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.
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.
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!
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.
The Galapagos Islands are known for their unique flora and fauna, made famous first by Darwin’s work on evolution. They also pose some fascinating geological questions, including the origin of the northern Galapagos volcanoes, the focus of our expedition.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is dedicated to research and education to advance understanding of the ocean and its interaction with the Earth system, and to communicating this understanding for the benefit of society.
Drew Kerlee gets everyone ready for a rendition of Rattlin' Bog.
Eric as Sir Mix-A-Lot.
Dan and Dan... or is that Will?
Denny and Dan get a show they won't soon forget.
