges nears. Along with planning future dredge sites we also began discussing where future tow-cam sites could take place. Our last tow-cam was successful and produced some awesome images .

A picture from the first tow-cam; this is what t he bottom of the ocean looks like!
Another image of the sea floor. If you look close you can see a blue fish.

Tomorrow will be a busy day for the Flamingo Cruise (our official cruise name). We will dredge through the night and arrive at Wolf Island tomorrow. The ship will stop about 1 mile off shore where Chief scientist Karen and Dennis will board a small boat and go ashore in order to set up a GPS receiver at a benchmark. This receiver will collect the exact position of the antenna within just a few millimeters, comparing this location with a location that was recorded in 2002. With this data we can figure out if the island is possibly moving southwest due to spreading faults. We will then return to Wolf island 24 hours later and pick up the receiver.

This is what happens wheny ou have been on a boat for too long!
Gretchen in a suit of orange.

Friday June 4, 2010

2010-06-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

Friday June 4, 2010

Above: The port in Puerto Ayora

After a fun night in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, we made it back to the boat safely. This morning we caught a water taxi that transferred us to our snorkeling boats – the Iguana and the Queen Karen (obviously named after our fearless leader). The ride over to Santa Fe Island – an hour long – was a bit rough, to say the least. Three people managed to get sick.

The actual snorkeling was fantastic. Our guides took us to a sea lion colony in a quiet bay and gave us a tour of the area before we jumped in. We saw boobies, sea lions, sting rays, a few sharks, a couple sea turtles and tons of different fish. The sea lions were really playful and curious and liked to swim in circles around us and follow us.

Below: Several playful sea lions

After a nice lunch on board the boats, we returned to the Melville across really choppy water again. The ride back was a bit scary at points, but only one person got sick (their name rhymes with sick).

Above: A 5 foot shark swimming at the bottom of the bay

A few people opted to go back to shore for the day – Karen and Denny had a meeting, and enjoyed some time on the beach with Allison.

A couple hours after we all got back to the ship, it got underway and we watched an awesome sunset behind Santa Cruz Island before returning to our watches.

In Puerto Ayora we dropped off a few people – the HMRG group, Angela from the Darwin station, and Miguel from INOCAR – which was a bit sad. We also picked up several new people – Chris Sinton from Redlands, Mark Kurz from Woods Hole, Stuart from the Darwin station, and Carlos from INOCAR. Everyone is excited to get to know them better over the next two weeks!

Thursday, June 3

2010-06-05T03:09:00.000-07:00

Check out a new crew interview with Drew Kerlee!

The day began early as the Melville came into Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, where it underwent customs inspections for the next several hours. After we made it to land, we began a trip to the Charles Darwin Observatory, where we were guided through how the park maintains conservation of its land, with particular emphasis on the tortoises (to settle the question once and for all, tortoises are land-based and have elephant-like feet, while turtles are sea-based and have flippers). Much work is done inside the park to prevent the spread of introduced species. While it has been difficult to maintain the islands as they once were, several invasive species have been eradicated from the islands. We then learned about the tortoise breeding program, including how the tortoises are cared for from when they first hatch, and as they are raised for the first decade of their lives in semi-captivity to allow for them to mature. At first, they live in a small enclosed area, but are covered at night to prevent predators from attacking them. Following that, they are placed in areas that are increasingly more wild, until they are eventually tagged and released into the wild. We also saw some very old tortoises that had been brought into the research station from captivity around the world. The highlight was seeing Lonesome George, who is the last member of his species. He is from Pinta Island. In the early 1900s, it was believed that all of the tortoises from Pinta had become extinct, only for Lonesome George to be found in the 1960’s. Attempts at finding other tortoises on Pinta were \unsuccessful, so the station has tried for many years to get George to cross breed with tortoises from nearby islands. Two females from Espanola Island were placed in his compound, but since he had spent the majority of his life alone, he shied away from other tortoises. It was only in 2005 that he mated with one, although the eggs did not survive. The following year, the same thing happened, so it’s unclear whether Lonesome George may be infertile or whether he may someday produce some offspring.

