Author: Benny Adler

I write to you all from land! After a final week of deployments, we docked in Noumea, New Caledonia, marking a successful cruise.

In our final few OBS deployments, the interns got promoted to handling the OBS release. As the crane dangled the OBS rigs out over the water and lowered them into the waves, it became out responsibility to handle the line that controlled releasing the OBS into the depths. It made each deployment quite exhilarating as we were now given a task that we could royally screw up. However, each deployment went off without a hitch and it was very satisfying to master each stage of the OBS deployment from rigging and release to tracking the OBS with acoustics as it sunk 4000+ meters to the ocean floor.

As we approached Noumea, we began the process of demobilizing. We basically did everything from our first few days in reverse. The other interns and I reeled in the magnetometer for the last time (hooray) rinsing it off with freshwater and level-reeling it to the drum as we went. We packed up all the magnetometer lab equipment, unbolted the winch setup from the deck, and put it all neatly into its storage container.

After securing all our gear we were free to explore Noumea. Walking around was slightly surreal after spending several weeks confined to 274ft. As lovely as it was to frolic on land, I was also slightly bummed to finish out the cruise. Getting to sail in the Southwest Pacific was pretty much a dream come true and I have so much gratitude for the Thompson Crew, Science Party, and other MATE interns.

Peace out for now,

Benny

Today is our 15th day at sea. By now, I’m deep in my watch standing rhythm and the days have started blending together. This week, I’ve averaged 3 cups of coffee, 2 cups of tea, 75 twisties chips, and about 100 pages of Stephen Ambrose’s New York Times Bestseller, D-Day (borrowed from the ship’s library) a day.

We’ve completed our first cluster of OBS deployments so we have a lot more downtime as we cruise back and forth along the North Fiji Basin collecting bathymetric data. The magnetometer has still been putting up trouble; a few days ago, the 300 meter winch towing the instrument failed so we had to pull it in by hand while we prepared for an OBS deployment (this was the second occasion of such a task). It was nice to supplement the exercise I’ve been getting in the ship’s gym. Using the rowing machine in swell kind of turns it into a roller coaster.

In between deployments, we’ve been learning general technician skills from Liz and Andy. I’m happy to report that my time spent as a youth playing video games has given me some great background in learning the ins and outs of IT networking. I also got intimately acquainted with how to terminate an ethernet cable when I wired it wrong 3 times in a row. Beyond that we’ve also practiced soldering wires and configuring network switches. I love when the techs give us a task to complete and leave us to figure out how to get it done. Sometimes it takes me a lot longer than it should but I feel like I learn the best when I’m left to my own devices to solve a problem.

In addition to our technical duties, we’ve also been joining the science party for daily science presentation, where we rotate through sharing ongoing or past science projects. It’s forced me to brush up on my tectonics and I now feel more confidant discussing subduction zones than I ever have before. I also got to refresh my own presentation skills as I discussed some of my past work. I tried to remember Shakespeare’s maxim, “brevity is the soul of wit” but I also do love to hold the floor. In all seriousness, it was great to practice speaking about my research experience to a scientific audience.

All in all, it’s been a great week with calmer seas and good weather. The seas are forecasted to come up from a storm blowing out of the Tasman Sea so I’m glad I’ve been taking advantage of sunsets on the aft deck—I’m not sure how many more of them I’ll get.

Oh also, I made it onto the instagram! Cruise is a huge success.

It’s been a great week of getting comfortable with the rhythms of the ship (and the ocean). I’ve always heard that the swell period in the Pacific tends to be longer than the Atlantic and after pulling out of port, I could instantly feel it under my feet.

For the first few days we assisted in final prep in the port of Lautoka, Fiji. We engaged in the most sacred of intern duties: carrying things for people. We lashed all the Ocean Bottom Seismographs (OBS) to the deck, cleaned and secured deck plugs, and got a lot of practice zip tying chords for various instrumentation connecting them from the deck to the computer labs in the ship. 

Once we departed port, we almost immediately fired up the multi-beam echosounder and sub-bottom profiler to collect bathymetry in the fore-arc of the Mathew-Hunter Trench south of Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu. I have some prior experience with echosounders so it was nice to have something familiar, but the depths of the bathymetry we’re looking at are hard to fathom—4000-5000m down! Please forgive the pun. 

Additionally, we deployed a magnetometer to measure fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic field to pair with the bathymetric data. This small, orange, torpedo-shaped device spools out 300m behind the ship in order to get a clear reading. It also happens that this device has given us the most trouble so far. During our first deployment, our magnetometer gave us wildly varying readings so we had to reel it all the way back in and swap it out with our backup. This was made all the more charming because it takes a couple minutes to spool it all the way out and it was pouring rain on us. Fortunately our tropical location meant that it was more like a nice shower…unfortunately water got in my boots and they took a few days to fully dry. I love wet socks! 

Our survey has been punctuated by deploying OBS off the side of the ship. These rigs sink to the bottom where they will record earthquakes and small shifts in the plates over the next 15 months. Then another cruise will pick them up and they’ll have a bunch of seismic data to analyze. We’ve been assisting the OBS technicians in prepping each package for deployment. It’s been incredible to see how methodical the checklists are for preparing the devices. After all, there’s no changing things once the ship’s crane plucks them off the deck and swings them over the side. After they are deployed we use acoustics to lock into the position of the OBS and track it as it falls to the ocean floor. 

Overall, it’s been an awesome first week. I’ve loved getting to know the crew and other science party members. My shift is from 16:00-2:00, so it’s been fun lurking in the late night and drinking more coffee than I should. 

Looking forward to more lovely sunsets!