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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