Ocean Acoustics Program

This post comes to us from Michelle Fournet, Graduate Research Assistant:

Friends, Loved Ones, and Acoustic Aficionados of all Walks of Life,

It’s almost time to go. If you’ve been following the slurry of photographs over the past two weeks you’ve now seen evidence that four autonomous underwater hydrophone packages were successfully deployed to the bottom of the ocean in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. These hydrophones are similar in many ways to the packages that I recovered in the Ross Sea. This project, however, has a few major differences; first the OBS that I was sent to recover in Antarctica was many hundreds (thousands) of feet below the surface of the ocean. The four hydrophones we deployed last week sit in a ‘shallow’ 240 ft (71 m). While we will recover these instruments with the use of acoustic releases (see my earlier post on singing to the ocean floor in this blog), in the event of some sort of catastrophic instrument failure (there was a fairly large earthquake in the region last year), our hydrophones are shallow enough to grapple for our instruments, or to send an ROV for assistance.

Samara and I preparing acoustic releases. The releases (for the record) are named Kate, Kate II, Kate III, and Kate Jr. We discovered quite by accident that all acoustic releases are female.

Also, there are four of them. Four hydrophones are needed to acoustically triangulate sound, and thus localize vocalizing animals underwater. Pair this with a summer’s worth of shore based visual observations (with a digiscoping photo ID component) and we’re getting closer to telling the story of how these animals are truly using sound, and what their acoustic habitat looks like on a daily basis. While my trip to Antarctica was filled with rich observations of wildlife, my role was not that of a behavioral ecologist, but as a technician. With the Acoustic Spyglass Project I am back in my element, listening and watching.

I was lucky enough to be joined by two friends and colleagues for the deployment trip, my labmate Samara Haver and Syracuse University’s Leanna Matthews. Leanna is the PhD student investigating the harbor seal side of things in Glacier Bay, Samara is a plain old good time, and also has experience deploying AUH’s. The three of us made an excellent team that was completed with the addition of National Park Service whale biologist Chris Gabriele. Admittedly, I didn’t realize until midway through the trip that we had an all female research team. It wasn’t until after the deployment — where Chris ran our support vessel (and acted as a human GPS), where I deferred to Samara as deck boss, Leanna as expert record keeper and lifter of heavy things, and I may have single handedly lowered each 600 pound hydrophone to the ocean floor (ok, the cleats and the 500 foot of line helped too) — it wasn’t until after all of that when we invited the captain and deckhand to be part of our long term deployment team, that I realized what a powerful group of ladies in science we were. It was very satisfying, both to be that demographic and to have been confident and comfortable enough with our team to have not noticed.

It was a spectacular trip. I encourage you to scroll through my instagram feed to see a few of the photos that might not have made it onto the blog. Or look right to see what real women in science look like.

Before I sign off, there are a few things I want to say. I leave for Alaska June 10th! I will be a little hard to contact after that. I will be updating this blog over the course of the summer as frequently as possible- but posts will be few and far between. Our little home away from home on Strawberry Island has neither cell service nor internet (though we’ve managed to secure some electricity!). Every two weeks we leave the island to resupply, shower (much needed), and do our laundry (critical). In between grocery stores and bubble baths I’ll try and make my way to the Gustavus public library to get a few things posted. I’ll also be sure to direct photos to the blog as well so that even if I’m not able to narrate you through our adventures that at least you can glimpse what we’re up to.

My goal is also to have my students tell their side of the story, using this site as a platform. My perspective is by nature limited to my viewpoints. I moved to Alaska in April 2007, and my relationship with this land will clearly be different from those of my students, who have neither been here nor seen humpback whales. My imagination is vast, but I don’t think I could even begin to describe what their experiences will be like (cold, wet, buggy, unbelievably beautiful, overwhelmingly quiet). I’m hoping they’ll have the courage to tell you themselves.

So stay tuned, please spread the word to your friends and families about the Acoustic Spyglass Project, and share the blog widely. In return I promise tender stories, embarrassing moments, time lapse photography, and meaningful science — all the while peppered with those most graceful of animals that we are so fond of and whom I hope never notice that I’m watching them.

More to come.

Miche

Deploying hydrophones is hard work. Photo Credit: Leanna Mattews (sadly not pictured... since she took all the pictures). — Deploying hydrophones is hard work. Photo Credit: Leanna Mattews (sadly not pictured… since she took all the pictures).

