Ocean life: expeditions and essays
exploring the abyss
Jon Copley
Published by Jon Copley at
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Copyright 2012 Jon Copley
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~~~
Preface
People have been crossing the ocean for at least 40 000 years, if we consider events such as the first human colonisation of Australia. But for almost all of human history, what lies beneath the waves has remained largely unknown. Until just a couple of centuries ago, we had little notion about the depth of most of the ocean. And the landscape of the ocean floor was a blank on maps: the white space in which cartographers doodled "here be dragons".
We now know that more than half our world is covered by water more than two miles deep. We also know that the landscape of the ocean floor harbours one of our planet's greatest geographical features: a chain of undersea volcanoes that stretches for ~40 000 miles around the globe, formed where the titanic plates of the Earth's crust are moving slowly apart. That chain of volcanoes, which we call the mid-ocean ridge, is our planet's longest mountain range, and we didn't even know it existed until the 1950s. Even today, we still don't actually have an accurate map of two-thirds of our own planet, and have seen much less of it directly with our eyes.
Dotted along the mid-ocean ridge are yet more surprises, not seen until the late 1970s: volcanic vents, nicknamed "black smokers", that gush mineral-rich hot water into the ocean above. Lush colonies of deep-sea creatures thrive around these vents, and biologists have found more than 400 new species of animals at vents seen so far. Many of these new creatures have amazed us with their adaptations to such unlikely havens in the abyss, and their very existence has expanded our perspectives of the limits of life. Studying their colonies around the world is also helping to reveal the web of life in the ocean depths, which we need to understand urgently: we are fishing in deeper waters, extracting oil and gas from deeper waters, and even starting to mine minerals on the ocean floor, but our exploration of the patterns of life in our planet's largest realm has only just begun.
I've spent most of my scientific career so far exploring the marine life at deep-sea volcanic vents, in the Atlantic, Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean. I hope that this collection of personal logs from recent expeditions, interspersed with some earlier articles about deep-sea vents, may share some of the wonder that we experience in our continuing exploration, and also give a glimpse of what it's like to do science at sea.
It has only been 80 years since people first ventured into the deep ocean and saw its inhabitants with their own eyes. The first pioneers were William Beebe and Otis Barton, who dived half-mile down in their bathysphere in the 1930s. Beebe is one of my heroes; he was a great writer as well as a naturalist, and he once wrote that "There are two kinds of thrill in science: one is the result of long, patient intellectual study… But the other thrill lies in a completely unexpected discovery" (The Arcturus Adventure, 1926). We are now able to dive deeper, stay longer, and visit the deep ocean more often than ever before--but there are still plenty of surprises waiting for us out there.
Jon Copley
January 2012
~~~
Glossary
We love our acronyms in marine science, but occasionally our accounts can look like alphabet soup as a result. So here are some of the acronyms used in the expedition logs, in approximate order of appearance:
CTD: stands for Conductivity-Temperature-Depth, and describes a probe that we lower from the ship to measure the temperature and salinity of water at different depths beneath us. Our CTD is also equipped with other sensors that can detect the smoky plumes of water and chemical signals from deep-sea vents, and is therefore the main tool that we use to detect deep-sea vents in unexplored areas.
SHRIMP: stands for Seabed High Resolution IMaging Platform. SHRIMP is essentially an underwater camera system, which we lower beneath the ship on a wire and tow slowly across the seafloor to see what's down there. It can't manoeuvre other than by us moving the ship to swing it around on its wire, but it provides a useful tool in initial reconnaissance, before we send in more sophisticated vehicles.
BRIDGET: a bespoke device for detecting deep-sea vents, towed on a wire a few hundred metres above the seafloor behind a ship. BRIDGET was created by the BRIDGE (British Mid-Ocean Ridge Initiative) research programme in the 1990s, from which she derives her name.
ROV: remotely operated vehicle; the state-of-the-art for seeing and sampling the ocean depths. ROVs are unmanned deep-diving vehicles that carry cameras and lights, and have robotic arms for collecting samples--they become our eyes and hands for working on the ocean floor. Deep-water ROVs are typically the size of a family car, and are connected to the ship by a tether cable that carries power to the vehicle and live pictures back from it. ROVs can keep working on the seafloor for longer than manned submersibles, and allow the whole science team back aboard the ship to contribute to operations. ROV ops are directed from a "control van" on the deck: usually a converted cargo container containing video screens, data logging systems, and the pilot controls for the vehicle.
Isis: not actually an acronym, but the name of the UK's deep-diving ROV. Isis can dive to 6000 metres deep, and carries high-definition video cameras, with two highly dexterous robotic arms for collecting samples. Thanks to some sophisticated control systems, Isis is also capable of incredibly precise manouevers at the ocean floor: we can move her just a few centimetres in any direction, despite being thousands of metres beneath the ship.
TOBI: the Towed Ocean Bottom Instrument--a "sidescan" sonar system, capable of producing a detailed map of different types of seafloor in an area, similar to aerial photography but using sound instead of light. TOBI images can distinguish, for example, areas of exposed rock from those covered in sediments. TOBI is towed a few hundred metres above the seafloor on a wire behind a ship.
AUV: stands for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle--a robot submarine that we don't control remotely from the ship, but which instead flies preprogrammed missions to survey the ocean depths by itself. We used an AUV called Autosub6000 to pinpoint deep-sea vents on the ocean floor of the Cayman Trough.
HyBIS: stands for Hydraulic Benthic Interactive Sampler. HyBIS is not quite an ROV, but carries cameras and lights, with a hydraulic grab for collecting samples, and has thrusters that allow some manoeuverability at the end of its deployment wire from the ship. HyBIS offers a cost-effective alternative to taking an ROV to sea, when you can't be sure whether you'll need one--and so we used HyBIS to sample the deep-sea vents of the Cayman Trough for the first time.
~~~
Into the inferno
(December 2000)
Forget the rainforests or the African savannah that you see on television wildlife programmes: the deep sea is the largest habitat for life on Earth. More than half of our planet is covered by water more than three kilometres deep, and life exists at all depths in the oceans, down to the bottom of the deepest trenches. But this vast habitat is also the one about which we know the least.
Marine biologists used to think that deep-sea life was always slow and scarce, until the discovery of volcanic vents on the ocean floor in the late 1970s. Scattered along a 60 000 kilometre chain of undersea volcanoes, these vents spew out mineral-laden water heated to more than 300 degrees C. The vents are home to meadows of metre-long tubeworms with no mouths, and swarms of strange shrimp--a riot of life to rival that of a coral reef, with a pace to match.
The abundance of animals around deep-sea vents rewrites some of the rules of biology. Life on Earth is usually solar-powered: plants use sunlight to grow, herbivores eat the plants and then carnivores eat the herbivores and each other. But life at vents starts with chemicals in the hot fluids. Bacteria use these chemicals to grow, just like plants use sunlight. The bacteria then provide food for the animals. But although deep-sea vents have changed our view of life in the deep sea, we don't visit them very often and can't stay for long when we do--a typical submersible dive lasts about eight hours. So what goes on when our backs are turned remains largely unknown. However, by comparing the changes that we see between visits and leaving instruments behind, we are beginning to piece together some of the events in the lives of the animals down there.
Despite being found in the depths of the ocean, the vents are subject to the same rhythm of tides that laps at our coastline. These tides may influence some of the animals living at the vents, such as the unusual shrimp that live at vents in the Atlantic. These shrimp appear to cultivate bacteria on their gills and harvest them for food. The bacteria are nourished by chemicals in the vent water, so the shrimp need to bathe in this fluid to ensure a bumper crop. Using a time lapse video camera, we have seen the shrimp apparently shuffling around the sides of a vent as the tide changes, to stay in the fluids on the "downwind" side.
Tides are the metronome of the oceans. They provide a regular beat that some animals can use to synchronise their behaviour, particularly their reproduction. But reproduction at vents can be a complex affair. In the case of the shrimp, although there are literally millions swarming around the vents, we have only seen a handful of females carrying eggs on their legs among thousands that we have examined. It could be that we visit the vents at the wrong time of year, but this seems unlikely as there are always plenty of females seemingly just on the verge of laying their eggs. Carrying eggs in the scrum of shrimp around the vents, however, would be like putting your baby in a backpack and heading down to the front rows of a particularly rowdy rock concert. It may be that egg-carrying females move away from the jostling crowds to protect their precious cargo of offspring.
Palm worms--named after their resemblance to tiny palm trees--tell a different story at vents in the north-east Pacific. If you are a palm worm, whether or not you can afford to reproduce depends on your postcode. The environment around vents is very patchy, rather like a big city. You can be strolling through a well-to-do area, then turn a corner and suddenly find yourself in a much less salubrious district, with no gradual transition between these extremes. The same is true for conditions around the vents--the temperature can vary by tens of degrees over just tens of centimetres, for example.
Life is hard for palm worms in areas where conditions are harsh. These worms may have to spend all their energy in coping with the stress of their surroundings, with none left over for reproduction. Yet their neighbours just a metre away may be living it up in much more benign conditions, with plenty of energy to spare for reproduction. So reproduction in the palm worms is patchy around the vents, just like the environment.
The palm worms that can afford to reproduce also appear to synchronise their reproductive cycle. By releasing all their offspring together, the palm worms may improve the chances of their offspring surviving by providing safety in numbers. But the worms need some external cue to co-ordinate this behaviour. Although the idea has yet to be really tested, tides are a good candidate for such a cue, as they provide a regular and widespread signal.
But how often do the worms get it on, so to speak? Worms collected one week apart show different stages of reproductive development, but worms collected one month apart are at the same stage, suggesting that their reproductive cycle has gone full circle in that time. These results are far from conclusive, but they hint at a possible monthly or even fortnightly reproductive cycle for the palm worms, which might tie in with cycles in the tides. Such a short reproductive cycle is largely unheard of elsewhere in the deep sea, but we should perhaps not be too surprised. Animals at vents grow far faster than their counterparts elsewhere and have plenty of energy for such a racy lifestyle. Some of the shallow-water relatives of the palm worms also have lunar cycles thanks to tides.
So despite their strangeness, the denizens of deep-sea volcanic vents may have something in common with animals in rockpools on the seashore. But why should we care about the daily drama of sex and death--the staple fare of wildlife documentaries--so far beneath the waves? Well, life around vents has already given us high-temperature enzymes for industry, and may yet yield new medical treatments. It has also opened our minds to the serious possibility of life on other planets, such as Jupiter's moon Europa, which may hide an ocean beneath its icy crust. But for me, perhaps its greatest legacy lies in keeping alive our sense of wonder. As John Steinbeck once wrote, an ocean without unnamed monsters would be like sleep without dreams.
~~~
RRS James Clark Ross Voyage 224
(January-February 2009)
Early start, getting ready to fly to
Chile to join the RRS James Clark Ross, my home at sea for the next
37 days.
3:44 AM Jan 5th 2009
In transit at Madrid airport, 26
hours of travel to go.
12:08 PM Jan 8th 2009
Crossed equator in style, upgraded to
Business Class, but luggage still in Europe…
6:13 AM Jan 9th
2009
Landed in Punta Arenas, southern
Chile.
2:19 PM Jan 9th 2009
Today we must track down the luggage;
12 items, some expedition-crucial, are somewhere between here and
Heathrow. Ship arrives tomorrow.
2:35 AM Jan 10th 2009
No word on bags; chaos at Madrid, but
for all we know they may still be at Heathrow. About to board ship,
but won't leave for 3 more days.
2:37 AM Jan 11th 2009
Went for run on the beach before
cooped up on ship. Weather bright, brisk wind. Much rubbish on beach
and found shanty town, stray dogs.
2:42 AM Jan 11th 2009
Now aboard ship. Loading heavy
equipment and setting up labs. 4 bags on way from Heathrow, but don't
know which ones. 8 others still missing
7:40 AM Jan 11th 2009
Found the grave of Commander Pringle
Stokes, who first commanded HMS Beagle in these waters, at the side
of dirt road south of Punta Arenas.
4:05 PM Jan 12th 2009
Back at our ship - and the missing
luggage has arrived. Shower and straight into fresh clothes at
last!
4:07 PM Jan 12th 2009
Our first destination, near South
Georgia, is now programmed into the navigation system and course
plotted.
7:07 AM Jan 13th 2009
Can hear the clatter of stores being
craned into the forward hold, next to my cabin. Our ETD is 0900h
local time tomorrow.
10:34 AM Jan 13th 2009
Last line ashore at 1211 GMT - and we
are free from our berth, off on Voyage 224 of the RRS James Clark
Ross; 1054 miles to our first target.
4:28 AM Jan 14th 2009
Lifeboat drill, stowaway search
drill, and science meeting this morning, while passing along the
Straits of Magellan.
5:22 AM Jan 14th 2009
Commerson's dolphins swimming around
the ship as we pass through the narrow part of the Straits. Also
Magellanic penguins bobbing about.
8:57 AM Jan 14th 2009
Noon GMT: 53 deg
21.4' S, 63 deg 28.6' W. Making 12 knots. Now off Patagonian
shelf, soon passing Burdwood Bank, south of Falklands.
4:06 AM
Jan 15th 2009
Engineers working valiantly to fix
SHRIMP, a towed camera system we hope to use to video deep-sea life
later in this expedition.
8:40 AM Jan 15th 2009
SHRIMP stands for Seabed High
Resolution IMaging Platform - we love our acronyms in marine science.
Sadly SHRIMP has suffered in storage.
8:43 AM Jan 15th 2009
Just snagged some drifting fishing
gear. Tangled round our propellors, but deck crew working to free
us.
