Karen's Daily Blog

Dive Plans/Errand List

On a typical Saturday back home in Bethel, I plan errands: take the dogs to the vet, haul garbage to the dump, shop for groceries, go to the bank, etc. . .  all while listening to “Car Talk” on National Public Radio. Once I know what has to be accomplished, I map the errands in my head into a route without many left turns. (My hometown is crowded on Saturday, and it’s easier not to have to cross traffic).  At the end of the radio show, when I hear the “Car Talk” guys thank their driver, the Russian (rushin’) chauffeur “Picov Andropov” I think, That’s me!

Map of the Dive plan for November 15, 2008.

At first glance, the plan for a dive in Alvin seems a lot like an errand list for Picov Andropov. Take today’s dive plan, for example.

1. Locate elevator and position LVWS Near Marker 28 –
     with Temp and SIPPER That’s a pickup (Find the
     place where the LVWS ended up on the bottom),
     and a dropoff (positioning it near Marker 28 after
     recording the temperature at the location and
     getting a water sample.)

2. At P-Vent take Temp and SIPPER in two tubes of
     Alvinella. (Drive somewhere else and take more
     measurements and water samples.)

3. Collect 10-15 large Alvinella at P vent into ARTY
     chambers 1,2,3 (Pick up some Pompeii worms.)

4. Collect 1 Prototrap at Bio-9 with temp and SIPPER
     (Another pickup.)

5. Collect frying pan if visual chimney (softball size or
     bigger) with Temp and SIPPER
     (Check on another possible pickup. And so on.)

6. Collect chimney where Frying pan was deployed in
     basket – for mineral samples

7. At TICA collect 1 trio-Prototrap with SIPPER and TEMP

8. At TICA and East Wall collect 6-8 live mussels and a bunch of Riftia in lg bio box.

9. At East Wall collect dead Riftia/mussel mung, collect in lg biobox with TEMP and SIPPER

10. Slurp at one location at base of Alvinella or dead Riftia or other depositional environment with
     SIPPER and TEMP chemistry.

11. Survey for alternative LVWS deployment sites up to Biovent

To understand where “Picov Andropov” (that is, DSV Alvin pilot Bruce Strickrott and observers Diane Kim and Conrad Pilditch) is going on today’s dive, see the map of the area. You’ll understand that they’ve planned a connected route, just like me on a typical Saturday morning.

But this isn’t just any Saturday morning for me. It’s the first Saturday of the Extreme 2008 research cruise, and a busy day of work for Atlantis and Alvin – and for Craig Cary, the chief scientist of our expedition.  Craig is the one responsible for making that errand list for Alvin, and he talked to me about how much goes into it. He begins with a wish list from every scientist on the ship.  “I ask for what they would want in the best-case and the worst-case scenario,” says Craig. With 23 scientists on board, it can be a balancing act to get all of them what they need, when they need it. 

Getting the scientists their samples of water, organisms, rocks, and so on is what’s needed to keep the scientists busy. Still, Alvin can’t do everything. “Every dive plan is overambitious,” says Craig.  “Coming up with a dive plan is a cross between making a shopping list and doing a crossword puzzle. We only have a maximum of five hours on the bottom, so if you waste ten minutes doing something, that’s a difficulty. And on this cruise, we have the limiting factor of the LVWS.”  Finding and moving the Large Volume Water Sampler (LVWS) to its sampling location takes at least one hour – and sometimes more than two – of Alvin’s time at the bottom.

Meeting the scientists’ requests isn’t a matter of simply making a checklist, because people’s requests change if they find that they didn’t get what they wanted in terms of samples, or if their work changes. To help ensure that the samples they want are the samples they get, Craig has been involved in the design of tools tailored for Alvin and the vents. They include the Sipper, Artie, and the bioboxes. But the basket can accommodate only so many samples.

When Craig led his first expedition, Extreme 2000, in 2000, he made a very detailed plan for all the dives.

“My big plan was gone the first day!” he says.

Nowadays when the sub comes back on to Atlantis at the end of a dive, Craig has a rough idea of what will be on the Picov Andropov list for the next day. Between dinner and the 7:30 pre-dive briefing for the next day, he comes up with a dive plan.  (See the full dive plan for today’s dive.)  Then he meets with the pilot and observers to discuss what is possible. 

“A cruise is won or lost based on the morale of the group,” says Craig. “I can’t control the weather. And the food is already great.  If I can facilitate the science, people will be busy.” And happy.

Here’s Craig Cary (third from the left) with many of the Extreme scientists in the entryway to Alvin’s hangar.

Today's Extreme Blogger:
Ruth Esther Villanueva Estrada

NOTE: Today's blog comes to us in Ms. Estrada's native language, Spanish.

Trabajo en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Estudié la licenciatura en química. Tengo la maestría en oceanografía química y el doctorado en geoquímica. Actualmente soy investigadora del Instituto de Geofísica y mis líneas de investigación son la geoquímica de manifestaciones hidrotermales submarinas someras y la aplicación de modelos geoquímicos.