This post comes to us from Dr. Bob Dziak, Acoustics Program Manager:

As many of you are probably aware, since Sunday night there has been a sequence of strong earthquakes (magnitudes 4.3-5.9) occurring on the seafloor ~250 miles west of Newport.

The earthquakes are occurring along the western Blanco Fracture Zone, a 200 mile long strike-slip fault located in water a mile deep. The Blanco forms one of the southern boundaries between the small Juan de Fuca plate and the much larger Pacific Plate.

The 2015 quakes are the large magenta circles (map created by Susan Merle). — **The 2015 earthquakes are the large magenta circles (map created by Susan Merle)**

Clusters of earthquakes of this magnitude occur on the Blanco Fracture Zone roughly every 3-5 years. A tsunami warning was not issued because these earthquakes were too small and the wrong sense of crustal motion to generate a sizable tsunami. There were a few reports of weak ground motion from the earthquakes being felt on the coast, but no damage was reported. Also, as of today, it looks like the earthquake activity is on the decline.

Even though these earthquakes are not a hazard, we thought it was a good opportunity to remind the community to review their evacuation plans and make sure your emergency supply kit is ready and up to date.

Please check out these news links for more information:

This post comes to us from Selene Fregosi, Graduate Research Assistant:

I feel like I experienced a miracle last week.

Possibly I am throwing around the word “miracle” because I’ve got Herb Brooks on my mind (thanks to my fellow grad student and FW intermural soccer coach Matt who is obsessed with that guy). Or perhaps that is actually what happened.

Let me set the stage. Will and Otis, our two Seagliders, were deployed off the coast of Newport, for what should have been a brief, straightforward test of their passive acoustic systems before they were shipped off to the Gulf of Mexico for a project there. Of course, that would not be as exciting of a story if it all went as planned.

I can’t remember how much I’ve talked about it before (I looked it up…try here and here), but basically, the way these gliders work is they go out and dive in the ocean, listen for marine mammals, and every time they surface they call in to a basestation, offload their location and some log files, and continue on their way. Well. Otis (SG608) did exactly that. It was his first flight with us and all went smoothly, from a piloting stand point. Will (SG607) on the other hand….well, he went rogue. And I don’t mean to the brewery.

Will stopped calling in after only 5 dives. Did I tell you this was my first “solo” piloting of the gliders? Yes, I was sort of freaking out.

But what happened the next few days is not important (I blacked it out so I can’t tell you because I don’t remember).

The point is….WE FOUND HIM!!!!!!!!!!

So (1) the miracle part: Let me explain the chances of finding Will. Best case scenario we were searching in about a 1 km radius of a point we THOUGHT the glider would be diving to. Worst case, it was floating at the surface and had drifted who-knows how many miles offshore. But lets complicate things. Glider at the surface, great, easier to spot. Glider continuously diving = glider down for 1 hour 40 mins, at the surface for 20 mins. So lets say we ARE in the right place. Well then it has to be the right time, and you better spot the thing during that 20 mins and get the boat over there before it goes back down for an hour and 40 mins and pops up somewhere else in that 1 km radius. Lets add in some wind waves (We are 35 nm offshore here) and some fog. And this is the image you are looking for:

(2) the waiting part. Will was missing for 4 and a half days. That doesn’t seem like that long. But when everytime your phone beeps that you get a text message and your heart jumps thinking maybe its the glider, that is a long 108 hours. But that is a lot of what we had to do. This was exacerbated for me because I had to stay on land during the search trips. I had to be at my computer in case we heard from the glider and I could give updates on GPS locations or timing. This was a new experience for me. I’m not real good at sitting still and waiting.

(3) the teamwork part. To me, the greatest outcome of the whole thing. There is NO way we could have found Will without all hands on deck, without awesome grad students and scientists who went out to look (Laurie, Niki, Erin, Theresa, Curtis, Alex, Haru, Matt, Dave), Anatoli and Steve for answering my piloting questions, a chartered fishing boat (ok…we paid them, Sara thanks for coordinating), TWO trips out, the people at iridium for putting up with my incessant phone calls, the dolphins that swam by the boat and provided moral support, Sharon and Holger for telling me not to freak out…I could go on. (and I’m SO SORRY if I am forgetting someone)

This post comes to us from Samara Haver, Graduate Research Assistant:

This winter, New Englanders watched record-breaking amounts of snow layer up outside their doors. Snow is not unusual in the Northeast region of the United States, but the transportation-halting, business-closing, structure-damaging amounts witnessed this past winter had more people than ever questioning, “what is going on?”

