DEep Submergence Science Committee Meeting
The
Marriott Courtyard at San Francisco Downtown
* Rincon Hill
Room*
299 Second
Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
December 4, 2005
A copy of these minutes are available at <200512desmi.pdf>
Executive Summary
The Deep Submergence Science Committee (DESSC) met
on December 4, 2005 at The Marriott Courtyard hotel in San Francisco, CA. The meeting was chaired by Debbie
Kelley. The meeting began with presentations by the Principal
Investigators who used submergence vehicles in 2005. Funding agency representatives provided budget information as
well as agency priorities. A variety of
reports were made by the National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF) operator to
summarize facility operations, planned activities, and system upgrades. Reports
on the status of design and construction of the replacement HOV and the hybrid
ROV were provided. DESSC activities,
future plans and issues were reported including discussions on long-range
planning, public outreach and educational activities.
Action Items (New and Continuing):
Community Input on science instrumentation, tools,
sensors, etc for replacement HOV Create a community
on-line survey and request input.
(Action UNOLS Office/DESSC)
Guidelines for Bringing
New Assets into the NDSF Committee
review and comment on the NSF revisions to the draft guidelines. Hold phone conference in early 2006. Work to finalize guidelines. (Action DESSC)
Evaluate ABE/Sentry
for NDSF Review request by WHOI to bring
ABE/Sentry into the NDSF.
Evaluate vehicles and formulate recommendation (Action DESSC)
Membership A nomination is needed to fill Dave Mendels
vacancy. A call for nominations will be
distributed to UNOLS reps. DESSC is encouraged to provide member suggestions. (Action Annette and DESSC)
HOV Safety Standards
Project Establish committee (1 female
science rep needed) and appoint Chair.
Organize initial meeting. (Action Deb and Annette)
Appendices:
|
I |
Introduction
and Agenda |
|
II |
|
|
III |
Alvin
Science Reports (4.4 Mb) |
|
IV |
Jason2
Science Reports (3.2 Mb) |
|
V |
|
|
VI |
NOAA
Report (1.2 Mb) |
|
VII |
|
|
VIII |
|
|
IX |
|
|
X |
|
|
XI |
|
|
XII |
|
|
XIII |
|
|
XIV |
|
|
XV |
|
|
XVI |
|
|
XVII |
|
|
XVIII |
|
|
XIX |
|
|
XX |
|
|
XXI |
RIDGE
Data Management (8.3 Mb) |
|
XXII |
MATE
Report (1.4 Mb) |
|
XXIII |
Ocean
Observatory Initiative (1.1 Mb) |
|
XXIV |
|
|
XXV |
|
|
XXVI |
Meeting Summary Report
Introductory Remarks, Meeting Logistics, Introductions - Debbie Kelley,
Deep Submergence Science Committee (DESSC) Chair, called the meeting to order
at 0830 on Sunday, December 4, 2005.
The meeting was held at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel in San Francisco,
CA. The agenda for the meeting is
included as Appendix I. The items of the agenda are reported in the
order addressed. The list of attendees
is included as Appendix II.
The
minutes of the June 2005 DESSC Meeting <200506desmi.html>
were accepted as written. Debbie
introduced the members of the DESSC.
Jeff Karson, January 30 to March 8, 2005 Jeff Karson reported on his Atlantis cruise to the Pito Deep. Jeff was the Chief Scientist of the cruise and participants included individuals from Duke University, University of Hawaii, University of South Florida, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, College of Wooster, University of Victoria, University of Illinois,
University of Rhode Island, and
France. There were two study areas
that were about 6 km by 3 km each. They
conducted full side-scan surveys and transects at 300-500 m. DSL-120 Side-Scan Sonar was used
for five days along with a towed magnetometer.
Jason II was used
for nine transects (11 days) with 200 hours on the bottom. They collected about 254 samples. Twelve Alvin dives
were made and 181 samples collected. Other
activities included Sea Beam mapping and dredging.
Jeff reported on some vehicle
improvements that would be helpful.
Navigation is always a problem when working on deep escarpments. The Jason navigation was much better
on this cruise. Lighting is another
issue and improvements are needed when working on high relief areas.
Robert Vrijenhoek and Cindy Van Dover, March 12 - April 6, 2005 - Bob Vrijenhoek reported on his and Cindys Atlantis/Alvin cruise. Bob has 12 NSF-funded dives and Cindy had 2 NSF-funded dives. The goals were to sample biology at 38°S vents on the Pacific Antarctic Ridge, revisit vents at the 31-32S region of EPR, and to sample biology at vents on the eastern and western flanks of Easter Microplate.
Collaborators included Greg Rouse and Karen Jacobson. Accomplishments included 12 successful Alvin dives, two dives were lost to weather. The Alvin digital video was very good and the DVD copies were very useful. Support from the Alvin pilots was excellent. Some things however, did go wrong. No weather days were scheduled into the cruise and the transit time was underestimated. Vacuum sampling needs improvement. They recommend a rotary suction sampler like the Harbor Branch design. The digital overhead cameras were not very useful.
Tim
Shank, 19 May 3 June Tim Shanks
slides were presented by Dan Fornari. This
was a NOAA funded project Exploring New Patterns of Biological Succession
at the Rosebud Hydrothermal Vents - Galαpagos Rift. PIs included Shank, Fornari, Seyfried, Ding, Ward, Rzhanov,
Beaulieu, Soule, and Susan Humphris. Vehicles
and equipment used during the cruise included Alvin,
the TowCam, the Ghostbuster Chemical Sensor, In-situ Chemical Analyzers, Larval/Sediment
Traps, Time-lapse camera, In-situ Fixation Chambers, Major Samplers, Basalt
Colonization Panels and Vemco T°C loggers. There was an education element of the project, Dive and Discover
Expedition 9.