10:36 AM Jan 15th 2009
Underway again, but heading to
Falklands for a diver to inspect the prop. Will add a day to our
passage. Rapped knuckles for the lookout!
11:05 AM Jan 15th
2009
Noon GMT: 51 deg 40.0' S, 57 deg
48.2' W, now anchored offshore of Port Stanley, Falkands. Waiting for
diver to inspect the prop.
4:04 AM Jan 16th 2009
Weather too rough at the moment for
the diver to check the prop, so we're still waiting near Port
Stanley...
9:52 AM Jan 16th 2000
Finally left our Falkands anchorage,
everything checked out. Now in rolling seas on way to South
Georgia.
5:46 AM Jan 17th 2009
Lively conditions: watertight doors
closed, unsecured items sliding in cupboards. View from porthole:
sky, then sea, then sky, sea, sky...
6:07 AM Jan 17th 2009
0000h GMT: 52 deg 04.9' S, 54 deg
32.5' W. Changed course this evening to reduce roll, after some
furniture-shifting swells.
5:21 PM Jan 17th 2009
0000h GMT: 53 deg 16.0' S, 46 deg
50.8' W. Should arrive at first target area near South Georgia
tomorrow p.m.
5:04 PM Jan 18th 2009
Crossed the Polar Front this evening;
now in colder Antarctic waters. Air temperature dropped to 5 deg C
(still summer here)
5:08 PM Jan 18th 2009
Now passing just S of Shag Rocks (~
53 deg 40' S, 41 deg 50' W), a pair of underwater peaks rising from
the seafloor west of South Georgia.
6:42 AM Jan 19th 2009
Stopped to test CTD (conductivity,
temperature, depth) instrument, which measures temperature and
salinity in layers of water below us.
10:03 AM Jan 19th 2009
CTD also carries sample bottles to
collect water for geochem and microbio. CTD will be one of our main
tools for finding deep-sea vents.
10:05 AM Jan 19th 2009
CTD test completed; resuming course
for S Georgia. Just time for Monday's "circuits" session in
the hold before 1st scientific watch begins.
11:12 AM Jan 19th
2009
"Circuits" run by purser
Richard, ex-Navy PT instructor, for any wanting to keep fit; much
appreciated (when asked afterwards, not during!)
11:13 AM Jan
19th 2009
A bit gassed by paint fumes in the
hold today, but survived. Grabbing a bite to eat in the duty mess
before taking 1st scientific watch.
1:59 PM Jan 19th 2009
Arriving at our first target area. At
last the science begins.
2:48 PM Jan 19th 2009
Starting my "watch". Ship
stopped to launch BRIDGET - a towed instrument with chemical sensors
to sniff out deep-sea vents.
3:04 PM Jan 19th 2009
2300h GMT: 54 deg 00.5' S, 40 deg
10.0' W, water depth 2731 m. We'll be starting a test tow of BRIDGET
here this evening.
3:05 PM Jan 19th 2009
Will also be using onboard sonar
instruments to map the geology of the seafloor. But have stopped
logging sonar data while BRIDGET launches.
3:06 PM Jan 19th
2009
Just made my hourly round of manually
recording data from sensors: water temperature 4.42 deg C, salinity
33.81.
3:08 PM Jan 19th 2009
BRIDGET gets towed behind the ship at
about 300 m above the seabed - the height where smoky waters from
deep-sea vents disperse.
3:11 PM Jan 19th 2009
We don't expect to find any deep-sea
vents here, but will test whether the all the electronics are working
at a decent depth (1500 m).
3:13 PM Jan 19th 2009
BRIDGET is now in the water; starting
to map the seafloor as well with sonar while we tow BRIDGET.
3:40
PM Jan 19th 2009
Seabed is very flat below us right
now: only 50 m of vertical difference over 9 km of horizontal
distance.
3:59 PM Jan 19th 2009
Surface water temperature is 4.4 deg
C; sonar pulses are taking ~3.7 seconds to bounce off seabed at its
current depth (2700 m).
4:09 PM Jan 19th 2009
Instruments on BRIDGET appear to be
working and sending back data ok.
4:20 PM Jan 19th 2009
Spoke too soon: BRIDGET just stopped
sending data, as it reached 1400 m deep.
4:26 PM Jan 19th 2009
Engineer Pete solves to problem by,
ahem, "turning it off and on again".
4:27 PM Jan 19th
2009
BRIDGET now being hauled back up from
1500 m; test deployment complete.
4:40 PM Jan 19th 2009
Halfway through my watch now: just
completed another on-the-hour round of manually recording data from
the underway sensors.
5:03 PM Jan 19th 2009
BRIDGET is back on deck; now heading
for next target area - a patch of seabed near South Georgia where
others have dredged up bits of sulphur.
5:33 PM Jan 19th 2009
Sulphur suggests there might be an
"island" of chemically-powered life down there. Will take 8
hours to get there; mapping seafloor on way.
5:34 PM Jan 19th
2009
When we get there, we'll deploy the
SHRIMP towed camera system, to inspect the seabed and its
inhabitants.
5:36 PM Jan 19th 2009
Just gone straight over a small mound
of sediment, about 20 m high and 100 m long, 2000 m below us. Wonder
what's down there...
5:53 PM Jan 19th 2009
All sonar data we are collecting
becomes part of the map being built up for this area. Still lots of
gaps where no-one has surveyed before.
5:59 PM Jan 19th 2009
And that's the end of my watch;
handing over to Alisdair. Off for a catnap until we reach SHRIMP
deployment site, ETA 1000h GMT.
7:06 PM Jan 19th 2009
Arrived at launch site for SHRIMP,
but a problem with its cable. Cable needs to be "reterminated"
which will take engineers a couple of hours.
2:41 AM Jan 20th
2009
We're six miles off South Georgia,
but can't see it in mist. James Cook landed here first in 1775,
though others sighted island earlier.
2:47 AM Jan 20th 2009
Cook's description: "wild rocks
raised their summits till they were lost in the clouds, and the
valleys lay covered with everlasting snow...
2:49 AM Jan 20th
2009
...Not a tree was seen, nor a shrub
even big enough to make a toothpick." Hope we'll get a glimpse
of the island too if the mist lifts.
2:50 AM Jan 20th 2009
SHRIMP needs a day to fix, so we'll
do CTD here then head towards the East Scotia Ridge, a chain of deep
undersea volcanoes SE of South Georgia.
4:02 AM Jan 20th 2009
Large tabular icebergs to starboard,
grounded on South Georgia shelf. Could be remnants of disintegrated
Larsen B Ice shelf, given ocean circulation.
11:27 AM Jan 20th
2009
Arriving at East Scotia Ridge - chain
of undersea volcanoes, active for past 15 million years - after quiet
night, more sonar mapping, iceberg dodging.
