Rushing out of port to beat Olivia


Hurricane Olivia approaching Hawaii on Sept 10, 2018.
The beginning of our seismic research cruise aboard the R/V Langseth to study the Hawaiian Island Chain did not go as scripted…  In our original plan, everyone would arrive in Honolulu by Monday, September 10, mobilization would happen on September 10 and 11, and we would sail the morning September 12.  Hurricane Olivia changed all of that! The harbor master ordered all ships to leave port by 6 am on September 11 before the arrival of the storm, forcing us to greatly accelerate preparations.   The ship’s crew, science technical staff, and Ocean Bottom Seismometer (OBS) teams did a heroic job of quickly preparing the ship to sail and loading all necessary provisions and equipment, including ocean bottom seismometers for our study. The science party came directly from the airport to the vessel, and we departed Honolulu at 5 am the next morning. What kind of Hawaiian pleasure cruise is this??

OBS deployment on western transect. 
Not only did we leave in a hurry, we had to sail in the opposite direction to what we’d planned to avoid the storm, meaning that we’re doing our scientific activities in a different order than the original plan.  The seas have also been a little rougher at times than ideal while we’re all still getting our sea legs.  But we’ve made the best of it!  We spent the last day deploying ocean bottom seismometers along our western transect (see map), located west of Oahu, and are currently underway to an area SE of the Big Island to pick up ocean bottom seismometers deployed by colleagues for a separate project to study the recent volcanic and seismic activity associated with Kilauea.   

So, despite a hasty departure and some changes of plans, we are on track! We have an excellent crew and science party, including a fabulous group of graduate students from around the country and an exciting science plan. Stay tuned!


Donna Shillington, 15 September 2018

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