West Coast Expedition
July 20 - August 30, 2002
West Coast of North America
Logbook

August 14, 2002: Day #26


Fig 1 shows the drillsled mounted on the ROV Tiburon with a red milkcrate on one side for additional tools and samples. The coring sled can take up to 4 cores on each dive, with each core being up to 61 cm long. The seismometer boreholes only need to be 30.5 cm long to accommodate the sensor package. We have the coring sled set up with 3 borer/reamer core bits and one normal core bit. The corer/reamers will produce a 3.175 cm core and leave behind a 6.985 cm borehole which is the diameter needed for the seismometer package.

Debra Stakes writes: The Western Flyer left Newport last night at 11 pm in hopes of reaching our first dive target by Thursday morning. Our plans were to dive at Summit Seamount, a small volcanic cone at the northern end of the Endeavour Ridge volcanic high. This truncated volcanic high appears to be an ideal spot for us to place a borehole for the short period seismometer.

High seas, however, have slowed our progress substantially and we do not expect to reach this spot for another 24 hours, until late afternoon or early evening. The high seas have sent many of the scientific party to their bunks to doze. Chief Scientist John Delaney from the University of Washington, and co-chief scientist Debra Stakes from MBARI are discussing various options that would make the most of a short dive with limited bottom time for the first day.

While the ship was in port, the coring sled was placed onto the ROV Tiburon. This requires placing the larger Schilling manipulator onto the vehicle in exchange for the small Kraft arm that stays with the normal benthic toolsled. Space for additional sampling tools, such as wax cores and fluid samplers, are limited to a large milkcrate fastened to the side rail of the toolsled. This one box also must hold whatever samples are recovered, Thus careful planning becomes increasingly important.


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