7:48 AM Jan 21st
2009
Noon GMT (while I was catching up on
sleep): position 55 deg 45.0' S, 32 deg 15.3' W; water depth 3853
m.
7:49 AM Jan 21st 2009
Deploying CTD at "Mermaid's
Purse": a location where deep-sea vents were detected (but not
inspected) in 1999. Q: are they still there?
9:50 AM Jan 21st
2009
Yes! CTD has detected "smoky
water" from vents somewhere in vicinity, 2700 m below us. May
take a few days to pinpoint them.
11:33 AM Jan 21st 2009
Ending 18h of mapping chemical
plumes, using BRIDGET, to figure out where vents are on the seafloor.
Need 18h more but weather deteriorating.
9:21 AM Jan 22nd 2009
A couple of big rolls: ship lurched
way over, stuff flying around the lab despite securing it, everyone
hanging on and laughing maniacally.
9:30 AM Jan 22nd 2009
Weather worse today, but still
managing to sonar map and I slept like a log last night, despite
furniture getting rearranged in my quarters.
6:28 AM Jan 23rd
2009
Hove to now, head to wind, too rough
even to sonar map. Maybe like this for 24h. But time to crunch the
data we have.
8:03 AM Jan 23rd 2009
Still hove-to in heavy weather. Some
spectacular waves last night: Tennyson's thunders of the upper deep,
no doubt. Science has to wait...
4:37 AM Jan 24th 2009
0000h GMT: 56 deg 06.7' S, 30 deg
33.6' W. Sonar mapping through the night; weather finally slacking
off a bit, we hope.
4:11 PM Jan 24th 2009
Just passed over a small seamount,
not on any previous charts; highlight of my watch so far tonight.
What shall we name it?
6:09 PM Jan 24th 2009
Spent 8h hunting for vent plumes with
BRIDGET. Conclusion: we are in the wrong place. But "great
chieftain o' the puddin-race" for dinner.
1:58 PM Jan 25th
2009
Winch broke down last night leaving
BRIDGET dangling 2200 m deep. Has taken night of engineering
ingenuity to get it back to the surface.
5:13 AM Jan 26th 2009
Just been out to haul BRIDGET back on
board. Was snowing, now raining. Main winch still offline, so we will
use CTD probe instead of BRIDGET
5:16 AM Jan 26th 2009
Great CTD data today; so close to
nailing vent sites. Have stopped pacing lab and left others to it;
must turn in for SHRIMP early tomorrow.
7:14 PM Jan 26th 2009
Could be a big day today. Geochemists
have boxed in likely location of vents. Now we want to see what lives
down there, using SHRIMP.
4:12 AM Jan 27th 2009
If everything works, hope to answer
simple yet fundamental Q: is deep-sea vent life here like the
Atlantic, or Pacific?
4:12 AM Jan 27th 2009
Answer will tell us something about
what governs patterns of life throughout the oceans - Earth's largest
habitat.
4:13 AM Jan 27th 2009
After some agonising teething
troubles with the winch, SHRIMP is on its way down to the undersea
volcanic ridge beneath us.
6:09 AM Jan 27th 2009
Touchdown - SHRIMP is on the ocean
floor and we are watching live footage from it, one-and-a-half miles
deep.
7:06 AM Jan 27th 2009
In the words of deep-sea pioneer Otis
Barton: "No human eye had glimpsed this part of the planet
before us..."
7:08 AM Jan 27th 2009
"...this pitch-black country
lighted only by the pale gleam of an occasional spiralling
shrimp."
7:08 AM Jan 27th 2009
Flying over rugged landscape of
pillows and lumpy tubes of solidified lava, some shattered and glassy
when they were quenched by seawater.
7:54 AM Jan 27th 2009
SHRIMP just crashed into seafloor;
lost all pictures; anxious wait for systems to reinitialise - but
we're back in business.
8:57 AM Jan 27th 2009
7h survey of seafloor with SHRIMP,
now on way back up; no vents yet, but better idea of the geology down
there to help us tomorrow.
1:44 PM Jan 27th 2009
Another SHRIMP dive; but after hours
on the seafloor, with no sign yet of vents, we're contemplating
ending current survey line here.
7:56 PM Jan 28th 2009
Wait! Suddenly there are lots of
purple octocorals; could this be the "halo" of life at the
edge of a vent field?
8:05 PM Jan 28th 2009
Continuing line; now seeing
filamentous bacteria coating rocks, giving them an eerie cast in our
lights. We must be getting closer…
8:17 PM Jan 28th 2009
Rugged terrain of cliffs and
crevasses of solidified lava; having to swing SHRIMP around in hope
of crossing vents.
8:31 PM Jan 28th 2009
Ecstatic shouts in the main lab, as
finally the "black smokers" we have been searching for are
coming into view.
11:06 PM Jan 28th 2009
"Black smokers" here are
furthest south ever seen. Around them, clustered in crevices, appear
to be scarab-like, yellow squat lobsters.
11:12 PM Jan 28th
2009
Squat lobsters are complete surprise:
crab-like animals don’t usually survive in cold waters of deep
Antarctic. Maybe vents keep these warm?
11:18 PM Jan 28th 2009
With vents now pinpointed, we're
withdrawing SHRIMP from the seafloor - don't want to damage chimneys
as SHRIMP swings on its wire.
11:45 PM Jan 28th 2009
Next year we'll be back with a
remotely operated vehicle; this year's recon is a success; must
contain excitement until then.
11:46 PM Jan 28th 2009
We're now moving 250 miles further
south to repeat the process in a new area, and hope to pinpoint yet
more vents.
9:12 AM Jan 30th 2009
0000h GMT: 60 deg 03.5' S, 29 deg
58.9' W; now in Antarctic waters as recognised by the Antarctic
Treaty.
4:01 PM Jan 30th 2009
We're right over a fascinating
crater, about 1500 m across and 150 m deep, in the volcanic ridge
2500 m below us.
4:02 PM Jan 30th 2009
Sent SHRIMP down the sheer face into
the crater. Interesting geology but not much biology. Another sortie
planned for tomorrow.
4:27 PM Feb 1st 2009
Another day, another SHRIMP run. 10h
flying over sheet lavas and pillow basalts. Some interesting fauna:
dumbo octopus, predatory seasquirts.
4:27 PM Feb 2nd 2009
Vivid blue iceberg with at least a
hundred penguins on it off our starboard bow; unfortunately too far
to photograph well.
10:05 AM Feb 3rd 2009
Another big iceberg right where we
would like to deploy our CTD probe. So have to rethink survey plans
for tonight; bergs have right of way.
7:54 PM Feb 3rd 2009
Searchlights sweeping the sea around
us for growlers (ice chunks that can still do us mischief) as we
collect our data in the dark.
8:26 PM Feb 3rd 2009
Sea too rough today for SHRIMP run,
so we're off to some seamounts near South Sandwich Islands.
