Category: Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Page 7 of 10

We left Cape Canaveral (Florida) last Saturday, June 17, 2023. It took us roughly 5-days to transit to our survey site, which lies about 60 miles (~100km) south of the Cayman Islands. This is the site where scientists from Scripps Institute of Oceanography placed 40 Ocean Bottom Seismometeres (OBS) last Decemeber. The sensors sat on the ocean floor for approximately 6 months gathering data on the movement of the Earth under the seafloor. This site is located over two techonic plates that slowly move away from each other, increasing the elevation of the surrouding seafloor.

The 40 OBSs will be retrieved one at a time by sending a burn signal to the instrument, which releases the OBS from the bottom. They take anywhere from 50 min – 2.5 hours to rise, depending on the depth. Once the OBS reaches the surface, we use its radio beacon, its red flag, and its white light, to locate it. The boat pulls up next to it, where scientists attach at least two lines to it. One of the lines is attached to the winch, which is used to lift the OBS onto the deck. 

My job, as marine tech, is to operate the winch, lifting the OBS out of the water and onto a platform on the deck. It is fairly easy to use with only two levers; one lever moves the A-frame in and out, and the other moves the line up and down. Once on deck, we can retrieve its inner data and move onto the next OBS. We will continue in this fachion until all the OBSs have been retrieved. The other marine tech and I operate on 12-hour shifts (2:00-2:00) so that we can work around the clock with the scientists. We hope to have all OBSs onboard by Wednesday (6/28).

 

Week 4 & 5

 

May 28th

Today I did inventory on the streamer cable modules onboard the vessel and observed data for the rest of the evening. 

 

May 29th

Happy Memorial Day everyone! I woke up to the whole crew on the bridge deck grilling hotdogs and burgers. There was also cornhole and music being played while we all enjoyed our lunch. It was a great moment for everyone. After lunch I assisted Riley with moving winch cables so we could reroute them to the wet lab. After, me and Riley removed old deck units from the mainlab and placed them in the storage room above the lab. 

 

May 30th

Filled out more navigation logs and observation logs and updated certain data sheets. 

 

May 31st

Fairly easy day. I filled out logs and plotted survey lines for lines 46 and 47 on the ORCA planner software. 

 

June 1st

Today I filled out three more logs and plotted 2 more lines. I created the last log for the last survey line which would be completed overnight. 

 

June 2nd 

Today I woke up and immediately reported to the streamer deck to join the recovery of the streamer cable. We ended up recovering 12km of streamer cable because we had to deploy 6km more of streamer to set up for the next survey job. My job was to detach the digibirds off the streamer and remove the batteries out of each one before I placed them on the rack. I did this for nine hours and spent the remainder of my shift cleaning the streamer deck. I also ended my day doing inventory on all the digi birds on deck. We are now sailing towards Morehead NC right now. 

 

June 3rd 

Woke up to the boat already docked in Morehead, NC so we could unload and load some equipment and switch out some crew personnel. Claire (another mate intern) got onboard and introduced herself to the crew. After Claire, Emma and I explored Morehead, were able to get a scoop of ice cream!

 

June 4th

Today was supposed to be our first day of coring but we have sailed into five meter seas. Claire and I ran around the boat picking up stuff and strapping down more equipment. THe seas were so rough that Todd (our new mentor) told Claire and I that the conditions were unsafe to work in. 

 

June 5th

All the sediment coring spots were placed off the coast of North Carolina and South Carolina. Today we sailed to the two north coring spots so we could dodge the southward storm. Our first core was a challenge because we were in the middle of the Gulf Stream with a 3.5 knot current. The core was not stable while dropping through the water which led to us missing our exact coring target. Yet both of our cores were successful in collecting sediment. The scientists were fast to extract sediment out of the cores to test for evidence of gas in the sediment. They would also x-ray the cores and scan them for different materials. 

 

June 6th

Today at the start of my shift I found out that the winch had loose cables from the company that we rented the winch from. We had to coil miles of three string wire cable from the wench so we could rewind back in the winch tighter than we found it. This process started at 5 am and didn’t finish until 6:30pm. After the winch was fixed we were able to do our first piston core. While dropping our piston core our bow thruster started malfunctioning which didn’t allow us to keep the boat stationary enough to let the temperature probes that were attached on the core to collect a temperature reading. Temperature probes were placed on the cores to collect temperatures at different depths of the sediment. The sediment in the core was still collected thankfully. 

