Day 1

Daily report:
Nearly everything has arrived safe and sound - that is the first challenge of a research cruise, to pack up enough equipment to outfit complete labs - anticipating every possible need, because it is hard to get spare parts 500km from land.

We had a bit of a scare when 2 of Marvin's 6 crates from Seattle were not to be found, but they have turned up at the storage facility, so we will pick them up after re-fueling. Marvin's equipment evaluates the gases contained in the plume and vent waters. The resulting gas profile reveals valuable information about the kind of rocks the vent water has travelled through on its way back to the surface. (Read the interview about Marvin from 2008)

His equipment will fill up much of the two geochemistry labs. In the remaining space Tamara will set out what she needs to test the geochemical properties of the various waters: vent water, plume water and water from the sediment cores. Tamara is a PhD student from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (essentially the Swiss MIT). She is half-way through her PhD and this is her third summer cruise aboard the G.O.Sars. Tamara's results will tell us information about what the seafloor looks like in this area. It is already showing that there are layers of sediments covered by volcanic layers. Such information is critical to a systemic understanding of the geobiology of this area. (Read the interview about Tamara from 2008)

Ida and her team of microbiologists is busy setting up the two microbiology labs. They will be the first to see action this summer. Hans Tore's helpers have not arrived yet, so he is setting up the macro biology lab all by himself!

The Captain tells us that we are taking the less frequently used northern exit out from Tromsø fjord, and this promises about two hours of spectacular fjord viewing before we reach open sea. We also have to squeeze in our safety lecture and tour, and the first science meeting, where Rolf will tell us more details about the cruise objectives. It will then be 12-14 hours until we reach Håkon Mosby volcano, so we will not be down to research work and sampling until first thing tomorrow morning.

INTERESTING FACT: 240 000litres costs around 720 000NOK or 83 000euro or 127 000CAD!

AND the 5-day weather report is promising!

Click on a day below to access another report!