29th November
28th November
27th November
26th November
24th & 25th November
23rd November
22nd November
21st November

Everyday scene in the deck lab – packed with corals and miscellaneous brought up from the ISIS dives.
Photo by: Hong Chin
20th November
19th November
17th and 18th November
16th November
14th and 15th November
12th and 13th November
11th November

Polystyrene cup that had travelled 5km deep below sea surface – at Vema fracture zone. They are totally squeeezed by the pressure.
Photo by: Veerle
9th and 10th November
7th and 8th November
6th November
4th and 5th November
3rd November
2nd November
1st November
31st October
30th October
28th & 29th October

Gravity core operation.
Torby dictionary: As its name implies, gravity core works by penetrating and coring the sediment through sinking on its own weight (there is a 1 tonne weight attached on top of this coring device)
Photo by: Torben

Hong Chin: I want to get some mud here.
Torby dictionary: Hong Chin is pointing at a sub-bottom profile, which is very useful in locating sediment coring site.
Photo by: Torben

Pete: I love my corals~~
Torby dictionary: Pete is holding a hand lens, a tool which allows 10x magnification of object inspected.
Photo by: Torben
27th October

In the ROV controlling unit: Final ROV dive before saying goodbye to Carter seamount.
Photo by: Steph
25th & 26th October

And finally, the sediment core goes into these D-tubes before being put in cold storage.
Photo by: Stephanie

The changes in the ocean sediment properties (colour, grain size, chemistry, microfossil distribution etc) throughout the length of the core give hints to past climate and ocean conditions.
Photo by: Stephanie

On-board piston core processing: core splitting, colour scanning, core description.
Photo by: Jesse, Stephanie
23rd and 24th October

Our very first piston core. The mechanism of the piston core allows the recovery of long sediment depths, which enables scientists to study climate and ocean of deeper time (hundreds of thousands of years ago).
Photo by: Melanie
22nd October
21st October

Fossil corals obtained from second ROV dive. Trust me, sorting out all these corals are no easy job.
Photo by: Hong Chin
20th October

Second ROV dive on Carter seamount. ISIS spotted shrimp wandering around fossil coral rubble.
Photo by: Peter

Inside the control van of ROV ISIS. Scientists and engineers getting ready to harvest biology and fossil coral samples
Photo by: Allison
19th October

Arrived at our first sampling destination: off Carter seamount. Team seawater sampling in action.
Photo by: Melanie, Vanessa, Michelle
18th October
17th October

Kais explaining the mega-core system.
The main advantage of using the mega-core to collect sediment is the good preservation of the sediment-water interface.
Photo by: Hong Chin
16th October

Remotely-Operated Vehicle “ISIS”. We will control her high-tech manipulator arms to collect seafloor fossil corals/fauna/sediment at deep ocean.
Photo by: Hong Chin

We never forget birthdays
“Happy Birthday Melanie!!”
Thank our awesome chefs (John and Wally) for preparing this lovely cake.
Photo by: Vanessa
15th October

CTD Rosette on the move. The system houses 24 Niskin bottles to collect seawater at different depths. There are sensors which measure seawater conductivity, temperature and depth in-situ.
Photo by: Stephanie
![Sampling seawater to measure concentration of dissolved oxygen. Seawater oxygen content informs us about the biological activity (respiration) beneath the surface ocean. [Left: Paul and Jesse sampling seawater from the Niskin bottles; Bottom right: Stephanie measuring temperature of the seawater sample; Top right: Vanessa adding reagents which binds the oxygen in the sample for titration measurement later] ~Photo by Stephanie Bates](https://tropics.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/files/2013/10/15-10-2013_Photo2-1024x768.jpg)
Sampling seawater to measure concentration of dissolved oxygen. Seawater oxygen content informs us about the biological activity (respiration) beneath the surface ocean. [Left: Paul and Jesse sampling seawater from the Niskin bottles; Bottom right: Stephanie measuring temperature of the seawater sample; Top right: Vanessa adding reagents which binds the oxygen in the sample for titration measurement later]
Photo by: Stephanie
14th October
13th October
This post, “Daily Photos | Tracing ocean processes using corals and sediments” was in fact superb.
I am printing out a copy to demonstrate to my good friends.
Many thanks-Isabella
Love the photos, keep them coming!!
Amazing pictures! Thanks for sharing them with us on the continent!
Dear Ocean Research team,
I am a University of Bristol student, writing an article about the Ocean Research project for Epigram, student newspaper. May I have permission to use one of the photos on this web page for the newspaper article?
Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
Ryan M
hi ryan – yes please do – Laura
The photos are interesting and I enjoy watching the team work in their research. Your job is fascinating. I especially enjoyed the picture of the flying fish.
From the pictures, I can see that the weather is very pleasant.
The photo of the researchers on their time off makes me wonder what one thinks when looking at the endless ocean, with it´s energy. So the sailing has been calm which is good news for all of you on board. That´s great. I wish you all peaceful waters and soft winds.
Alice
Just wanted to use this avenue to wish Shannon a happy birthday. Keep the nice pictures coming and good luck for the next location. Go Team Tropics !