Highlights of the cruise included a
multibeam survey, nine TowCam surveys, mosaicked Rosebud field (60x50m area)
from Alvins downlooking camera, eleven Alvin dives, Imagenex Sonar, and vent sampling. A new venting area was discovered,
Rosebowl. Two integrated colonization
experiments were deployed.
Kevin Brown and Dave Hilton, June 7 - June 16 The Brown/Hilton Atlantis/Alvin cruise was off of Costa Rica to deploy instrumentation. An Osmotic sampler, 6 CAT meter, a new deep sea (Mass Surfer) mass spectrometer system, and a precision pressure gauge and temperature sensors were deployed. They deployed five peepers for pore water analysis. Various biological samples of: Cold seep crabs, tubeworms, clams, and shrimps for microbiological studies were collected. They found a large mass of tubeworms on the cold seeps, some very long. Eight dives were planned, with one lost to a ship failure. The equipment will need to be picked up next year (2006) in June.
They
had no problems with the sub and support from the pilots was great. The only problem experienced was that they
were at the end of the vehicle battery cycle, so a few of the dives were
short. They were able to complete all
of the objectives and the cruise was a big success.
Maurice Tivey, 13 August 3 September Maurice reported
on the China Ocean Mineral Resources R &
D Association (COMRA) Alvin Dive Program at Juan de Fuca.
COMRA purchased four dives to gain experience in working at vent sites.
Participants included four COMRA engineers and one scientist. The cruise activities included deploying and
retrieving three vent caps. Eighteen mineral baskets were deployed and recovered.
Gas tight water bottles were tested and used successfully.
Samples included 375 kg of sulfide, biological material, and fifteen
sediment cores. They were very
happy with their results.
Meg Tivey, April 5 - May 11, RV Melville/DSV Jason2 Geoff Wheat presented the report for Meg Tivey. The Melville/Jason2 cruise was on April
5 May 7, 2005 at the Lau Basin. PIs
included M.K. Tivey, J. Seewald (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), C.G.
Wheat (University of Alaska), M. Mottl (University of Hawaii), A-L. Reysenbach
(Portland State University), and S. Kim (Moss Landing Marine Lab). The program was for sampling and initial characterization of
hydrothermal fluids, deposits, microfauna and megafauna at vent fields along
the Eastern Lau Spreading Center (ELSC).
They successfully
characterized each of 6 vent fields for:
Distributions of types of venting, types
of vent structures and morphologies, and their relations to substrate and the
range and distribution of megafauna (SM2000 and down-looking pixelfly)
Fluid chemistry (Seewald gastight and major
bottles)
Vent deposit mineralogy/bulk geochemistry
(grab samples/bioboxes)
Molecular and physiological diversity of
microbes associated with diffuse and high T fluids and active chimneys
(subsamples of fluids/solids)
Range, abundance, distribution, and reproductive
status of dominant megafaunal organisms in vent fields and distribution of
larvae/plankton in water column above vents (slurp/grab/bioboxes and MOCNESS)
R/V
Melville, ROV Jason2, systems, operations, and process were
all very good. The
Lay their
own transponders (takes less time than trying to figure out why ones left by
earlier cruises are either not responding, or responding with a weak signal)
Ask for
more contingency days if ship time is in cyclone season. They lost nine days to weather (when they
could not put Jason2 in the water, or had to recover early. (They had 21 days of successful dives)
n the 10-year time frame there
should be some plan for Jason2 to be able to launch in higher sea states.
Robert Vrijenhoek and Cindy Van Dover, May 15 - June 3, Melville/Jason2 Bob Vrijenhoek provided the report on his and Cindys Jason2 expedition to Fiji-Lau Basin. Bob was funded for 12 Jason2 dives and Cindy was funded for two dives. The goals were to sample biology at the Lau sites identified by the RIDGE program and to sample biology at N. Fiji sites.
Cruise accomplishments included 14 successful Jason2 dive days with no dives lost to weather. Jason2 payload and digital video was excellent. The virtual van had an excellent annotation capability. Jason2 pilots were excellent. Items that could be improved include:
Scheduling
weather days into the program.
The
vacuum sampling was very poor
They
recommend a rotary suction sampler like the Harbor Branch design
Launch crane is dangerous even at mild sea-states
Debbie Kelley and John Delaney, September
11-September 17, Thompson/Jason2 Deb Kelley reported on the Thompson/Jason2
cruise to examine extreme conditions
under which life thrives, survives, and expires. The program included development of microbial incubators. The cruise also included rock drilling using
Jason2. They completed all
objectives with successful holes in Roane, Giraffe, Hulk, and Gremlin. Three incubators were deployed for use in
three colonization experiments.
Deb reported that it was difficult to drill and fly the vehicle system. Often the drill would decouple from the vehicle sled. Finding good drilling targets was difficult. Medea met an early demise when the pressure housing leaked. Jason2 team did a great job fixing the problem. It is recommended that they consider operating the system without Medea. The time it takes to maneuver with Medea is difficult. Deb also recommended that a different location, mid-ship, be considered for launching Jason2 to be able to launch in higher sea states.
John Delaney and Debbie Kelley, September 18-October 4, Thompson/Jason2 Deb continued with a report on the VISION05 cruise using Thompson and Jason2. This represented the first high-definition transmission from the seafloor reaching across the US, Canada, Australia, and Tokyo. The cruise also had participation by the REVEL Program. Five middle-high schoolteachers and one mentor participated from REVEL. During the cruise they were able to complete the KECK-funded proto-Neptune Observatory that included installation of 20 in situ seismic instruments, chemical, thermal, and biological sensors. It was a very intense cruise for instrument deployment.