The day continued with a trip to the highlands of Santa Cruz, where we were able to view the tortoises in their natural habitats. This provided an excellent comparison with the station by showing us how tortoises that are not constantly monitored at the observatory act in the wild. Following the trip to the Highlands, we explored a lava tunnel, which was a 6 kilometer tunnel inside of the island that originated as molten lava passed through a large cavity in solid lava. Our tour concluded with viewing 2 pit craters, also formed from when Santa Cruz was an active volcano. These are probably formed when solid lava collapses over a lava tube, leaving a huge crater above it. Following our tour, we had a party hosted by the science team with the Melville crew, then dinner at a local restaurant, and concluded our day by watching a less-than-ideal Lakers victory over the Celtics, and returned to the boat.

Our view as we came into port.

A view out onto the harbor.

Some crabs along the beach. Their bright colors show that they are mature adults.

A sleeping sea lion underneath a pathway.

A view from the dock.

Schlitzer sitting next to a tortoise.

Lonesome George sitting in his pool.

Young tortoises that are allowed more freedom as they mature.

Baby tortoises in their first residence, where they are sheltered.

Several marine iguanas laying on a dock.

Walking through the lava tunnel.
Krista trying on a tortoise shell.

Bone and Ally at our lunch spot.

June 03, 2010

2010-06-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Good morning faithful blog followers,

Due to the stop in the Galapagos today's post is going to be postponed until tomorrow, but we promise lots of pictures and stories from our adventures on the islands so please stay tuned...

Daily Shout Out
Krista would like say hi to her mom and the rest of her family back in Iowa, friends from Colgate and wish Dave a very Happy Birthday!

That's all for now see you tomorrow :)

June 2, 2010

2010-06-02T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!

Be sure to check out today's interview with the HMRG crew, as tonight is their last night on the ship before they head for home after a quick stop in the Galapagos!

So today was quite a busy day on the ship as we successfully landed three bountiful dredges, and we're currently in the process of our first TowCam excursion. There's still the possibility that we fit one more dredge in tonight before we head for our mid-cruise pit-stop on Santa Cruz. The dredges produced a number of interesting rock samples that kept us busy throughout the night and all day. We were diligently describing, cutting, classifying, labeling, and packaging the samples fresh from the seafloor. A couple of the samples were interesting in that they had a texture that was unique compared with most of the others we've hauled on deck so far. The plagioclase (a white mineral common to basalt) crystals in the rocks were relatively large and quite abundant. A few of them seem to be museum quality samples so we obviously weren't allowed to cut those up.

One of the really cool samples we dredged up with the large plagioclase crystals.

This is what happens when everyone else is sleeping from 12-4 in the morning. Cam, Marques, and Nick take a break from processing rocks.

The tools of the trade. Choose wisely.

As we write this, the TowCam is currently between 5 and 10 meters off the ocean floor, snapping pictures of the underwater terrain. Hopefully, the high resolution pictures we obtain give us a better idea of what the sea floor actually looks like so that we can better interpret the bathymetric maps we've been making over the last two weeks.

Everyone's excited for our stop in the Galapagos that begins tomorrow. Tonight at midnight the ship sets its course for Santa Cruz and we hope to arrive by around 7 AM tomorrow. After making our way through customs, we hope to be on dry land by 9 and roaming around the island soon after that. Most of the group is taking a trip up into the highlands where we hope to see tortoises, Darwin's finches, blue-footed boobies, and trees that apparently look like they're straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. We're also getting a tour of the Charles Darwin Research Center, home to Lonesome George, the last tortoise of his species, and a number of other interesting specimens. The senior scientists have also arranged for a cocktail hour at one of the local restaurants for both the science team and the crew.