Consolation: free to go to circuit training.
3:59 PM Feb 4th
2009
Now surveying Kemp seamount, one of
estimated 39 000 undersea mountains higher than 1000 m worldwide;
only ~300 have been explored visually.
5:57 AM Feb 5th 2009
Great SHRIMP dive; spectacularly rich
seamount fauna. Trying to calculate how much organic matter the
ecosystem filters from the water.
6:20 PM Feb 5th 2009
Lost a day to rough seas, then
investigated putative undersea "mud volcano" (it
wasn't).
7:47 AM Feb 7th 2009
Freakishly flat calm weather, so
we're back at the undersea volcanic ridge. SHRIMP launched and on way
down to look for vents here.
8:38 AM Feb 8th 2009
Found spires of former vents, no
longer active and devoid of animal life. But are there still active
vents nearby?
6:03 PM Feb 8th 2009
After 16h of surveying, we have
encountered large, white seven-armed seastars - first signs of
getting close to the vents here?
0:52 AM Feb 9th 2009
Within minutes of finding the
seastars, we're crossing a lush "garden" of stalked
barnacles and large anemones - this is it!
0:54 AM Feb 9th 2009
Stopping then reversing ship to swing
SHRIMP back over area. Patience required.
1:02 AM Feb 9th 2009
Think we can see piles of white squat
lobsters - perhaps same as those we saw at the vents further
north?
1:32 AM Feb 9th 2009
Amazing piles of brown snails and
white squat lobsters, and yellow stalked barnacles lining the edges
of fissures.
3:33 AM Feb 9th 2009
Everyone crowded round video screens,
straining to see what's down there. No-one wants to miss moments of
discovery, even off-watch sleepers
3:34 AM Feb 9th 2009
Big cheer as we see black smoke
rising from the seafloor below; another vent field found for ROV
dives next year.
3:36 AM Feb 9th 2009
With two new vent fields now
pinpointed for investigation next year, have time to explore new
seafloor crater near South Sandwich Islands.
2:40 AM Feb 10th
2009
SHRIMP flying over floor of crater,
depth 1.6 km. Lots of sea cucumbers in sedimented areas, lots of
brittle stars on rock outcrops.
4:22 AM Feb 10th 2009
Climbing apparent small volcanic cone
near centre of crater. Are more vents nearby? Think we're seeing
bacterial mats on rocks.
6:14 AM Feb 10th 2009
At edge of crater; 200 metre high
sheer wall of hexagonal basalt columns, like Giant's Causeway.
Awesome deep-sea landscape.
11:57 AM Feb 10th 2009
Must return here next year; a
mystery, with warm water in the crater; probably yet more vents to
find here too.
13:12 AM Feb 10th 2009
Land ho! Arrived at South Georgia. As
we're ahead of schedule, have time to run ashore. Hope to visit
Shackleton's grave.
2:51 AM Feb 12th 2009
On our way back to the Falklands,
still sonar mapping and towing magnetometer, but break tonight to
celebrate near-end of our trip.
12:44 PM Feb 16th 2009
Meanwhile we're all writing our
sections for the expedition report, summarising what we've done, what
we've found etc over the past weeks.
12:45 PM Feb 16h 2009
Final day of passage. Bright sun,
brisk wind, lively seas. Last circuits session this evening. Should
make Falklands tomorrow morning.
2:26 PM Feb 17th 2009
Waited for HMS Clyde to clear our
berth, then first line ashore at 1329 GMT; so ends Voyage 224 of the
RRS James Clark Ross.
5:37 AM Feb 18th 2009
Our thanks to all the officers and
crew; our science is simply not possible without the bridge crew,
engineers, cooks, stewards, doctor etc.
5:37 AM Feb 18th 2009
36 days, covering ~5000 km, 534 CTD
profiles, 96 h 27 min of SHRIMP dives, sonar mapping of large area of
deep ocean.
5:38 AM Feb 18th 2009
This trip has been reconnaisance;
next year we return with the deep-diving robot vehicle Isis to
investigate our discoveries in more detail.
5:50 AM Feb 18th
2009
~~~
Secret life of shrimp
(November 1997)
Relativity and quantum mechanics will be remembered as two great milestones of twentieth century science. But what keeps me awake at night is wondering what shrimp are doing when I'm not looking at them. This concern may actually have more in common with relativity and quantum mechanics than one might think.
The shrimp in question swarm around volcanic vents on the ocean floor, feeding on bacteria nourished by minerals in the hot vent water. This food supply supports an abundance of life far greater than that usually found in the deep sea. I have spent the past three years trying to fathom the lives of these animals, but their remote habitat has not made this easy.
Although described as eyeless when they were discovered a decade ago, the shrimp in fact have an unusual light-sensing organ on their backs--not really an "eye", as it lacks a lens and can't form an image, but rather a light sensor that can detect the faint and mysterious glow that comes from deep-sea vents. Unfortunately, the bright lights of our deep-diving submersibles almost certainly "dazzle" the shrimp during visits to the vents, which may modify the behaviour that we see. Hence the problem of what the shrimp are doing when we're not looking at them.
The idea that the act of observation unavoidably disturbs the object of observation is familiar to quantum physicists. Under Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, we cannot precisely measure the position and momentum of subatomic particles, because measurement itself involves bouncing other particles off them. Quantum mechanics actually goes further to consider that the concepts of position and momentum may not exist for subatomic particles unless observed. In the case of the shrimp, I know they must be doing something when I'm not looking at them, but I just can't be sure what it is.
Diving to deep-sea vents in a submersible is one of the rare highlights of my research. There are times, however, when I would almost swap that experience for being able to visit my study site whenever I choose. Although they share a similar rhythm of tides with rock pools on the seashore, deep-sea volcanic vents sometimes seem as remote as our stellar neighbours. The information that we receive from distant stars and galaxies is always out-of-date, as nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Similarly, obtaining information from deep-sea vents is limited by their remoteness. Astrophysicists avoid the problem by abandoning the concept of absolute time. At the vents, we are not so lucky.
Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes can disrupt the plumbing of the vents, cutting off the supply of mineral-rich water that supports the life around them. As I finish writing my PhD thesis, the particular vents that I am writing about may no longer be active. In such circumstances, the fate of the shrimp around them is uncertain. We know that the shrimp store energy in a kind of "savings account" whilst they are feeding at the vent. When a vent fails, the shrimp could use this energy to try to swim to another vent that is still active. But the nearest vent may be more than a hundred kilometres away, which would make that an epic journey. Alternatively, the shrimp may stay where they are, living off their reserves on the off-chance that the supply of life-giving vent water is restored. As smaller and lighter young shrimp seem well adapted for long-range dispersal by ocean currents between vents, another possibility is that the shrimp may spend their savings in one last reproductive effort and go out with a bang, as it were.
