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Up in the Artic, at this time of the year, there are still 24 hours of light. It is such a weird sensation arriving to your cabin at 4am (after some hours looking at seismic lines, maps of the seafloor, and images of bubble plumes) and having to close the window blind!Then, after a swaying sleep, a…
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Cruise JR269A, west of Svalbard: Understanding gas escape from the ocean floorMethane hydrate is formed from methane and water at high pressures and low temperatures, both of which are found at the bottom of the deep ocean.It is very widespread in the parts of the deep ocean nearest to the…
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Ahoy, everyone! A couple of days ago, we finally left the Porcupine Abyssal Plain after a very successful sampling regime of megacoring, trawling, and the deployment of various other instruments over the past few weeks.Today, we will arrive in the Porcupine Seabight, which is situated to the…
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Ambient noise in North European seas: monitoring, impact, management (3–5 October 2011, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton) – conference experts highlight how noise affects marine life.Jacques Cousteau called the oceans the ‘Silent World’. Today, we know that they are anything but. If you…
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Ahoy, everyone! Today, you are in for a treat. As you know already, we are deploying a whole range of instruments to get an idea about what type of creatures live at about 4,800 metres depth here at the PAP site.One of these instruments is the Baited Camera Lander. It’s a large steel frame with two…
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Quite a few of the samples being brought up from the deep are being preserved in ethanol for DNA analysis when we’re back on land.Chrysa is preserving the sea cucumbers and sea stars from the trawl samples and amphipods from the amphipod trap, Claire is keeping some of the animals from the mud…
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The days when we take the trawl samples seem to be a somewhat confusing mixture of sleeplessness, excitement and a lot of hard work! For me, these trawls are really the reason I’ve been out here for the last two weeks as I gather samples of abyssal fish for my PhD.Although I’m still quite early on…
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On 12 August in Golden, Colorado, USA, Dr Angus Best of the National Oceanography Centre’s Marine Geoscience Research Group made a successful bid to host the biennial Second International Workshop on Rock Physics at NOC in Southampton in May 2013.The First International Workshop on Rock Physics,…
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Scientists of the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) have been exploring the depths of the Cayman Trough without leaving Southampton, thanks to a ‘telepresence’ link from a US ship in the Caribbean.Last year a UK research cruise led by Dr Doug Connelly of NOC found and sampled hydrothermal vent…
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The deep sea is a reservoir of unknown biodiversity, particularly among invertebrates living inside the mud with many species new to science and in many ways rivalling the discovery of new insect species in rainforests.Taxonomy is a branch of science that deals with the description and…
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An entry from Alexander Hart our Irish Foreign Vessel Observer.It’s my responsibility to ensure that any research during JC062 that takes place in Irish waters (i.e., at Goban Spur) is done in an open way.As I only recently graduated and as this is my first time working in such a capacity I was a…
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It’s 6 o’clock in the morning and the entire science party is dressed in brightly coloured waterproofs, steel-capped boots, and hard hats, waiting impatiently in the hanger.We are not allowed out onto the aft deck, since the crew is busy hauling in the trawl. Over the past few hours, the OTSB (…