Alvin’s
profiling sonar begins making a “map” of the seafloor as Alvin
nears its target depth. The color spectrum indicates the depth ranges.
In the foreground, the numbers indicate (left to right, progressing down
columns) time (military, GMT), dive number, depth, altitude, heading,
X position, Y position, window temp, high temp (outside water).
Check
out these photos, which have been transmitted to the University
of Delaware from the R/V Atlantis.
Craig
discusses the final logistics of today’s dive with Anthony(Alvin pilot), and the two newbies, Pete
and Kristy,
just before deployment.
Pete
and Kristy both prepare to enter Alvin for their first
dives ever. It is rare for two newbies to dive together.
Once they enter the sub, the hatch is tightly sealed above them.
View
through Alvin’s porthole just before being released into
the water.
Light penetrates well in the upper 100 m or so of the water column, and organisms such as jellyfish are visible.
As Alvin gets deeper, though, light levels continually
decrease until it is totally dark.
When
t hey finally make it to the bottom, they see various organisms,
including the widely studied Riftia tubeworm.
After
the newbies make it back to the surface, they find that, as part
of their initiation, their shoes have been frozen. Pete’s shoes
(left) are covered in frost inside and out. Kristy’s are a block
of ice (creative and funny!). Luckily they both had a back-up
pair.
Kristy walks away dripping with ice water, taking her shoes to thaw. She was a good sport about it all!
Unfortunately for Pete, he had to get right to work collecting
his samples from Alvin’s basket. By the time he finished
with his work, he was resolved to just let his clothes dry while
wearing them. At least today was a very hot day, so he warmed
up fast after his icy dousing.
Frank
and Tara
retrieve a niskin bottle — a sampling device similar to the ones
used on the CTD to take water samples at depth.
Shannon
attached a Styrofoam cup to her Large Volume Water Sampler (LVWS)
as a souvenir for its last deployment of the expedition.
Wayne (Bosun) and Raul (Ordinary Seaman) prepare the elevator to lift the LVWS overboard.
The
three-ball racks (flotation) are released first as markers.
Once the elevator goes over, the weight of the LVWS pulls down the floats, and the orange flag at the top is the last thing to be seen before going underwater.
