Teacher Logbook:
Wednesday, July 12, 2000 1800 hrs.

My four hour "watch" consists of running four video recorders and taking "frame grabs" off the cameras for still pictures. Occasionally we turn on the Beta video to record "highlights" from the deep. Last night we just finished sampling and were ready to move the ship to a vent named Joystick when there was a delay on the bridge. The ROPOS pilot decided to look around while waiting, and a huge basalt pillar came into view on the monitor. It had "bathtub rings" from layers of basalt and was about 10 meters tall. I grabbed a frame. While typing in all the necessary time/location data for the frame grab I heard everyone in the room gasp and yell out "Frame Grab, Frame Grab, Quick." I looked up at the monitor and there was a huge octopus.

Usually they're timid, hiding in rock crevices. However, we were in for a treat because this one was uninhibitedly dancing around the striped basalt pillar. I grabbed a frame, then another, then another. Its long tentacles stretched out showing off for ROPOS. Several more frame grabs. It continually changed shape showing us how it could mold itself into any form that pleased it. More frame grabs. It's big blue eyes seemed to gaze into the ROPOS camera. More frame grabs. The highlight tape was on for this serendipitous discovery.

Yeah! Sometimes you discover the best things when you're not searching for anything. Reminds me of when I met my wife, Jennifer.

This morning's calm seas allowed us to deploy the new NeMO Net camera in a vent area called Bag City. This vent field is exciting because of all the life here, including tube worm bushes. The camera is replacing the old NeMO Net camera deployed last year and will send a picture back to shore every four days. It will also send back temperature data for the vent it's photographing and the background seawater temperature.

How does a camera on the bottom of the ocean send a picture to shore? It takes a number of steps. The camera takes a black and white picture that is stored in a PC on the camera mooring. The PC compresses the black and white image and divides it into 64 "tiles." Each of the tiles is individually transmitted acoustically to a buoy that's anchored to the seafloor by a 1500-meter tether. The buoy then transmits the tiles via satellite to the PMEL (Pacific Marine Environmental Lab) in Seattle. Once there, the tiles are reassembled by a computer and posted on the NeMO web page for the general public. If any tiles are not transmitted PMEL can ask the camera to re-send specific tiles to compose a complete picture.

This is the first time a command from the shore will control an instrument on the sea floor at Axial and it's possibly a step toward more shore-based data collection. The goal for NeMONet is to link the biotic and geologic processes taking place within the frame of the picture with the temperature time-series data that's also being recorded. Check them out. They will start posting soon.

Jeff

Octopus on a basalt pillar captivating the watch standers.

Arrows point to limpets taking a ride on a spider crab at Joystick Vent. According to Jean, this may be one method animals get dispersed around the vent locations.