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Life and dinner among the microbes

The science party on PROTATAX23 with the SUPR Sampler installed on the remotely operated vehicle Jason. Left to right: Texas A&M professor Sarah Hu, MBL scientist Joe Vallino, WHOI Engineer Kaitlyn Tradd, WHOI Scientist Julie Huber. Photo by Hannah Piecuch, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Welcome to the PROTATAX23 expedition to Axial Seamount. On board the…

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Increased bandwidth on UNOLS fleet

Aerial view of R/V Atlantis and R/V Neil Armstrong at sea together. Photo by Kent Sheasley © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Aerial view of R/V Atlantis and R/V Neil Armstrong at sea together. Photo by Kent Sheasley © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Both R/V Neil Armstrong and R/V Atlantis will have expanded bandwidth at sea for the rest of 2023. The faster upload and download speeds are part of a fleetwide trial, funded by the Office…

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Going with the flow

Science at sea-part two In the spirit of adjustment, I asked scientists on the expedition how their goals and approaches have evolved since we’ve been underway. Here is a sampler of what they said: Isaac Keohane (University of South Carolina) brought two computers and an external hard drive on the expedition for redundancy. As luck…

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The importance of having a plan B (and C, D, E, and F)

The successful recovery of Medea after a ship-wide power outage. Jason, which can be seen floating at the end of the tether cable, was recovered shortly after. Photo by Zachary Clayton.

While power outages aren’t excessively common on research cruises, this event does encapsulate the nature of conducting science at sea: anything that can go wrong might go wrong at any given moment and—as happened today—without any prior warning. Chief Scientist Chris German’s mantra is to treat every day at sea like it may be your last day for conducting science, which is why he always has a plan B (and a plan C, D, E, and F if it comes to it).

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Taking Kama’ehuakanaloa’s Temperature After Recent Unrest

ROV Hercules sampling for hydrothermal fluid compositions and associated microbiology at the Dragon Cave vent, Kama’ehuakanaloa seamount, during the SUBSEA program co-funded by NOAA and NASA in 2018. The 2023 Kama’ehuakanaloa Seamount Vents Expedition will be revisiting and sampling this site. (Photo courtesy of Ocean Exploration Trust) Kama’ehuakanaloa Seamount (formerly Lo’ihi) has active hydrothermal vents…

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Kama’ehuakanaloa Seamount Hydrothermal Vent Expedition: Expanding Early Career Involvement

Early career researchers from various institutions set sail aboard the Kilo Moana Research Vessel today to visit Kama’ehuakanaloa Seamount (formerly known as Lō’ihi), the youngest volcano in the Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount Chain. This NSF-funded collaborative research expedition, led by WHOI Senior Scientists Chris German and Jeff Seewald, is investigating the impact on the subseafloor hydrothermal circulation…

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For Deep Ocean Mining, Questions Abound

ROV Jason is helping researchers get their arms around the question of what damage seafloor mining might do to little-studied deep-ocean ecosystems. Learn more in this podcast from Undark magazine. Listen now >

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