We were waiting on the bow of the R/V Thompson for yellow floats which were expected to pop up somewhere near us on the surface. The expected yellow dots are the syntactic foam floats attached to the RAS water sample platform which has been waiting on the ocean floor since September 2010. At last, the yellow dots popped up at some distance, but directly in front of us.
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| Finally yellow dots appeared just in front of us |
Attached to the floats was a special package called the RAS platform. RAS stands for Remote Access Sampler. The RAS platform holding the water samples was retrieved and taken up on deck.
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| RAS is taken up on deck |
Probably, our friend and scientist, Kevin was the happiest among us. NOAA's (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-USA) research scientist, Kevin Roe researches the chemistry of seawater, and was looking forward to the new delivery of water samples.
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| Water samples from the hydrothermal vent area |
You may wonder why Kevin is out on an ocean full of water waiting for a 'special' water sample. Have you ever heard of old water? Old water refers to the water which has not been on the surface in more than 1000 years. Because of the circulation of ocean water from seafloor of the North Atlantic to the North Pacific, the water has a long journey and this prevents it to upwell to the surface. The water samples collected from the hydrothermal vent field is actually pretty historic! Even the Vikings could have been interacting with this water!
A colony of tubeworms along for the ride to the surface was an added bonus. It was like christmas in June for researcher Lara Puetz, since her area of expertise is tubeworms and these unexpected guests provided with her further samples for her research. I helped her with the dissection of skinny tubeworms. For the DNA analysis the vestimentum and obturaculum were dissected and preserved in tube filled with ethanol. Actually, for such tiny animals, you wouldn't expect to see so much blood in them.
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| Tubeworms live in high pressure around the hydrothermal vents |
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| Tubeworm dissection |
Spending time on the deck with sunny blue skies, shimmering ocean, fresh air and a fresh batch of samples, made for some happy researchers and one of the best days we have had on the cruise so far. I was very excited to have so many new and amazing experiences! I also received an email saying that one of my papers will be published!
A truly sunny, happy, busy day on the ocean for the science team of Wiring the Abyss 2012:)
Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator
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