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TODAY'S WEATHER
Click here to see a lava flow.
Click here to see an older lava flow.
Single Digits! Nine days and counting! Despite our great successes out here in the balmy Pacific Ocean, everyone is getting anxious for the cruise to end. After 38 days at sea (albeit with a very enjoyable port stop in the Galapagos Islands!), both the science team and ship’s crew are looking forward to getting back to port and, for those going home, back to family and friends. Work at the end of a long expedition becomes more difficult. People are tired, both physically and mentally! The long hours and concentration required to keep RV Melville and the deep submergence vehicles in top condition and running perfectly take a physical toll on everyone. Quickly processing and analyzing the enormous amount of data we have collected to help us decide where we need to do more mapping and sampling, is mentally very demanding. As the cruise goes on, we have to be very careful not to make mistakes or wrong decisions because we are tired. We check every action and every decision at least twice! We pulled Argo II up from the depths of the Galapagos Rift valley this afternoon after collecting nearly 36 hours of observations along the volcanic axis of the rift valley. Check out the videos of some of the volcanic terrain we have seen, and the digital images of the seafloor in today’s slide show. While we have found some glassy young lava in a few of the dredges, we still have not imaged a very young (18 months old) seafloor lava flow. We have about 5.5 days left to complete our work here before we head for port. We are now carefully reviewing again the DSL-120 sonar data, the earthquake data, and the rocks we’ve collected to make sure that our plan for mapping and sampling different areas in the rift valley is the best one for the time we have left. Like any good experiment or detective story, we’re using all the available evidence and techniques at our disposal to try to solve the problem!
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Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution
