Seamounts 2007
June 17 - June 25, 2007
June 25, 2007 (Day 9) Final Day
Jenny writes: We steamed back out to Davidson Seamount
last night after our dive in Monterey Bay, somewhat desperately
optomistic that the weather would improve as forecasted. Naturally,
this morning it was too rough to deploy the ROV. We dropped four
ROVgravity cores into flat, smooth valleys at Davidson Seamount. We
hoped to get 10-foot long sediment cores full of planktonic
foraminifera whose shells can be analyzed for information about the
temperature and productivity of the California Current in the past. The
cores we got here, unfortunately, were pretty short and gravelly, but
were foram-rich.
Then, the final blow of the expedition struck. Rough seas,
high winds, sea sickness, navy operations, a stopped up sewer line, a
clogged fuel injector for one of the engines...none of those had
stopped us from trying to do our field work. But today, a hydraulic
line that operates the ship's cranes and A-frame blew. We could no
longer core. The Tiburon's cranes run
off the same system, so a dive here or in the Bay on our way in would be out
of the question. So we are headed in to Moss Landing, in surrender. We should arrive early tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.
Despite the shortened dive schedule, the corals that were collected at
Pioneer, Davidson, and in Monterey Bay cover nearly the entire depth
range that the geochemists desired. Our group got a tantalyzing glimpse
of the lava pond on Davidson Seamount. But the secrets of the volcanoes
of the Patton Escarpment will have to wait for another field season. We
wish to thank, profusely, the Captain and crew for working so hard,
under such adverse conditions, to make this cruise successful.
The gravity corer is repositioned from the work deck to its cradle on the well-deck for deployment.
The core swings at the stern of the ship, on its way down to the seafloor over 1500 meters below the ship. The return trip will take a couple hours.
Jenny and Kathie are sub-sampling the sediment caught in the core-catcher.