 

June 7th

We were able to complete four core drops with no sediment collection but temperature readings were able to be collected each time. For four drops we punctured the seafloor for 8 minutes to get a temperature reading. Claire and I had stayed up late to see the last coring operation of the day through but had to stop all deck operations. At 2 am due to high wind and rain the coring team decided it was too dangerous for deck operations to continue. 

 

June 8th 

When I reported on to the deck we were in the middle of recovering another core when around 2:30 pm the winch stopped working. The core was hanging 1500 meters in the water with a broken winch. The technicians, engineers and core guys got together and worked all day on figuring out how to fix the winch. Luckily by midnight we were able to get the winch fixed and recover the first core of the day. Sadly all the time spent on the winch led to us missing other coring spots. Due to loss of time and a troublesome winch coring, operations were over. We had started a 36 hour transit to Port Canaveral FL. 

 

June 9th

Today was a transit day so I spent most of my time cleaning the main deck while helping the coring team clean up their equipment as well. 

 

June 10th 

We arrived at Port Canaveral but were unable to enter until an available pilot could sail us in. A pilot boat was able to reach us around 4 pm and drop off a port pilot who took command at the bridge and got us in. I was asked to help with lines off the starboard bow of the vessel with the chief mate and bosun. Once we were tied up everyone changed into clean clothes and went into town to celebrate a successful research mission at sea! 

 

June 11th

At port helping with mobilization.

 

June 12th

Goodbye R/V Marcus G. Langseth!   

 

  

We arrived at Cape Canaveral, Florida, last Friday (06/09) seeing dolphins, sea turtles, and sharks on our way in. The first cruise has ended and the crew and I have spent the last few days demobilizing the ship and removing all the science gear. It will likely be taken to a new port to board a new vessel. The best part was that we arrived just in time for the SpaceX launch! So on Monday morning at 3:10AM, most of the crew climbed to the highest part of the ship to get the best view possible of the launch. It only lasted about 5 minutes, but it was something I will never forget.

We will be in Cape Canaveral until 06/17, completing maintance, conducting land surveys, and loading the new science gear for the next job. Our big task as marine technicians was to perform a gravity tie and land tie survey, these are done to calibrate our gravimeter. Aboard the R/V Langseth we have a BGM Gravimeter, that measures the gravity in mGal. This instrument must be recalibrated everytime we arrive to a new port to account for machine bias, this entails going to a known survey site on land to re-measure the Gravity, then comparing it to our ship’s gravimeter to reduce the bias. This in-and-of-itseft proved to be the most trying job yet, as all the sites were closed off behing highly restricted areas (one survey site was on Space Force land). It took us 5 days to access a site, only after acquiring permission from the Port Authority. 

Our next step is to meet the oncoming scientists from Scripps to onbard their equiptment for the next cruise. We will be traveling down to around the Cayman Islands to retrieve sensors placed 6 months previously. 

 

My first week aboard the R/V Langseth was definitely an adventure. After the initial seasickness ebbed, I was able to dive right in. I learned that science at-sea is best decribed as a scramble: things rarely go according to plan, and often 10 things have to go wrong before anything goes right. That being said, I’ve learned so much from the technicians, students, and scientists; they really amaze me every day with their resourcefulness and ability to think on their feet. 

We’ve been able to collect 9 deep-sea sediment cores: 4 gravity cores and 5 piston cores. The crew has been working around the clock to extract the cores, sort them, and process them. Students from OSU even have a CT scan machine aboard to take a profile of all the cores. Once docked, the cores will be sent to OSU (Oregon State University), the Univerity of Texas at Austin, and La Rochelle University, for further sampling.

Unforunatley, the first leg of the cruise is soon over and so many of the amazing people I’ve met will disembark (except Todd). Shout out to the coring team for letting me follow them around all week. I’m looking forward to meeting my new crew for the next cruise!

Week 2

May 17: Alan and I continued to check over the digibird collars for salty erosion and bad latches. Later that evening, I covered for Riley in the main lab to monitor the streamer cable, digibirds and airguns. I kept a close eye on our SOG (speed over ground) and STW (speed through water) to make sure the bridge didn’t go over our speed target which is usually set at approximately five knots. Any speed higher than six knots would lead to high tension on the streamer being towed. This would lead to unnecessary stress and equipment failure. I was able to monitor 10 screens for 10 hours!