Worrying about the fate of shrimp at deep-sea volcanic vents may be seen by some as a suggestion that I should get out more. Certainly, questioning what shrimp are doing when I'm not looking at them is not a particularly worthwhile pastime. To justify my existence, I could point out that life around deep-sea vents offers a potential source of innovation for biotechnology. However, this would hide the real reason for my interest in these animals. I want to find out more about the lives of shrimp at volcanic vents simply because they are there, and because, like quarks and quasars, they do not always give up their secrets easily.
~~~
RRS James Cook Voyage 42
(January-February 2010)
After 30 hours of travel, am now
aboard ship in Punta Arenas, southern Chile.
2:09 AM Jan 5th,
2010
My first time aboard the shiny and
roomy RRS James Cook; will be my home from home for quite a while
over the next two years.
2:10 AM Jan 5th, 2010
Rousing kit out of ship's hold and
setting up labs today. Most of our scientific team should arrive this
evening.
1:16 PM Jan 5th, 2010
Have found freezer of whalebones for
colonisation experiment stopped working during ship's journey from
UK; how did no-one notice the smell?
1:21 PM Jan 5th, 2010
Doug has bravely (for a geochemist!)
helped me move whalebones to new freezer (hopefully they will be ok)
and clean up the blood etc.
1:27 PM Jan 5th, 2010
Rest of our team, including 4 new PhD
students, have now arrived at the ship. Only 1 set of luggage lost
between here and UK this time...
2:36 AM Jan 6th, 2010
My lab space now set up; microscope
tied down. Signed Ship's Articles. Into town for last-minute
essentials. Dinner ashore; ETD 0700h tomorrow.
8:17 PM Jan
6th, 2010
Last line ashore 1015 GMT, and we are
free of our berth: Voyage 42 of the RRS James Cook officially begins.
10:16 AM Jan 7th, 2010
Our destination: volcanic vents ~2500
m deep on East Scotia Ridge, which we found last year; furthest south
vents have ever been seen.
10:17 AM Jan 7th, 2010
Our goal: to obtain missing piece in
global puzzle of deep-sea life, by determining how life at these
vents relates to life elsewhere.
10:17 AM Jan 7th, 2010
Last year’s expedition was
reconnaissance; this year we have deep-diving ROV for detailed
investigation and collecting samples.
10:17 AM Jan 7th, 2010
Our remotely operated vehicle (ROV)
is called Isis; her high-def cameras & robotic arms are our eyes
& hands for working on ocean floor.
10:17 AM Jan 7th, 2010
Expect to encounter: new species
(safe bet in the deep ocean); maybe new undersea features; certainly
rough seas, ice, penguins.
07 January 2010 10:18
Now bunkering (ship-speak for taking
on fuel) at Capo Negro. Completed our mandatory lifeboat muster drill
this morning.
07 January 2010 14:56
Best evening entertainment on board
is not the video lounge, or in the bar, but watching the sunset from
deck: cerulean, gold, crimson...
09 January 2010 01:02
Busy day discussing dive plans,
underwater camera setups, and preparing a guide to deep-sea species
we encountered last trip.
10 January 2010 00:31
Stopped on our way to first target
site for ROV test dive. Isis is now on the seafloor 2600 m below us,
trying out new bits of kit.
10 January 2010 16:43
Arrived at 1st target, but weather
too rough for ROV. 40 knot winds, gusting to 60. Angry-looking sun
glowering under cloud-covered horizon.
13 January 2010 06:42
Back-up plan of using other
instruments for now, with promising signals so far. But ship
struggling to keep on station.
13 January 2010 06:43
Wind now gusting 75 knots; pressure
974, still dropping. And this is Southern Ocean summer. But may blow
out by midnight to allow ROV dive.
13 January 2010 16:53
Now on my watch. Only running one
instrument in these conditions: a 38 kHz echosounder, so not much
actually to "watch" tonight.
13 January 2010 19:13
The weather has dropped as ordered,
and Isis Dive#125 is go, launched just after midnight GMT.
14
January 2010 00:57
Dive objective: search for the
sources of chemical plumes we've found in the area, and find out what
may be making a living from them.
14 January 2010 00:58
Lots of krill so far, and stunning
swimming polychaetes, with bodies like rippling liquid glass.
14
January 2010 01:23
Isis returns to the surface. Payload:
1 x push-core of sediments, 2 x deep water samples for the
geochemists to analyse.
14 January 2010 10:52
On our way to next target area:
northern end of East Scotia Ridge, a chain of undersea volcanoes 2.5
km deep. Will take 30h to get there.
14 January 2010 11:54
Leaving sight of South Georgia after
riding out stunning storm, now passing a few icebergs.
14
January 2010 22:08
Arrived at our target site; deployed
CTD instrument to collect water for geochemists and microbiologists;
beautiful signals.
16 January 2010 02:14
Isis now on first dive at this site;
the faithful are crowded round the monitors in hushed expectation,
waiting for first glimpse of seabed.
16 January 2010 02:15
Touchdown; Isis is on the bottom,
2656 m deep. Landscape of grey "pillows"of solidified lava,
lightly dusted with sediment.
16 January 2010 02:25
Having some issues with the ship's
GPS fixing, but gives us time for some tea - ROVs more civilised than
manned subs in that regard.
16 January 2010 03:59
While we watch the ocean floor, it is
snowing outside - and penguins are swimming past the aft deck.
16
January 2010 04:04
Frustrating pause while ship's
thrusters to push us back into position, so we can move the ROV...
need to map site before weather closes in.
16 January 2010
04:22
Caught up on sleep after all-night
dive; weather forced Isis back aboard just after dawn. Seas too rough
for anything else right now.
16 January 2010 19:59
Have spent day piecing together a map
of the site from dive data and images; the first detailed view of
this particular part of our planet.
16 January 2010 19:59
Sunshine and blue sea, not grey, this
morning. Isis is back on the ocean floor, completing its mapping.
Cliffs, crevasses, and chimneys so far.
17 January 2010 11:27
Next, Isis will run a video survey of
the area, crucial for my PhD student Leigh's project. Tense time for
us getting it right.
17 January 2010 11:33
For success, nav systems must work
impeccably, and our special camera, lights, lasers. It's game time:
this is what we came here for.
17 January 2010 11:45
Argh! Vital piece of kit is not set
up correctly on Isis for this dive; have to recover, fix it and
relaunch. Wall-punching frustration.
17 January 2010 17:01
Consolation: while we're waiting for
Isis to ascend, a group of Humpback whales has arrived to check out
the ship.
17 January 2010 17:44
Finished epic Isis dive. Lasers
stopped working; lost a camera feed; nav system did its best to
confuse us; but team got the job done.
18 January 2010 16:53
Weather hopefully settled until
Friday, so making deep-sea hay while sun shines. And have heard
Humpback whalesong through ship's hull.
18 January 2010 16:56
Isis back down in the dark depths
again. Dive has been golden so far; cameras and lasers ok, nav ok,
great data. Superb flying by the pilots.
