On Location Aboard Alvin: First DispatchSaturday, May 8Greetings from the Pacific, I arrived in Mexico three days ago with scientists from my lab and some of the scientists from other labs that I will be working with for the next four weeks. We spent our time in port getting ready for the cruise by beginning to unpack of our equipment and testing it to make sure it made the trip to Mexico without any problems. Since each group of scientists has different needs on a cruise, most of the equipment that we use has to be transported to the ship and set up when we arrive. In addition to setting up the labs, some of the group has been busy working with the engineers on board to load equipment onto Alvin, the submersible operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. We are on our way south to 9-degrees north latitude and 104 west longitude. The area we will be working in for the next four weeks is known as "9 North" simply because it sits at that latitude. 9 North is one of the areas on the ocean floor where the crust is separating and high temperature fluids and sometimes lava flows up through the crust. The ridge that 9 North sits on is called the "East Pacific Rise" and it extends from above the equator all the way down to the southern Pacific Ocean. However, for this cruise we will be focusing our attention on a small section of the East Pacific Rise that is about 5 kilometers long. It's time for the mandatory weekly fire drill and boat drill, so I am off for now. Krista Monday, May 10Most of the science party was up this morning to watch Alvin being launched into the water. For the ship's crew and the group who work on the sub, the day started at 5:30 am as they needed to launch some equipment that will be used during the dive today. The first launch is always exciting since it signifies that the work that we have been doing to prepare for the cruise is finally coming to fruition. Some of the projects have been waiting for two or more years to get dives aboard Alvin. Once the Alvin group has the submersible ready it is slowly pulled out of the hanger and moved out onto the deck. About halfway down the track, Alvin is stopped and steel weights are attached to the sub. The weights give Alvin enough extra weight to sink to the bottom. Once the sub is on the bottom, half of the weights will be dropped and the sub's ability to float along the bottom will be controlled by pumping water in and out of internal tanks and moving the liquid mercury into different tanks to balance the sub. When the time comes for the sub to return to the surface, the remaining weights will be dropped and the sub floats to the surface. At the moment, some of the scientists are taking naps getting ready for the first late night and others are finishing up the preparations needed to receive tonight's samples. It is exciting, but we will not know what will be coming up with the submersible until later in the afternoon. While Alvin is on the bottom, the communication up to the ship is primarily limited to navigation information and electrical or mechanical problems with the sub. Tidbits of information about the status of the experiments on the bottom only come up occasionally. So in the meantime, the scientists on the boat try to wait patiently for the science report at the end of the dive. I'll be sending some pictures tonight from the first dive. Wednesday, May 12For the previous two years researchers at the University of Delaware have been working to develop a system to measure the chemistry of the hydrothermal vents from the submersible. The goal of the project is to use the geochemical signals to try and locate microbes within niches of a hydrothermal ecosystem. While my lab has been involved in the microbial half of the project, we have also been using a similar system in the laboratory. Translating a system that has worked in the lab for use 2500 meters under
the water is not straightforward. Don Nuzzio was the person responsible
for designing and building the system to measure the chemicals in the
water. Around one o'clock in the afternoon Don sent a short, but exciting
message up from Alvin "Electrochemistry works." With those two words, two
years of hard work paid off and Don and the others in the sub were able to
determine exactly what was in the water and what the concentration of the
different chemical species is.
This dive was Don's first dive in Alvin. When he returned to the surface
he was greeted with the traditional bucket of water that greets every
newcomer when they return to the surface. However even several buckets of
water couldn't wash the grin off of his face. In addition to the excitment
of having the new system work, he was also able to bask in the excitement
of having spent the previous eight hours on the bottom of the ocean.
(Click on the picture for a closer look!)
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