May 18: Cody and I went through a weekly gravity check that I was now expected to do every monday for the following weeks. That night Josh (Chief gunner) invited me down to the gun shop where we dismantled an airgun so we could replace O rings. While doing so, Josh walked me through the process of how an airgun works. It was very helpful to have a visual description of the process and it allowed me to have a better understanding of how the air guns create sound waves in the water. I was also able to talk to Bill (geologist technician) and have him explain the sonar pod below the boat. The sonar pod is unique in the fact that it has an ADCP, a transducer, a receiver and a sub-bottom profiler all in one unit that is mounted in the haul! Cool stuff!

May 19: I was finally able to get some laundry washed throughout the day. I also assembled and calibrated 10 digibirds on standby while the crew started retrieving everything out of the water because we had lost signal from our tailbuoy. After I completed my task with the birds I ran around the boat looking for parts and tools that the technicians needed to be able to troubleshoot and fix various instruments. Lastly, I reevaluated 24 birds and put them in order so they were ready for deployment.

May 20 : Alan and I completed our inventory checklist of about 500 digibird collars. Riley needed me to cover him in the lab today so he could continue on another one of his projects he was working on around the boat. During my time in the lab, I had to turn off gun array one so it would be safe for the gunners to retrieve the array out of the water for maintenance. 

Another one of my responsibilities is to convert all navigation and observer logs into PDF format and save them in the correct folders on the server. I also updated the digi bird log on excel. We had been surveying in the gulf stream which led to our streamer feathering off line. With the vessel only allowed to go five to six knots we ended up having to crab our way through the Gulf Stream to stay on line. The navigation screens showed the streamer cable being towed about 90 degrees off our line! 

Week 3

May 21: Together Cody and I went through the rest of the digibirds on deck to test for motors, compass, depth, heading and wing movement on each one so future technicians could keep up with the inventory. I organized the streamer deck from last night’s deployment and touched up the loose piled lines with some line management. Later that evening, we had to bring the guns onboard again due to some electrical leakage. We eventually found where the source of the leakage was through troubleshooting different cable connections with a multimeter for conductivity. After replacing an electrical cable and a GPS unit for the airguns, we had a successful deployment and got off shift. 

May 22: Started my day by completing my work plan assignment with Cody for one of my internship requirements. Cody had then asked me to spray paint all the new radios used for the science team and make sure the current ones were still in good condition. I completed my first weekly gravity check alone with a multimeter and a deck unit in the main lab. Lastly, I ended my night with relabeling most of the monitors, keyboards and mouses in the lab which helped me get a better understanding of the hardware management setup used in the lab. 

May 24: This was a steady day of monitoring data and active equipment throughout our survey. Cody also taught me how to end one line and pre-plot another in the navigation software. We had four meter swells for the majority of the day which eventually became normal to everyone as we kept rolling starboard to port all day. 

May 25: Another steady day of monitoring screens in the lab until 10 pm. At this time, seas had picked up and the digibirds started to struggle to stay at  six meter’s depth. At one point, part of the streamer cable surfaced. Cody and I had to keep switching fin angles and changing depths throughout all the digibirds to fight the sea surface turbulence. Eventually after 90 minutes we were able to stabilize the streamer at eight meters before we got off shift. 

May 26: First thing after waking up, I had to throw on my PPE and go out onto the airgun deck to assist with recovering all airguns and buoys. After that was completed, the technicians and I went upstairs onto the streamer deck to recover all six kilometers of streamer cable that was deployed. My job was to assist with removing the digibirds and replace the collars for each of them (two collars per bird). I also had to assemble and recalibrate 10 more spare birds on standby just in case we had to replace any as we were deploying. We ended up using all 10 birds on standby as replacements for the bad ones that were previously deployed. The bad digibirds that had been taken off were definitely the leading cause for the streamer surfacing to the top yesterday. Recovery and deployment on deck started for me at 12 pm and ended at 10:30 pm. After a long day on deck, I finished a nav log for survey line 40 and created another for line 41. 

May 27: The common phrase I hear on the boat is, “boring data is good data”. After replacing, fixing and a thorough check of all the equipment yesterday everything seemed to be working accordingly. Today was good for data collection while also relaxing due to no errors appearing on our monitors. Our shift led to good conversation and even better laughs while observing data in the main lab. 

My name is Claire Mayorga. 

