A Marine Educator At Sea

Dr. Robert Dziak contributed this cruise summary: “The OBS deployment cruise was an unqualified success. Our highly efficient team of sea going professionals was able to maintain a brisk deployment schedule and completed all 25 ocean bottom seismometer deployments within 8 days. We averaged 3 deployments a day, including time for instrument surveys to derive [...]

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We deployed the 24th seismometer at 9: this morning. The atmospheric pressure is dropping and the seas are rising, making the deployments more challenging. The roll of the ship increases the difficulty of both getting the seismometer to the rail and successfully releasing it over the side. We are heading back to Newport to pick [...]

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Following the continental margin, the Wecoma cruised south at about 10 knots for most of the day. The seas picked up slightly, and there were light scattered showers. We deployed another Abalone seismometer at 4:30, and it was on the bottom by 5:30. We will be deploying the last Cascadia seismometer at 1: am.

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The seas are very calm this morning, making for an easy deployment of the Abalone seismometer. We are directly offshore from the mouth of the Columbia River, in a depth of 2678 meters.

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Wednesday afternoon, October 19th – Off the coast of Washington at the edge of the continental margin We just deployed another Cascadia seismometer. It will take 65 minutes to reach the ocean floor, 2630 meters below. It will take another hour to conduct the acoustic survey, as the Wecoma cruises in a kilometer and ½ [...]

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The weather has deteriorated somewhat, but is still serviceable.  We deployed two seismometer last night and another one this morning. Since we are in deeper water, it takes longer for the seismometer to reach the bottom.  A acoustic survey is immediately conducted to determine its exact location in three dimensions; latitude, longitude and depth. The [...]

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We have traveled north to test two Cascadia seismometers that were deployed earlier during the first leg during July. A specific frequency of sound (between 9 and 13 kilohertz) is sent down to check if the instrument package is working. Sometimes a fishing trawl can flip over the seismometer, rending it useless. If the instrument [...]

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We’ll be in transit south for the next 8 hours, deploying the next seismometer in the dark.

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Red sky at morning; sailors take warning

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