In other interesting news, prank wars have begun on the ship. Mike finally located his watch after days of searching for it in the main science lab. Everyday at 3:30 and every hour on the hour his alarm would beep, but thanks to the handiwork of a few unnamed individuals who wrapped it around the pipes on the ceiling he was unable to locate it. After his few days spent attempting to triangulate its position with no success, he used his keen instincts and a particularly strong sense of smell to spot it camouflaged against the ceiling. Also, as Krista and Cait thought they were safely relaxing in the hot tub, Cam, Nick, and Marques decided they were a little too cozy in the steamy water. They loaded up 2 large buckets full of ice and dumped them on the unsuspecting victims, much to their surprise. Revenge has been sworn. Stay tuned for updates from the front lines.

The missing watch has been returned to its rightful place on Carbone's wrist.

Krista and Cait being doused with ice by Nick and Cam.

June 1st, 2010

2010-06-01T17:57:00.001-07:00

Hey blog-watchers!

We’re continuing on with dredging from now until Thursday, when we’ll get a brief stopover on Santa Cruz. Definitely looking forward to some land-based adventures.

For now though, we’re keeping busy getting dredges in and out of the water and processing any rocks we pull up. Unfortunately, we’re a bit behind schedule due to some issues with the bow thruster. The Melville uses a dynamic positioning system that allows it to move laterally as well as forward. This feature is helpful for dredging, since we want the start and end location of the dredges to be as close to our plans as possible, but it’s especially helpful because we’re dredging off the starboard side rather than the stern, which makes the operation even trickier. Luckily, Chief (a.k.a. Paul Bueren ) came to our rescue and provided us with an on-the-fly repair. Now dredges are back underway and our fourth dredge is currently in the water.

We had a bit of a surprise bringing up our last dredge, from a ridge off the south side of Pinta. We managed to snag a few rocks, but were surprised to see some sea life in our dredge basket as well. Resident biologist Daniel Wagner was happy to be able to collect some sea urchins, coral, and crustaceans as part of his work classifying Galapagos marine life.

The 12-4 crew bringing up a dredge.

Coral and rock that was scooped up by the dredge

Meeting of the minds- Eric and Alison examine a rock from the dredge

Marques, Cam and Nick modeling the rock cutting safety gear

Krista preparing parts of the tow cam that are supposed to collect glass off the bottom of the seafloor. The tow cam will hopefully be launched some time tomorrow.

Daily Shout Out...

Mike would like to make a shout out to his mom, teddy, bear and the rest of his family!

And in honor of the Village People...

Thank you Nick and goodnight everybody!

Today we've also got our daily crew interview up at the Crew Corner with Rob Gerhardt.

2010-06-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 31, 2010

2010-05-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

We’ve been so busy today that it kind of feels like it’s been a week since we woke up this morning (or afternoon, depending on our watch), and it’s a little hard to figure out where to begin!

The 8-12 shift steps outside to enjoy the sunset together.

Since we have to start somewhere, this morning is as good a place as anywhere. At sunrise we found ourselves wrapping up the collection of our sonar data sandwiched between Pinta and Marchena Islands. After nearly two weeks of collecting data, we took the MR1 (side-scan sonar device) out of the water. Krista and Will watch anxiously as the MR1 is brought back in.

Reeling the several million dollar piece of equipment back to the ship is a bit of a stressful task as it is, which was not helped when we found out (just as the fish reached the surface) that there was a problem with the weight that held the machine’s front end down so that it wouldn’t smash into the ship at arrival.

The hook that attaches the weight properly was broken, making it hard to retrieve the fish.

After some serious deliberation and a joint decision made by the ship crew and the science party, a spare steel beam was found that could be used as a proxy for the faulty weight. Though there were a couple hair-raising moments, the beam did the trick, and the MR1 was successfully recovered to the relief of all those on board.After many trials, the MR1 is finally coming back on board!

Reeling in the MR1 “fish” signaled that dredging would finally begin, and our first dredge got underway this afternoon and has been memorable to say the least. Just north of Pinta Island, we aimed to dredge what appeared to be (from bathymetric maps) the farthest extent of a lava flow from Pinta. We may or may not have mentioned this before, but the winds in the region come primarily from the south. Since the ship only moves at about ¼ knot during dredging, we figured it would be a good idea to be facing into the wind as much as possible to avoid being blown off track. As we’re dredging from the ship’s starboard-side A-frame winch system, we had planned our dredges to comb the seafloor from west to east so the ship to stay pointing south. Unfortunately, strong currents in the area (possibly the result of being in such close proximity to Pinta Island) initially caused some headaches by pushing the ship off course and threatening to pull the dredge wire underneath the hull, which would not be good for the ship or the dredge wire. After some finagling, a safe course was set and the dredge continued smoothly.

To make sure that the dredge was receiving “bites” on the seafloor, we monitored the tension of the dredge wire. A steady increase in the wire’s tension from, say 1,000 lbs to 2,200 lbs indicates that the dredge has caught onto something – preferably intact basalt – signaling the beginning of a bite. When the wire tension rapidly decreases from 2,200lbs to, say 800lbs, it hopefully indicates that whatever has caught the dredge has broken off, leaving us with several bits of good sample rocks to work with. While monitoring the tension this afternoon we definitely recorded a few bites, though nothing seemed particularly out of the ordinary. Will, Drew, and Ally secure tag lines to the dredge so it stays steady when it is brought up.

We hadn’t realized yet that we had snagged an extremely impressive rock sample, which had both the first-timers as well as the seasoned dredgers in a state of giddy excitement. A giant piece of intact pillow (“toothpaste”) lava that was too large to fit inside the dredge bag, the rock was caught precariously on the chain just above it.

Drew and the giant piece of lava as it comes up on the dredge.

Thanks to the deft maneuvering of Drew – one of the Res Techs, Denny, Dan, and the winch and crane operators, the rock was recovered and set aside (by crane) on the deck where it gathered a large crowd (pictures below).

Drew, Denny, and Dan securing the huge rock to a crane in order to move it.

Cheif scientist, Karen Harpp, and her prize catch!

Angela and Ally show off their muddy hands after sifting through piles of sediment brought up by the dredge.

It was an exhausting and exhilarating first day of dredging, and we’re hoping that the excitement of the first dredge continues through the next 39.

Eric poses with the large piece of lava.

Finally, for today's shout out of the day: Gretchen would like to send hugs and a big hello to her Mom, Dad, Buster, Mike, and any other family and friends reading this.

Gretchen saying hello to family and friends back home

2010-05-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday May 30, 2010

Above: This morning's beautiful sunrise

Isabela Looms,

Hazy sunset, waves, Blue feet,

Dredges upon us.

As we sit here at 7:02pm local time – 1:02am Zulu (the time we use for keeping records) – the main science lab is caught in a mild frenzy as preparations continue to be made in advance of the dredging that we will begin tomorrow morning.

Above: Karen Harpp and Eric Mittelstaedt enjoying the view

After enjoying an especially awesome sunset offshore of Pinta Island, with a cloud-capped view of Wolf Volcano on Isabela Island (the highest point in the Galapagos; epsilon Nd of +8, oooh) in the distance, we are now back at work in the lab measuring the last of the bathymetry, side-scan sonar, and gravity, making maps, and sorting out dredge plans. Unfortunately we are no longer collecting Mag data, as we discovered soon after dinner tonight that Maggie had crossed the MR1 wire, and needed to be brought up immediately. After a few tense moments, the Maggie was recovered successfully, and all is okay. Though we’d prefer to have it out and taking data, the situation could have been much worse.

Above: A view of Wolf Volcano on Isabela Island

In today’s science meeting we discussed the possibility of making watch changes for the dredging portion of the cruise (the final decision on whether that goes through is still pending) and listened to a presentation given by Miguel Calderón – one of the Ecuadorian scientists on the cruise – about his work for the Ecuadorian government in establishing official offshore territorial boundaries for diplomatic and economic purposes, including work in the Galapagos.

Above: The new route we took today. This track line extends across the survey area.

In other news, as we said before, we’re getting close to beginning the dredging process and are currently looping around Pinta and Marchena islands to collect some final bathymetric, side-scan, and gravity data. Final preparations for our days in port on Santa Cruz Island are also being made, and everyone is excited for tortoises, sea lions, and boobies.

Above: A red footed boobie

Above: Bud conducting an XBT

Check out this link [insert link here] for the latest crewmember interview with Brian Rowe, another of our awesome Res Techs.

Below: Alison(left) Karen(Middle) and Eric

Sunday, May 30th

2010-05-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

The rest of today's entry will be posted soon, but for now here is a short video of two Red Footed Boobies flying over the bow of the ship:

Saturday, May 29, 2010

2010-05-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

Hello bloggers, today on the Melville was another warm and sunny day. Today during the science meeting we discussed the transition we will make from surveying with MR1 and bathymetry to the beginning of dredging. The MR1 side scan will be taken out of the water around 6pm on May 31. We will then start the dredging leg of our trip; beginning dredges the night of the 31st. Just before the dredging begins Dennis Geist will give a small talk on the procedures and protocol for sorting and storing the rocks collected from each dredge. This is very important because the last thing any of us want is to allow for the miss match of various dredge samples. Along with protocol we also learned how to tie a bowline knot, an essential knot to sailing, this will allow us to tie down the dredge while its on deck. As we begin our transit to Santa Cruz (an island in the central Galapagos archipelago), we will in fact cross the equator. Here on the Melville there are a large number of scientists and crewmembers who have never crossed the equator. There is a ceremony commemorating our first passage across this invisible line.

Here is an important skill we've learned so that we can tie off dredges: the bowline knot. Here is a step-by-step guide to tying it:

First, take a length of line, and pass it around an object you would like to tie the bowline around. Ensure that one end is shorter, the end that terminates, and the other has slack.

Create a loop in the side of the line that does not terminate. The end of the rope in the loop travelling towards the body of the author short be wrapped under the other end.

Pass the shorter line through the loop once.

Pass the end of the terminated line underneath the line coming towards your body from the loop.

Finally, take the end of line, and pass it back through the hole, and tighten the knot. There you have it, a bowline! It's a special knot that will not slip, but it also does not tighten under stress, making it easy to take out.

Finally, Will Schlitzer would like to congratulate his little brother, Sam, on graduating high school today!

May 29th 2010: Dredge Proposals

2010-05-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

Hey faithful blog followers,

We’re drawing to the end of the mapping phase of our cruise (…and nearing the much-anticipated dredging phase! As geologists, we’re pretty excited about the promise of actual rocks.). We’ve only got two more days until we do some preliminary dredges before briefly disembarking and heading ashore for some land-based adventures. But before we can get the dredge in the water, we have to plan things out, and as the previous post noted, each student has received the task of planning a dredge of their very own.

The 4 - 8 shift likes to begin a stressful day of dredge planning with calming meditation. "See the dredge, be the dredge."

After a couple days of planning, today was the big day for some of the students who presented their dredge proposals in front of the council of elders! (They love it when we call them that…especially Eric.)

Will C. discusses his plans to dredge the seamount affectionately termed 'the Nubbin.' His shiftmates Ally and Angela planned dredges on the nearby round seamount colloquially known as 'the Cheerio.' Together they form the CNL (Cheerio-Nubbin lineament).

Cam discusses his dredge plans with the group while Dan and Ally look on.

The great Harppolini is unimpressed, even though Carbone provisionally named a giant caldera after her.

Karen, Dennis, Allison, and Eric enjoy the sunset out on deck.

The flamingo pose silhouetted against the sunset in honor of the officially named FLAMINGO cruise.

And here's today's

SHOUTOUT OF THE DAY!

Marques would like to give a big shoutout to his Dad and his bff Teddy Florence!

Also, don't forget to check out an interview with Chief Mate Chris over at the Crew Corner!

That's all for us on the Melville today. Don't forget to tune in tomorrow!