Day 8 - 2 July
It has been the busiest day yet for the scientists on board. Yesterday’s CTD series finished in the early hours with a second, even stronger, anomaly signature. There is definitely something down there.
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Position: 73N 8E
Temperature: 6.6 (air) 7.0 (water)
Wind speed: 3 m/s
Wave height: 2.4m (max)
Visibility: generally excellent
Weather: generally overcast with a few sunny periods
see a picture gallery of today's activities ...
We moved out over the area that is heavily sedimented and have conducted three gravity corers. The results of the first 2m one showed some layers of distinct hydrothermal activity, so we set out two longer ones to get a better historical picture of the hydrothermal activity in this area.
Rolf quickly analysed some material from the core that showed the glassy material indicative of a volcanic eruption. The results show that the area is indeed hydrothermically active.
In addition, we had some positive news relating to some of the technical problems we have been having. We were able to fix the mapping programme, the ship’s engineers found out what was plaguing the CTD and have hopefully fixed it, and the Norwegian Coast Guard flew us a replacement part for the ROV. Initial tests indicate that it too is ready for action.
Finally, the ocean is about as flat calm as it can be so far from land, and we were able to see three whales passing by!