When we talk about global warming, nor’easters are not typically part of our mental imagery – but they should be! Although global warming is not entirely responsible for these dramatic weather events, increased global temperatures are a major part of the problem. And I do mean “warming”; the dramatic New England winter we observed this year is connected to an oceanic warming trend.

**Cape Cod National Seashore in early March 2015. Photo: washingtonpost.com**

The oceans are getting warmer at an extraordinarily fast rate. So fast that climate scientists have a hard time publishing reports as quickly as changes are occurring. While it may not seem logical that warmer water causes more snow, this temperature increase is a major contributor to extreme weather.

Water absorbs and retains heat very well. When cool air travels over the surface of warm upper layers, the water heats the air and then evaporates. The newly warmed humid air rises and cools as it travels, forming clouds and eventually precipitation (in freezing New England this comes in the form of snow). This phenomenon, known as the “lake (or bay) effect” is part of what caused coastal New England to be slammed with blizzard conditions this winter.

It is not easy to fully understand the effects and extent of increasing ocean temperatures, even for oceanographers. Under static conditions, understanding vast ocean systems is difficult; surface observations and samples from depth each only give a small glimpse as to what is going on. However, current variable conditions mean that researchers must constantly gather new data and refresh records to keep up with the effects of ocean temperature rise. Extreme weather is only one consequence of these changes; the broader results of increasing ocean temperatures are felt globally and by all species.

The trend and results of global ocean warming are widespread, but not entirely understood. However, researchers do know that as ocean temperatures increase, the myriad of associated problems will intensify; including the cycle of cold air collecting moisture from the water and dumping on land. If current patterns persist, ocean warming will continue to wreak havoc at sea – and on land.

**Flooding in Scituate, MA. Photo: Jesse Costa/WBUR.org**

Andy Lau, Applied Mathemetician / Programmer — **Andy Lau**

This post comes to us from Andy Lau, Applied Mathematician and Programmer:

My job is to develop computer programs for processing the acoustics data. Programs range from 1 time use only to repeatedly used programs. One of the long-running programs is the SEAS. It stands for Seismic Environmental Acoustic Software. It has been used since 1994 and it will be turning 20 years old on June 24th this year!

Seldom has a computer program been used for that long a period of time. The reason for its longevity is the interactive nature of the SEAS program. It allows users to see the data continuously in either a time-series and/or spectrum format; see Figure 1.

**Figure 1: SEAS program showing data in time-series and spectrum formats.**

Also, the SEAS has 2 important options: it allows users to locate the seismic or biologic event origins and search for the event arrivals, which is a reverse process of triangulation; see Figure 2.

**Figure 2: SEAS program showing locating function.**

Because of these features, users can examine data quickly (as soon as the data has been downloaded from the hydrophones). The SEAS program has other tools that allow users to study the data in detail, making it helpful for a variety of different applications; see Figure 3.

Figure 3: SEAS program showing some of the other tools for used sudying data in detail. — **Figure 3: SEAS program showing some of the other tools used for studying data in detail.**

Over the years, the SEAS program has been updated many times to meet the needs of users. Many visiting researchers have found the SEAS program so helpful, that they have requested the program to take with them. Currently, the SEAS program has been used by others outside of our group in the USA, France, South Korea and England.

I am happy to see the SEAS program has been beneficial and relevant for so many users for all these years. Now I need to keep up the work required to maintain and improve the SEAS program so that it can continue to serve. For how long? Well, only time will tell…

This post comes to us from Faculty Research Assistant and Engineering Technician, Alex Turpin:

As a faculty research assistant, I help Dr. Haru Matsumoto in the research and development of autonomous hydrophone systems. These systems vary from underwater vehicles like Kongsberg’s Seaglider, which uses a novel method of propulsion, allowing it to operate (and record ocean sounds, in our case) long term with little energy use, all the way to stationary platforms. A lot of my work entails testing electrical and mechanical components of these systems in the lab to make sure they work flawlessly in the field.
Most recently I’ve been refurbishing our Seaglider (SG607) “Will” after our most recent deployment off the coast of Washington. Refurbishment includes, among other tasks: downloading the data Will gathered, changing batteries, checking and confirming electrical connections, replacing worn parts, and ballasting for future deployments. The acoustic data retrieved from Will from this deployment included typical electrical line noise we always try to eliminate, as well as some other strange noise whose source wasn’t quite as obvious. And this is one of the parts of my job that I truly love: a problem that isn’t easily figured out and requires thorough investigation to fully solve. Will and Otis (SG608) have another deployment coming up next month in the Gulf of Mexico for one of Dr. David Mellinger’s projects; he’s involved in a group collaboration, which will try to answer the question, “Did whale and dolphin populations in the northern Gulf of Mexico change after the Deepwater Horizon spill?” See LADC:GEMM’s website for more information.

**Internal electrical components of a Seaglider**

This post comes to us from Dr. Haru Matsumoto:

With the help of two engineers (Alex Turpin and Matt Fowler), as a Principle Investigator (PI) or Co-PI of the projects, I manage the development of multiple projects and report progress to respective funding agencies including NOAA, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Navy.

Developing autonomous hydrophone systems requires experience in electrical circuit design, programming, and acoustic modeling. Currently five engineering projects are under way. Take RAOS, as an example, which is a Killer Whale monitoring system funded by NOAA. I design the circuit boards, develop software, run extensive lab and field work, and collect data. When it is completed, it will be monitoring the Killer Whale calls off the Washington coast and sending the data to shore via satellite. It is scheduled to be deployed this summer off Friday Harbor on San Juan Island in Washington. I also write proposals requesting funding, present the results and write papers based on the data we have collected.

Dr. Matsumoto off the Washington Coast for the Seaglider QUEphone Survey April 2015 — **Dr. Matsumoto off the Washington Coast for the Seaglider & QUEphone Survey April 2015**

This post comes to us from Dr. Bob Dziak:

Even though ~75% of Earth’s volcanic activity occurs below the sea surface, many questions remain on the longevity and acoustic characteristics of explosive seafloor eruptions. To date, only two active eruptions have ever been observed visually in the deep-ocean (>500 m) volcanoes, and then only over time periods of hours to days. The discovery of the actively erupting West Mata volcano in the NE Lau Basin near Samoa (Fig 1) offered a rare opportunity to investigate a deep-ocean, explosive eruption. Video images of West Mata collected by remotely operated vehicle (ROV) provided unprecedented details on the dynamics of gas-driven eruptions at 1200 m depth.

In his recent paper, Dziak et al [2015] present the unique acoustic signatures of West Mata’s two erupting summit vents, called Hades and Prometheus.

To see a video of West Mata erupting under the ocean and for more information on this publication, visit AGU’s Blog.

During its eruption phase, Hades exhibited spectacular 1-2 meter diameter gas filled bubbles of lava (Fig 2) that produced distinctive short duration low frequency sounds when they burst. Prometheus exhibited long duration (1-5 minutes), violent explosions that produced broadband sounds that sometime develop harmonic tones within the explosion record. Over a 6-month period while the hydrophones were recording, the eruption activity at West Mata declined and eventually ceased, allowing us the first view of the demise of a multi-year eruption cycle of a deep-ocean volcano. This paper also provides the background for future work to use these acoustic records of the West Mata to estimate the amount of magmatic CO2 gas that was expelled into the ocean during the eruption.

Maps showing bathymetry of West Mata volcano, with North, West and East Mata volcanoes nearby. Inset is a small-scale view of West Mata showing the locations of actively erupting summit vents (Hades, Prometheus).

Video image sequence of a magma gas bubble burst at West Mata volcano summit vent Hades taken by the Jason-2 ROV. First three frames show growth of the bubble; final frame is collapse. (Bottom) Acoustic time series of bubble growth and burst recorded by hydrophone deployed 25 m from vent. Red arrows show time of the four still images in (a).

Anna

As a research assistant, I do a lot of data analysis for our group. I’ve been learning a lot about the different under ocean sounds we come across and how to find them on a spectrogram to help answer questions that our scientists put forth, but I’ve still got much to learn. I spent years picking out earthquakes and volcanic tremor in the Lau Basin (a very active area under the ocean near Fiji). I was so focused on locating earthquake and volcanic activity for that project, that I pretty much ignored any other random noises. When picking out earthquakes and volcanic tremor, you have to set your scrolling of the spectrograms (spectrograms are pictures of the sounds on a time and frequency view) in a way that you can get through data at a quicker pace and pay attention to the louder events. My screen for looking at earthquake and volcanic activity encompassed 15 or 20 minutes of data in one screen and scrolled fairly quickly. For quieter sounds, like some marine mammals, and especially fish, you are looking at about 1 minute of data per screen and the going is a lot slower!

