What's Happening Today - Nov. 28

Just a few days left to go. Time is flashing by as the choreographed sequences of ABE dives, camera tows, and rock cores continue. Margo and Paul are tweaking the sonar data and navigation so that we can begin to produce final maps of both the entire area and the detailed survey areas that ABE has been working in.

The ABE team continues to amaze us as they program the vehicle to run the survey lines, launch and recover it, charge the batteries and keep up with the furious pace of continuous operations. On the last dive, however, there were some minor navigation glitches. The vehicle ran perfectly in one direction but the lines in the opposite direction were somewhat squiggly. This provided much opportunity for both serious engineering discussions as to what needed to be fixed as well as whimsical joking about ABE acting like a druken sailor for part of its survey.

As ABE continued surveying on Dive #60 in our southern area near 9° 28'N, we left it on its own and transited 2 hours north to the 9° 50'N area to do more camera tows. Tomorrow we'll recover 2 transponders as we wrap up our work in that area and then finish the rest of our camera surveys and rock coring where ABE is completing its detailed surveys on both sides of the East Pacific Rise axis at 9° 28'N.

Big News Today: Several folks spotted some whales in the distance. Brooke Stembridge worked with Craig Dickson, the 2nd Mate, to identify them by the nature of their spouting. They think the whales were either Minke or Fin.

Best Regards,

Dan Fornari

Pete Collins, one of the DSOG techs., pulling wires as they disconnect the equipment needed for the DSL-120A sonar system, and prepare it for shipping back to Woods Hole.

Ken Sims and Michelle Cooper in the Computer Lab. They were working on Michelle's presentation at the science meeting last night. She did an excellent job.

Jerry Graham, an Able Seaman, using the needle gun to chip rust off the base of the starboard crane.

The rock core samples laid out in the Analytical Lab. As you can see, most of the rock cores recovered a considerable amount of glass, usually over 5 grams.

Tomoko Kurokawa poses with her accidental sediment sample when she 'kissed' the seafloor with the THING during one of the camera tows today.

Maurice Tivey preparing the rock corer for deployment.

Al Bradley doing last minute checks on ABE prior to a launch.

Alvin is being prepared for the next series of dives. Here, you can see Gavin Eppard's legs as he completes some work on the sub.

The latest incarnation of Andy Billings's rock core attached to the THING. It will be deployed tomorrow morning to see if can both grab a rock core as well as wind up the core head.