I’m really excited to join the R/V Langseth at-sea. It is such a unique opportunity to join scientists that are mapping the most inaccessible part of our oceans and retrieving deep-sea sediment cores. 

I first became interested in marine geochemistry in university, where I completed my honors thesis collecting sediment cores in salt marshes to study carbon storage. Then, I went on an oceanography research cruise, and fell in love with remote field work.

I’ve spent the last couple years as a field biologist working on different projects, the most recent being a research assistant in the Kalahari Desert. I spent 4 months following groups of meerkats around collecting behavioral data.

 

Hello everyone! Between mobilization and simply learning how the crew and equipment work I didn’t have a chance to post my week 1 blog last week but here I go with week 1 and 2 for this post!

 

SEISMIC SURVEY MISSION

Why:

The scientists onboard believe there are methane pockets that are trapped in ice that are known as methane hydrates, which is a potential reason for subsea landslides in the deep sea. To help prove this hypothesis we have to go through the survey data and mark the locations where methane hydrates have been located so we can return to these coordinates and drop gravity cores down into the sediment. The gravity core will then collect layers of sediment in a tube and bring it back onboard the vessel where scientists can cut different sections off and freeze them to be studied in a lab back onshore. 

How:

Off the stern of the vessel the technicians and gunners work together to deploy 6km of SSAS streamer cable that record sound waves that are bounced off the bottom of the seafloor. Some sound waves are able to penetrate up to 10km under the seafloor surface. Similar to sub bottom profiler data and we are able to see that data as well. After all the streamer cable is deployed the gunners and technicians will deploy the air guns which are all attached to long sausage buoys that are towed between the cables and vessel. The air guns use compressed air to create a loud blast of noise similar to a gun firing which creates the sound waves that collect data. 

 

Week 1

 

May 6th

I arrived at the Virgina, Norfolk airport and caught a 20 min uber to the NOAA pier where the Langseth was tied up at. The uber driver dropped me off at the gate and the NOAA security guard checked my ID and let me in. As I walked to the ship I passed the NOAA office and one of their vessels. They had a big catamaran dock ahead of us which was being prepared for one of their missions. Cool stuff! As soon as I got on, Cody (cheif technican) introduced himself to me and showed me where my room was. I had to find my way down 3 decks to the main lab (the cook had to help me out because I had walked through the galley 3 times and he figured I was lost). I also had a chance to meet the other technicians and gunners onboard. Todd (a technician) helped me get all my PPE which I posted in my introduction blog post.

 

May 7th

I woke up at 6 am and helped lift floor tiles so I could reconfigure some wires for the main lab which has over 40 monitors! Afterwards, Cody and I attached a RVIM (Rubber Vibration Isolation Model) to the end of one of the streamer cables so the tail buoy would not create tension on the cable while in the water. 

 

May 8th

Me and Cody went up on the bridge tower so we could set up the PSO’s stations on port and starboard sides where they can keep a lookout through their high grade binoculars for whales, dolphins, turtles, etc. 

 

May 9th 

This day was my first day on my 12 hour shift schedule (12pm – 12am). We also set sail between 13:00-14:00. Norfolk was interesting to see as we departed from the dock. I saw a fleet of US naval ships docked up and plenty of commercial ports and vessels coming in and out the bay. 

 

May 10th

I woke up and put my PPE on to help out with deployment of 6km streamer cables on the deck. While deploying I assisted with changing out modules (for more efficient data transfer) and attaching digibirds (model 5000) so we could tow the cables at an appropriate altitude.

 

May 12 

I helped out one of the gunners drill rust off the hydraulic systems and re-grease it with some heavy duty industrial grease. After I was observing data in the main lab when all of a sudden one of the air guns started to auto fire. We retrieved that gun string and realize the air gun was auto firing due to a corrupt seal. After replacing the air gun and some air hoses we deployed them back into the water and started collecting accurate data again. 

 

May 13th 

Cody assigned me 3 daily tasks to do at the start and end of my shift.

1. Checking the server for recent incoming raw data

2. Emptying the dehumidifiers in the mainframe room

3. Check the wet lab for running water so we can have updated salinity measurements.

I proceeded to help the gunners replace air lines to some more air guns before redeploying. Cody then showed me how to fill out daily scientific reports for the National Science Foundation (they are responsible for funding this whole mission). The rest of the evening I was recalibrating all the digibirds that were marked red for not usable. I tested the digibirds for accurate heading, depth, pressure, and wing movement. I then removed the bad bird modules and replaced them with working ones.

