Girguis Laboratory @ Harvard University

Geoff Dilly ready to take on Alvin

Work continues onboard ship setting up labs and attending meetings to prepare for the research work ahead.

Tomorrow Geoff will make his maiden voyage aboard Alvin. Geoff will be traveling to the Main Endeavor site at the Juan de Fuca Ridge. During the dive he will be collecting organisms to test their tolerance to changes in temperature.

Geoff made his first trip in the submersible Alvin. After a slight delay, Geoff spent approximately 4 hours on the sea floor collecting samples. His expedition was very successful bringing back samples of Paralvinella and recovering a sulfide incubator and osmopumps. Great job, Geoff!

After Alvin reached the surface, things became very busy in all the labs on the R/V Atlantis. Peter prepared his respirometry equipment in anticipation of the Paralvinella samples that were brought back by Geoff. Eric Cordes helped to prepare samples from the various chambers in the sulfide incubator. Julie began gathering data from the recovered osmopumps and Scott continues to work on his mass spectrometry study.

Next up to dive in Alvin was Mike. It was his first time diving and he came back speechless. Mike dove to the Hulk site in order to deploy a sulfide incubator and osmopumps. In addition, two colonization parcels were deployed. Two slurp samples of Paralvinella were brought back along with Ridgia tubeworms.

Work continued in Pete, Eric, Scott, Julie, and Geoff's labs. A little break was taken to celebrate Pete's birthday, but it was quickly time to get back to work to prepare for tomorrow's dive.

Scott Wankel working on the major sampler

Mike returned from the ocean depths with samples of Ridgia. Pete completed his high pressure respirometry system (or as we like to say the "high pressure hotel") in time to keep the Ridgia alive in order to test metabolic rate under abiotic conditions.

Scott continues to prepare for his Alvin dive during which he will be studying water chemistry using a major sampler and mass spectrometer to take water samples at hydrothermal vent sites.

Scott Wankel with Alvin in the background

It was Scott's turn to dive in Alvin today. Scott went to the structure "Hulk". He collected Paralvinella and Ridgeia worms. In addition, he collected water samples that he would be analyzing onboard ship and back at Harvard. The crew was so efficient that there was time for a little sight-seeing. Scott also went to the structure "Smoke and Mirrors".

Julie Robidart entering Alvin

Julie lucked out and got to dive on one of the most unique sites in this area: Middle Valley . Middle Valley has hydrothermal areas with biological communities (clams, tubeworms and palmworms) that reflect the chemistry of a sedimented vent. But on top of that, Middle Valley , unlike Juan de Fuca, contains organisms that are like those found at cold seeps, as well as typical benthic organisms. So there are three distinct chemical/biological realms that can all be visited on a single dive. The main goal of the dive was to retrieve pushcores of sediments, which are basically sediments that are collected with a plastic tube that is pushed into the mud. When the pilot pulls the tube out, the 3-D structure of the sediment remains intact, so that the chemical and biological profiles of the sediments can be analyzed in the lab. Julie was the chief scientist of this dive. As soon as Mark Spear (the pilot) got the coordinates from Top Lab, they were off to Dead Dog. On the way they saw a bunch of translucent crawdad-looking organisms, as well as brittle stars, anemones, and sea pens (all typical benthic animals). Within a half hour, they spotted the structure (which looks like a chimney), and started looking for orange microbial mats to take pushcores. They found a great spot and took pushcores and water samples. Next, they collected some Ridgea that happened to be sitting outside Julie's window while they were collecting the pushcores. They got 2 rocks that were covered in the tubeworms. Then they made a circle around Dead Dog- and saw a huge field of white microbial mats, which looked a lot like a snow-covered hill, along the way. The crew soon found the second spot for coring: a yellow mat-covered sediment, and they took cores and water samples there. Then they were off to Chowder Hill. Along the way, they took more cores of "typical background" sediments (not hydrothermal-or seep-looking). Once they spotted the structure at Chowder Hill, they collected some Calyptogena clams and took a good scoop of the white mat there. Then Mark spotted an anemone and put it into the biobox because it was pretty and there was plenty of room for it. They took a few more scoops and slurps of mats and sediments, and then they were done. They spent a long time at the bottom and retrieved all the main objectives of the dive. Mark is a great pilot. On the way up, Julie filled out all the dive reports and Mark took pictures of the crew with his fish-eye lens camera. Julie had a lot of fun.

Today was all about core samples. Alvin went down and collected sediment samples from a number of places. The sediments will be studied for both biotic and abiotic factors. Many of the scientists were working through the night in order to analyze all of the samples.

Today onboard is what they like to call a "snow day". The winds were too strong in the morning and the Alvin dive had to be cancelled. However, work in the different labs continued. Julie prepared an osmopump that is hopefully being deployed tomorrow. Eric, Geoff, and Min helped to prepare a sulfide incubator that will be deployed with Julie's osmopump. We're all hoping that the winds abate to insure an Alvin dive tomorrow.

In honor of the "snow day", the crew took some time to watch "The Life Aquatic".