Acclimating to life at sea and learning the ropes


Deploying an ocean bottom seismometer
(although this picture makes it look like we are
setting the instrument on the horizon).
We have been on the R/V Langseth for six days now. During that time, we've become accustomed to living on the ship, developed our sea legs, and acclimated to working odd hours of the night to maintain 24-hour operations. Hurricane Olivia resulted in rough seas for the first few days of the expedition, but it gave us a greater appreciation for calm weather and gentle seas.

For many of the students onboard (including myself), this is our first experience acquiring marine seismic data. Everyone on the ship has been extremely helpful and willing to teach us how to safely and effectively handle the instruments, including ocean bottom seismometers (OBS). We have already deployed 35 OBS! 



Successful recovery of an OBS
In addition to deploying OBS, we are also assisting in the recovery of OBS deployed near the Big Island in response to the activity at Kilauea. It is impressive to observe the constant communication between the captain, crew, and science party in order to locate and recover the OBS. The captain and mates have a particularly tough job of situating the ship in close proximity to the OBS so the crew can reach it. Donna likened it to positioning a car next to a Ping-Pong ball. Nonetheless, we continue to be successful in recovering the ocean bottom seismometers as they reach the surface.



Laney Hart, University of Wisconsin/University of Washington

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