We have scientists who have developed software to help automatically detect certain sounds in the data we collect. This doesn’t work for every type of sound and has varying degrees of accuracy, depending on other sounds present that may be in the same frequency range. Next up, I’ll be learning about one of these programs called Ishmael (developed by Dr. David Mellinger – he’s on our People Page) and, with the help of Sara Heimlich (also on our People Page), seeing if it can do a good job picking out orca sounds right off of South Beach here in Newport. I have found many of these orca sounds manually, but at 1 minute of data per screen, it would be very time consuming to go through all of the data that way. Check back later, and I’ll let you know how the automatic detection software does.

Noise in the ocean has become a hot topic lately in the media. (It’s incredible just how loud ship noise can be. Even louder: icebergs grounding and calving). How does man-made and other noise in the ocean affect fish, or marine mammals who depend on sound to navigate, hunt, find food, or communicate? These are questions scientists are busy trying to answer. VIBES, our new group acronym, stands for Volcanic, Ice, Biological, and Earthquake Sounds in the ocean. We also record surf and man-made sounds like oil drilling, ship noise, wave energy technology, and anything else you can think of down there.

Following are some examples of what I see in the data we get back from our under ocean recordings and the sounds that accompany them. Please let me know your best guess for the final sound!

(Note: sound clips for most of these encompass the data between the 2 fine white lines shown on the spectrograms, and are best heard on decent speakers or through headphones.)

**Orcas off South Beach in Newport, Oregon**

**Orcas and Ship Noise off South Beach in Newport, OR**

**Seismic Air Gun Shooting for imaging purposes in the Lau Basin**

Marine Science Day is almost upon us! Come by this Saturday from 10 to 4 to see some of the scientists from our Acoustics group in the library foyer at Hatfield Marine Science Center south of the Yaquina Bay bridge in Newport.

**Hatfield Marine Science Center from the air**

We’ll have a PowerPoint presentation running with pictures and details about our work, a quality speaker so you can really experience some of our under ocean sounds, a hydrophone (under water microphone) to inspect, a 3-D Printer job going to check out (so cool!), a chance to see your voice on a spectrogram, and scientists there waiting for your questions. Along with all of the other groups of scientists from the Hatfield Marine Science Center campus, food available for purchase, and exhibits highlighting HMSC’s 50 years of research, this Saturday promises to be a great time. Here are some more details:

Marine Science Day at the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon
Saturday, April 11, 10am-4pm

Join the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) in Newport for Marine Science Day. HMSC will open its doors for a behind-the-scenes peek at the cutting-edge research, education and outreach in marine sciences that makes this marine laboratory unique. Meet researchers from Oregon State University and six government agency partners. Explore with interactive science displays presented by marine scientists and special family-friendly activities by Oregon Sea Grant, the Oregon Coast Aquarium and US Fish and Wildlife. This year will feature special exhibits highlighting HMSC’s 50 years of research, education and outreach in marine sciences. Don’t miss it!

Come learn what’s new on the Oregon Coast’s most dynamic marine science campus.
For more information and Schedule of Events, see Marine Science Day
For accommodation requests related to a disability or other questions, email maryann.bozza@oregonstate.edu or call 541-867-0234.

Note: Most Marine Science Day exhibits and activities will be indoors, although visitors are advised to dress for the weather as some exhibits will be outdoors. The OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center is located at 2030 SE Marine Science Drive in Newport, Oregon.

Marine Science Day partners:

Oregon State University

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

US Environmental Protection Agency

US Fish and Wildlife Service

US Geological Survey

US Department of Agriculture

Oregon Coast Aquarium

Ocean Acoustics Program

Underwater ocean sounds – science and discoveries

Down to the wire…

Recent Earthquakes off the Coast of Oregon

Miracle (2015): A lesson in waiting. And teamwork.

Global Warming = More Snow?

Computer Programming Fun

Engineering Fun

Developing Autonomous Hydrophone Systems

West Mata Deep Ocean Volcano

Under Ocean Sounds – Analyzing the Data

Acoustics Group at Marine Science Day this Saturday

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