Every day from 5-6PM the ship’s cooking staff prepare some great dinners for us. The pictures below give you a look at what we had today, but every day is different! I also appreciate having the names of each option posted on the white board. The science crew and myself have had nothing but praise for these great meals. Plus, with the buffet style dining its easy to find something that works for you and get your fill of it.
The R/V Marcus G. Langseth was first launched in 1991 with a 15 year life expectancy. However, this ship has had its fair share of upgrades to keep it up to date and ready to get work done. In our first photo you can see the control room where a combination of older and newer technologies works in conjunction to give the engineers the necessary information and controls to regulate the engines and keep them healthy. We also have a picture of the fuel intake section of the engine (picture 2). And finally, one of the compressors for conducting our seismic data acquisition (picture 3). This part was where the earbuds really came in handy. In fact, when asked about why the entertainment room is so loud, the engineer pointed out that this piece of equipment was at fault for that. The tour of the engine room took a good 30 minutes. We were given an introduction on the technologies ranging from the moving parts that spin our propellers to the water purification system for our water supply while at sea.
These last few days have been a bit wild out here on the high seas (movie)! This is not unexpected as we are in a very active/dynamic ocean surface current area where the Gulfstream flows north at the surface overlying several other deeper/cooler currents (pic 1; windy.com). As you may imagine the heightened sea state has consequences in respect to both our comfort and data quality. The threshold for the latter was breached yesterday morning (05/19) when we lost contact with our tail buoy (float at the end of the 6km streamer), which is bad news as we were not sure if it was still attached. As a result, we broke off Line 14 (pic 1) and reeled in the streamer to investigate the problem. Luckily it was still attached (pic 2) and we were able to fix it, but not without a ~15hr delay. During the delay we headed southeast to get away from the storm (much to the relief of all onboard). As a bonus, the calm seas and distant storm clouds provided us with a fantastic sunset (pic3). We are back on line 14 now with high hopes for low seas, wish us luck!
Ali Mohamed, our Egyptian graduate research assistant had this to say about his experience so far:
Being under attack by experts and big tools, (for 10 days till now and for 20 more coming) the United States Atlantic margin (USAM) is still hiding a lot of its buried geological secrets. However, looking at primary sample versions of our cruise’s data provides promising insights about revealing some historical events that impacted the USAM through the past geological ages. Our multi-national scientific team is now collecting various datasets (seismic, sonar, seafloor bathymetry, gravity, and magnetic) which are to be accompanied by core CT images and a plethora of other measurements so we can read the signatures of historical events which were buried in and engraved on the USAM sedimentary rocks. Our Journey doesn’t stop at collecting data only. Our team have 2 scientific group discussions every week , lead by our PIs, to discuss previous research projects and formulating ideas for future ones. Do you think we only deal with rocks?!! Ooh man, it was not hard to shutdown our system, specifically the seismic source (air gun), for 50 minutes while a peacefully swimming turtle passed through our survey area. It would have hurt our hearts to bother this slowly moving turtle with our tough seismic system.
After about a week of data acquisition, our team was excited to finally see a “seep” in the real time monitor! Seeing our formation features like this is always exciting in real-time rather than after processing the data. A seep is a section in the seafloor that is leaking out methane. This methane that is released towards the ocean’s water may have various origins from the shallowest to the deepest parts of the Earth. One of our PI’s, Jo, had this to say about their encounter:
Today, at 07:47 UTC time/3:47AM local time, we saw THE GAS FLARE! Louis-Marin and myself!
Louis-Marin just did a noise which sounds like : “Heyuu” and pointing the screen with his finger. I turned my head and said “OH YEAH!” My enthusiasm was so big that I jumped off my seat!
We have spent lots of our night shift time during these first 10 days of acquisition on replaying the water-column to check if there is a seep or not! And after finding almost no seep since the beginning of the cruise, trust me, we were happy to see one in real time!
The seep is at ~ 2200 m depth, and, as expected, right at the turn in between the cross-line P12 and the inline P13! And trust me, this seep is beautiful, perfect, awesome! Of course, there was no time to turn on the camera to take a picture! But this is a mental picture that is going to stay long in my mind! The day that, with Louis-Marin, we saw THE plume in real-time!
My first thoughts when seeing this place was that it felt like I was in a sci-fi movie. For some reason we actually need over 30 monitors for this operation. Most of the monitors give us live updates on what our data is bringing in, as well as some variables to help us optimize the acquisition process as needed. We also have some monitors to make sure our streamers and ship are continuing in line with the survey lines. On the right side of the images we also have our Protected Species team monitoring for any sea life. The table in the middle has a map of our route and our current position.
A library on a boat? That’s right! The Langseth has a great assortment of books for its passengers to read just in case the monotony of data gathering becomes too much and the bookworm in you needs some attention. However, if you’re anything like me, reading while a boat is rocking is bound to make you motion sick. There are a few great remedies for that, but the best ones are getting your sea legs (this process is not a fun one, but it is highly effective) and where you read on the boat. Luckily, the library has one of the best seats in the house. The central location it provides is an area where the pitch, roll and heave of the ship are minimized. The only better places for reduced motion that I’ve found are the entertainment room and the main lab.
Our chefs out here on the R/V Langseth are hard at work to make sure we get balanced diets with tasty foods. As you can see from the pictures, breakfast can be, quite literally, a colorful event. My go to meal is some eggs and oatmeal, mixing in a couple fruits (the pineapples are amazing) and a greek yogurt.
At 10:30 AM the science team met to discuss the contents in Jenna Hill’s (2018) scientific paper “Subsurface controls on the development of the Cape Fear Slide Complex, central US Atlantic Margin” in which our very own Anne Becél is an author. This paper gives the reader an in-depth resource used to gain a greater understanding of the geology in our survey area. After a couple days of studying, the students were challenged to show off their literature review skills and create conversation with their own observations as well as detailed questions where they felt there could be gaps in their knowledge. The experts facilitated with additional questions to build comprehension.
Our French students have this to say about the trip so far:
Bonjour tout le monde!! (It means Hello everyone in French)
Here is a quick first impression from the point of view of some French students (but mainly the point of view of some Master’s students on a scientific campaign).
Since the beginning of the trip, which was only four days ago, we have learned a lot about multibeam and echosounder acquisition (which are typically sonars).
Our current job is to analyze, using Ifremer’s software “Globe”, the water column data acquired using the echosounder EM122. So far, we managed to find a reflective plume coming out of the seafloor on the 05/10 data which was reassuring since there was a shutdown of the acquisition a few minutes before. We were very happy about this discovery!
Our tasks mainly take place during night shifts, from 00:00 until 10:00 AM, an interval during which are also present: our P.I, Jo, Gilles, the IT specialist, and Koray, the Navigation Master. We also had the chance of meeting Cassi, Kristal, Daniela and Jo-Ann, the Wildlife Watcher’s Team. Consequently, we tend to sleep a lot during the day, but we always make sure to be awake for lunch and at least save a plate in case we miss dinner.
Naturally, we had (and still have!) a lot of questions for the scientific team, most of whom were eager to answer us.
As said earlier, it’s been only less than a week since our Departure from Norfolk, VA and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the cruise has in store for us!
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