Week 2

 

May 14th

Continued recalibrating digibirds and observing data in the main lab.

 

May 15th

Me and another technician named Alan who I learned is an alumni of the CFCC Marine Technology Program went through the bird collars to fix the latches on the bad collars. We also had to soak some of them in freshwater due to salt erosion locking some of them up. 

 

May 16th

I spent most of the day studying the different softwares used in the main lab to track different aspects of our survey.

Orca software: is used for navigation of boat, streamer cable, digibirds, survey lines, and general positioning. 

Digicourse: Displays location of digibirds in the water column so we can keep the streamer cable at the correct depth.

Gunlink: shows electrical signals being transferred to airguns simultaneously. It also displays sound output from the hydrophones and airgun health by color.

Seal: shows sound being received as a whole streamer cable using sound bars.

Seal QC: Graphs sound return by Time (s) and length of streamer cable. 

Hello everyone,

I am a student at Cape Fear Community College in the Marine Technology Program. This is my first internship and I’m excited for this opportunity. I will be a marine technician intern onboard the R/V Marcus G. Langseth for a month. We will be conducting seismic sonar, ctd’s, gravity coring, and retrieving obs’s. We set sail out of Norfolk, VA.   

We’re approaching the final day of our trip. I’ve spent countless hours in the Main Lab proctoring communications with the Bridge and our Science team, logging events, and keeping our monitoring systems somewhat in check. We’ve deployed and recovered OBEM’s almost 25 times over the past two weeks, along with having taken our antenna’s in and out several times due to some hazardous water encounters. We actually lost all activity from our porpoise array on their final tow due to fishing gear and long lines in the water. 3 out of the 4 had their electrodes destroyed. You can see where each one was lost when you go back through their incomplete data sets.

Today specifically, we will haul in our remaining Scripps OBEM’s from south of Martha’s Vineyard. As each is brought aboard, it gets somewhat disassembled, removing electrodes and data loggers and then the data is collected from the compact flash cards that the data loggers recorded to. We have left 5 OBEM’s at the bottom of the ocean that will remain for the next year. They were created by WHOI, they sit off the edge of the continental slope in deep water. They will monitor electromagnetic activity they encounter for use upon their collection in the following year.

I’ve learned about launching XBT’s and how the WinMK21 software works. I have played with the different phases, gain, and shadow reduction to get accurate depths on the Knudsen 3.5 Hz Sub-bottom Profiler. I also got some time into the Spectra Robtrack Interface, getting time estimates and seeing our plotted course. Furthermore, I’ve met a great group of people who will continue to contribute knowledge and ability in the future of the marine science industry.

Tomorrow, we will wait for our Pilot boat to bring us to our dock in the morning, probably right before breakfast time. We will begin our demobilization of the ship, collecting our equipment and things all together, and transport them off boat via cranes. 

All I can say is.. what a great experience I’ve had the pleasure of partaking in. I can’t wait to pursue my future opportunities!

~Kate

 It has been such an incredible opportunity to work with scientists from Woods Hole and Scripps Institute in sending down instruments which have never been used for our purpose in mapping freshwater deposits under the seafloor. Working in 12 hour shifts from midnight to noon I have helped to assemble the Ocean Bottom Electromagnetic instruments and outfit them with batteries, hydrophones, and fluxgate magnetometers along with other instruments that will be recording the changes in frequency of electromagnetic waves as they travel through the ocean floor. We deployed those at specific intervals on the ocean bottom off the coast of NJ and then towed a dipole behind the boat that sent current through the water and generated a complex wave form which was then recorded by the OBEMs and also recievers also towed behind the boat. I have also participated in logging every deployment and recovery including Latitude and Longitude, boat and wind speed, course, depth, and have taken readings from echosounders, GPS recievers, Direct Positioning systems, and other complex multibeam sonar. The geophysics is a little over my head, but I get mini lectures from the enthusiastic scientists on board while we sit and tow our array for days, monitoring all systems on computer screens. I’ve also had tours of the bridge and engine room by the excellent crew. I’m loving it so far. We have now picked up the OBEMs after towing for a few days and are now en route to the continental shelf below Martha’s Vineyard, where we will deploy another kind of Ocean Bottom System which will sit below for 8 weeks and again deploy the OBEMs and tow our array before picking them up and heading back to Woods Hole on the 14th.