Southampton

A shipboard expedition off Norway, to determine how methane escapes from beneath the Arctic seabed, has discovered widespread pockets of the gas and numerous channels that allow it to reach the seafloor.

The science marathon is arriving to its last stage. A marathon is not an explosive running in which you just think about running at fast as possible, it requires a complete control of the time and understanding of how your body is behaving and acting in every single new step.

Another grey, cold and exciting day in the Arctic. Today, SYSIF (our deep towed sonar system) have a day off and it is now the turn for our air-gun (a bubbles powerful weapon) and our 60-metre streamer (a long tail with receivers) to come into action. Before that, two of our OBEM (seafloor electromagnetic receiver) which look like a four legs octopus are deployed.

Our cruise to the PAP site has finally come to an end and after a successful couple of days at the Porcupine Seabight the James Cook steamed back to Falmouth. Although everyone was excited by the prospect of fresh fruit, crunchy vegetables, and yes, family and friends too, the joy of returning to “normality” is always accompanied by some sadness.

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 4 am (after some hours looking at seismic lines, maps of the seafloor, and images of bubble plumes) and having to close the window blind!

Cruise JR269A, west of Svalbard: Understanding gas escape from the ocean floor

Methane 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.