Un sistema hidrotermal submarino somero se caracteriza por presentar descargas de agua caliente que se encuentran hasta una profundidad de 200m. El tipo de agua que origina un sistema hidrotermal generalmente es agua meteórica o agua de mar, que penetra en el subsuelo por medio de fallas o fracturas y desciende a profundidades donde es calentada por el gradiente geotérmico (generalmente es de 30°C / km), o bien por la presencia de cuerpos intrusivos a alta temperatura. Este fluido caliente reacciona con la roca con la que tiene contacto durante su trayecto y puede mezclarse con otro tipo de fluidos, como por ejemplo agua connata, que es agua atrapada en estratos sedimentarios rica en iones, cambiando así las características químicas del fluido original; a este fluido se le conoce como fluido primario. Antes de ser descargado, el fluido puede mezclarse con agua sub-superficial que en la zona submarina es agua de mar que penetra en los sedimentos no consolidados, o bien puede sufrir procesos de ebullición; éste fluido se denomina fluido secundario.

Recientes estudios demuestran que la actividad de los sistemas hidrotermales someros puede ser responsable de la formación de óxidos, sulfuros y metales preciosos. Adicionalmente, las condiciones ambientales (temperatura, luz, etc.) y químicas presentes en los sistemas hidrotermales submarinos someros son tales que pueden coexistir y competir organismos quimiosintéticos como fotosintéticos. Algunas características texturales, mineralógicas y geoquímicas de minerales observados en sistemas hidrotermales someros, indican que minerales como el carbonato o pirita fueron formados como resultado de la actividad microbiana.
El grupo de investigadores del Instituto de Geofísica de la UNAM, al cual pertenezco, han centrado esfuerzos en estudiar la geoquímica y mineralogía de sistemas submarinos someros presentes en las costas de Baja California y Puerto Vallarta.

La participación en el crucero oceanográfico EXTREME 2008 es una gran oportunidad para estudiar la geoquímico de sistemas hidrotermales profundos y compararla con la observada para sistemas someros.

Photo Gallery

Dive Log

Alvin Dive 4473 – Nov. 15, 2008                                    9°N East Pacific Rise

Pilot:              Bruce Strickott
Port Obs:      Diane Kim
Stbd Obs:     Conrad Pilditch

GMT                        Comments
13:57                        Alvin launched
15:46                        Reached bottom (X=4452; Y=77653; 2501m)
15:53                        Picked up LVWS (X=4429; Y=77697; 2501m)

Marker #28
16:15                        Dropped LVWS near marker #28 (X=4650; Y=77737; Hdg=+110; 2505m)
16:24                        Dropped the weights off of the LVWS
16:43                        Probing with high temperature probe for an appropriate spot for the sampling tube.  Found
                                 source temperature of 30C (water) – 50C (rock) near Alvinella patch and shimmering water,
                                 where the mouth of the collection tube was place.
16:47                        Positioned sipper tube and temperature probe at the mouth of the tube.  Sipper ICL
                                 temperature probe was reading negative values.  Took sippers 1 & 2 anyway, thinking that
                                 temperature would be okay.  Temperature reading after sipper samples using the high temp
                                 probe read 2C.  So repositioned the sampling tube. 
16:52                      Turned LVWS pump on and read temperature with high temp probe.  Mouth was about 8-10C
                                 and source was about 30C (water)-50C (rock).
16:54                        Sippers 3 & 4 at sampling tube intake (X=4650; Y=77737; Hdg=+110; 2505m)   
17:08                        Headed to P-vent (~100m away)

P-Vent
17:16                        Arrived at P-vent (X=4600; Y=77922; 2506m). Saw black smokers and a lot of
Alvinella.
17:19                      Took temperature readings in 2 Alvinella tubes (both ~40C).  Sipper samples 5&6 in one tube
                                 and 7&8 in the second tube.  Good Alvinella video.
17:36-18:03           Collected ~3-4 Alvinella in each of the 3 ARTY chambers.  Video confirmation that all 3
                                 chambers were completely filled with RNA Later. 
18:10                        Video of crab eating Alvinella

Bio-9
18:19-18:27          Located frying pan at Bio-9 (X=4608; Y=77985; Hdg=+35; 2509m).  Temp=326C. Collected
                                 into forward stbd biobox.
18:39                       Located prototrap #23 marker nearby at coordinates of deployment, but the
                                  actual prototrap was not attached and could not be located so moved on without collection.
18:54-18:56            Octopus video!
19:00                        Headed to TICA

TICA
19:11                   Arrived at TICA (X=4580; Y=78140; 2510m). Huge wall of Riftia and Tevnia.
19:26-36            Located prototrap #2 (the triple trap) (X=4582; Y=78142; Hdg=+45; 2513m). Trap was lying on
                             bare basalt, and not in any cracks or holes.  Last year, deployed on bacterial mat and dead Riftia. 
                             Sippers 9 & 10.
19:38                  Collected 3-4 live Riftia (X=4582; Y=78142; Hdg=+91; 2513m; temp=3.4C) into middle
                             stbd biobox. 
19:55                   Riftia and crab video.
20:03                   Collected 3-4 live mussels into middle stbd biobox (by marker R; X=4586; Y=78146; Hdg=+29;
                              2512m).  Also collected dead Riftia with white slurper.           
20:21                    Headed to East Wall

East Wall
20:31                        Passed DSX marker
20:33                        Arrived at East Wall (X=4532; Y=78420; 2507m)
20:44                        Located prototrap #115 in dead Riftia/mussel bed (X=4552; Y=78401; Hdg=+79;
                                  2510m; temp=3.8C).  Sippers 11&12
20:55                        Red slurp of dead mussel at the site of prototrap #115 recovery.
20:18                        Collected more live mussels with shovel (X=4561; Y=78403; Hdg=+83; 2501m).