What's Happening Today - Nov. 8

The DSL-120A sidescan sonar went into the water this morning around 9am. Patrick Hennesy, the Bosun, assisted by the deck crew and the DSOG team expertly launched it. It took about 3 hours for the sonar fish to get to the right altitude above the bottom - about 120 meters - to start collecting data. So far the records look pretty good - hats off to Mark Rognstad who designed the sonar electronics, and the DSOG team who operate the sonar and the HMRG folks who process the data. We're looking forward to seeing the texture of the seafloor as it unfolds before our eyes on the computer monitor during the coming days.

The students are getting trained in watchstanding duties, 4 hours on watch and 8 hours off, and most are now used to the gentle rolling around that Atlantis is doing. The weather is hot, humid and varies between overcast and sunny - the usual for the tropical eastern Pacific this time of year. The cooks and mess dept., Carl, Jay and Linda, are doing their usual terrific job at keeping us well fed with delicious meals. The crew and officers of Atlantis are taking great care of us as we do our work - we really appreciate their dedication as we could not do our research without them.

Best Regards,

Dan Fornari

The DSOG and Atlantis crew prepare to launch the DSL-120A side scan sonar. The view is towards the stern of the port side of R/V Atlantis.

The DSL-120A sonar fish being launched. The pole coming out of the back of the fish holds the magnetometer at the end of it. This records the strength and direction of the Earth's magnetic field - data that Maurice Tivey and Hans Schouten will use in their research.

Paul Johnson (seated) at the sonar computer getting things started. Dana Yoerger is looking on, and Tomoko Kurokawa is in the background.

Gary Austin (seated) and Bob Waters, members of the DSOG team, monitoring the sonar fish altitude above bottom.

Paul Johnson (seated) at the sonar computer as Jenni Morgan records data in the logbook. Mark Rognstad is at right.

A photograph of the sonar monitor as the record is produced. The arrow points to one of the small faults that parallels the East Pacific Rise axis. This fault was also imaged in the data we collected last year in this area, which gives us great confidence in the new sonar system. The width of the entire sonar record, on the left side of the screen is 1 km.