19 January 2010 01:52
PhD student Leigh now has the con;
hands-on is only way to learn. And our picture of life down there
continues to come into better focus.
19 January 2010 01:56
Great dive again last night; my watch
blitzed to-do list on the ocean floor. Busy day processing samples;
another dive about to launch.
20 January 2010 17:49
We're looking at the first "black
smoker" vents found in the Southern Ocean; indeed the first seen
south of 40 deg latitude.
21 January 2010 11:35
These vents are at 2600 m deep, and
gushing mineral-rich fluids hot enough to melt lead (>327 deg C).
21 January 2010 11:51
Isis had an "Apollo 13"
moment during my watch last night: her umbilical cable tangled with
an instrument mooring on the seafloor.
21 January 2010 14:23
Stormy weather heading our way from
this weekend, so need to get as much done as we can on the ocean
floor before it hits.
22 January 2010 08:18
Isis back on board again; our "slurp
gun" (underwater vacuum cleaner for collecting specimens) broke
down, but otherwise a good 24h dive.
23 January 2010 03:49
Isis surfaced last night through a
bloom of siphonophores: colonies of jelly animals with bodies like
strings of glass beads.
23 January 2010 14:27
Couple of Humpback whales and four
Minkies have paid us a visit. Magnificient, curious, playful; their
aquatic lives so different from ours.
23 January 2010 14:29
Another night, another Isis dive.
Last sampling dive at this site; weather expected to close us out
here, so on to next site further south.
25 January 2010 04:14
It's Burns Night aboard the RRS James
Cook: cullen skink, haggis with neeps and tatties, cranachan.
25
January 2010 19:04
Impromptu ceilidh in the mess to
celebrate job done at our first site, as we pick our way south around
icebergs in the fog.
26 January 2010 05:26
Arrived at our next site, just beyond
60 deg S, this morning. Isis already launched and heading for the
ocean floor, raring to go.
27 January 2010 11:43
Isis has landed on the seafloor,
right on target on the first dive at this site. Now hovering over an
amazing garden of life, 2400 m deep.
27 January 2010 13:02
The last vent field we visited had a
Stygian feel to it; but this is an utter Eden, from what we're seeing
right now on the seafloor.
27 January 2010 17:20
Finished my watch, and the last half
hour was the most breathtaking of any dive I've known. Never seen
such lush life on the ocean floor.
28 January 2010 01:43
Just finished marathon Isis dive with
PhD student Leigh, carrying out equivalent of aerial photography of
these deep-sea vents.
29 January 2010 00:29
Isis dive curtailed by threat of bad
weather. But Beta watch (my team) get the job done. And find a
pattern of life I predicted (smug grin).
31 January 2010 03:15
Riding out a storm; too rough to
launch Isis, or deploy any other kit. So we're sonar mapping again:
faint chirp, chirp through the hull...
31 January 2010 14:52
Weather better, Isis back in the
water, and our comms link to shore up again after interruption
yesterday.
02 February 2010 08:15
Isis has surfaced in rare sunshine
and blue skies this morning, amid a flotilla of icebergs: more than a
dozen large tabular ones around us.
02 February 2010 10:57
Another dive complete, yielding yet
more samples. Blowing a bit of a blizzard out there; recovery of Isis
was dicey but went ok.
03 February 2010 01:14
Right now we're sitting in Isis
mission control, waiting for green light from the Bridge on weather
conditions for launch.
03 February 2010 23:07
Isis is go for Dive #145, but
launched just at the end of my watch, so it's over to Doug's team
(Gamma watch) to carry out the dive tasks.
04 February 2010
00:14
Some good-natured rivalry between the
watch teams as to who gets most done on the ocean floor. Of course I
think my team are the elite :)
04 February 2010 00:21
Finished dives at this site and
underway again. Next stop an undersea crater, one mile deep and 2.5
miles across, which we found last year.
04 February 2010 18:03
Where else can you find a geographic
feature so big that no-one knew was there? That’s why I love the
deep ocean. Six hours to the crater.
04 February 2010 18:04
Our initial 24h of investigation at
the unexplored seafloor crater has been inconclusive: clear signals
of venting have been elusive.
06 February 2010 00:11
Just launched Isis on an exploratory
dive; by serendipity landed on a fascinating area with apparent warm
water seeping from seafloor.
06 February 2010 00:13
Now exploring small volcanic cone at
bottom of crater to see if there's anything hot down there. Plenty of
intruiging marine life so far.
06 February 2010 00:14
Wonders of the deep never cease. As
hoped, the crater hosts another "island" of deep-sea life.
But different to the others. Q is: why?
06 February 2010 14:12
Have seen "walls" of
elemental sulphur growing out of seafloor cracks; glacier-like beds
of clams; sea spiders; limpets; anemones.
06 February 2010
14:13
Also "dead zones" littered
with bodies of shrimp and squid, possibly suffocated by volcanic
waters.
06 February 2010 14:14
Vents here appear very different to
others we have visited nearby. Many different animals, and apparently
different chemistry.
06 February 2010 14:15
Fathoming this mystery will keep us
busy here for rest of this expedition. And perhaps we'll need to
revise plans for next year too.
06 February 2010 14:15
Happy birthday to RRS James Cook:
today is 3rd anniversary of our ship's naming. Making new discoveries
on ocean floor best way to celebrate
06 February 2010 15:19
Leigh and I now starting dive to
video map volcanic cone at bottom of crater; will take 20h but give
us clearer picture of patterns of life.
07 February 2010 09:44
Neptune saves the best to last in our
video survey: by chance we've encountered the skeleton of a whale on
the ocean floor.
08 February 2010 00:12
Leigh & I were about to end our
video survey line, when white blocks of whale vertebrae came into
view in distance.
08 February 2010 00:13
Whale bones host colonies of special
animals - another kind of "chemical-powered" island of life
in the deep.
08 February 2010 00:13
This is only the 5th whale skeleton
to be found on the seafloor. Spending several hours examining life on
it and collecting samples.
08 February 2010 00:15
We'll be comparing species here with
those from "whale falls" known elsewhere. Have already
found Osedax, aka "bone-eating zombie worm".
08
February 2010 00:21
21h of bottom time later: video
mapping finished. Knackered but a great dive; enjoyed spell as pilot.
Over to Delta watch for Isis recovery.
08 February 2010 04:46
Hectic last 72h of Isis dives,
collecting final samples we need from the ocean floor. We have to
leave tomorrow lunchtime, for journey home.
11 February 2010
17:47
Isis blew a capacitor during dive
last night; tense time readying for "dead vehicle"
recovery. But tech team bypassed it; she's still alive.
12
February 2010 11:41
Isis is back aboard, and we've
started 9-day voyage to our journey's end, in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Time to pack samples and reflect.
12 February 2010 14:15
Isis made 30 dives on this trip, down
to >2500 m and past latitude 60 degrees South, racking up more
than 250 hours on the ocean floor.
12 February 2010 14:15
Isis dive time may be a record for a
Southern Ocean expedition; certainly testament to the dedication and
capability of the UK's Isis team.
12 February 2010 14:18
Lively seas today; ship plunging and
bucking through the waves; deck out-of-bounds. Now past South
Georgia; still one week to Montevideo.
15 February 2010 12:59
Our ship moves at about same speed as
a bicycle (~11 mph); it's a long bike ride from South Georgia to
Uruguay, even pedalling 24h a day.
16 February 2010 16:52
Nearly at journey’s end for this
trip; ETA Montevideo lunchtime tomorrow. Last-minute packing of
samples, equipment, luggage.
20 February 2010 23:07
First line ashore 1622 GMT at
Montevideo, Uruguay; so ends Voyage 42 of the RRS James Cook.
21
February 2010 16:33
45 days at sea, taking the RRS James
Cook close to her limit. But 45 days full of deep-sea marvels, thanks
to Isis ROV.
21 February 2010 16:34
We could not do our science without
the superb team supporting us aboard: bridge officers, deck crew,
engineers, techs, cooks, stewards.
21 February 2010 16:34
Doug and I will be back aboard the
RRS James Cook in 3 weeks time for our next expedition: to the
world's deepest undersea volcanic rift.
21 February 2010 16:34
~~~
Expedition heads for world's deepest undersea volcanic rift
(March 2010)
A British scientific expedition is heading into the world's deepest volcanic rift, more than three miles beneath the waves in the Caribbean, to hunt for the deepest "black smoker" vents detected so far on the ocean floor. The team, working aboard the Royal Research Ship James Cook, will use a robot submarine called Autosub6000 and a deep-sea vehicle called HyBIS to reveal the features and inhabitants of the world's deepest undersea rift for the first time.
The expedition is being run by Drs Doug Connelly, Jon Copley, Bramley Murton, Kate Stansfield and Professor Paul Tyler, all from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK. They will explore the Cayman Trough--a rift in the seafloor of the Caribbean that reaches more than three miles deep. In November last year, a US-led survey of the waters of the Cayman Trough detected signs of deep-sea vents on the ocean floor below--and now the British expedition is heading out to investigate them.
Deep-sea vents are undersea volcanic springs that erupt mineral-rich water hot enough to melt lead. They were discovered in the Pacific three decades ago, but most are found one to two miles deep, dotted along chains of undersea volcanoes around the world. Scientists are fascinated by these vents because they support lush colonies of deep-sea creatures that thrive in the otherwise sparsely-populated abyss. The vent creatures feed on microbes that are nourished by minerals in the superheated water, creating an ecosystem that is not reliant on sunlight as its energy source.
For this expedition, the RRS James Cook is equipped with Autosub6000, a robot submarine developed by engineers at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK. Autosub6000 can dive 3.73 miles (6000 m) deep to map the ocean floor in detail, survey the currents and chemistry of deep waters, and take photographs. The team also plan to use a deep-sea vehicle called HyBIS, built by engineering company Hydro-Lek Ltd in Berkshire, UK. HyBIS can be controlled from the ship to film the ocean floor and collect samples of rocks and deep-sea creatures.
The researchers hope to compare the marine life at the bottom of the Cayman Trough with that known from other deep-sea vents, thereby shedding light on the web of life that spans the deep ocean. "Studying the species that thrive in such unlikely havens gives us insights into patterns of marine life around the world, and even the possibility of life on other planets,", says Copley, a marine biologist at the University of Southampton.
In addition, the team will investigate the geology of the area and the hot water that gushes from deep-sea vents. "Because deep-sea vents get hotter at greater depths, we expect these vents to be the hottest yet," says geochemist Connelly, who will be the Principal Scientist aboard the ship. The current world-record temperature for a deep-sea vent is 403 degrees C, recorded at a vent in the middle of the Atlantic.
The expedition will also leave instruments on the ocean floor to monitor the little-known deep-sea currents of the Cayman Trough, and deploy experiments to investigate how deep-sea creatures colonise new habitats. The scientists will board the RRS James Cook in Trinidad on 21st March, to prepare for the ship's departure on 25th March. The expedition is scheduled to arrive at the Cayman Trough around 31st March, and will end in Jamaica on 24th April. During the voyage, the scientists will be posting live updates online about their progress from the ship. "We look forward to sharing the excitement of our expedition with people around the world", says Copley.
~~~
RRS James Cook Voyage 44
(March-April 2010)
Last-minute packing for Cayman
expedition; crack-of-dawn departure tomorrow. Having barely unpacked
since Southern Ocean makes task easier.
20 March 2010 22:45
Back aboard RRS James Cook, in Port
of Spain, Trinidad. Elevated to palatial quarters on Boat Deck for
this trip.
22 March 2010 00:56
Already baking hot on deck at 0800h
this morning. Loading equipment, stores, setting up deck and labs
over next couple of days.
22 March 2010 13:56
Brief excursion from ship this
afternoon to acquire yet more buckets for samples, after Antarctic
expedition nearly cleaned us out.
22 March 2010 20:34
Busy but good day today with visit of
the British High Commissioner to the ship this morning, and Trinidad
TV news in the afternoon.
23 March 2010 21:06
Final prep for our expedition:
bunkering at an offshore fuel terminal today, before we start out for
the Cayman Trough.
24 March 2010 16:53
About to start my first watch - we'll
be "Beta" watch again this trip. Just doing the hand-over
from Paul's Alpha watch.
27 March 2010 19:53
My watch team: Carla (chemist), Rolf
(geologist), Nancy (geophysicist) and Sarah (oceanographer), and I'm
covering the biology.
27 March 2010 19:54
Our watch tasks today are not too
taxing: recover the CTD instrument, then log the underway geophysical
sensors as we continue passage.
27 March 2010 19:55
Recovered the CTD probe, deployed the
magnetometer, resumed course and speed for Cayman Trough - actually
quite hectic so far.
27 March 2010 21:38
Just gone midnight ship's time - end
of our first watch. Handed over to Bram and Gamma watch for the night
shift.
28 March 2010 05:09
Quiet watch tonight: just usual
half-hourly rounds of monitoring main lab displays, magnetometer in
wet lab, gravity meter on lower deck.
29 March 2010 04:20
Quick stretch out in the sunshine
before my watch - but the hot metal deck is scorching my feet through
the thin soles of my shoes.
29 March 2010 20:49
We've arrived at the Cayman Trough,
and now have 21 days of science operations to achieve our objectives.
30 March 2010 13:35
Sea is flat calm today. Somewhere,
around 5000 metres beneath us, is the world's deepest hydrothermal
vent; our task is to find it.
30 March 2010 13:37
Download this book for your ebook reader.
(Pages 1-28 show above.)