29th November
Going down the hatch on our tour of the engine rooms… Happy Birthday Laura!
One of RRS James Cook’s propellers!
Enjoying the view of the propeller.
28th November
The sun sets on our last full day at sea.
Photo by: Kais
Photo by: Kais
27th November
Glorious mud!
26th November
Isis is back on deck after her final mission for our cruise.
Photo by: Steph
24th & 25th November
Isis is deployed for her penultimate dive of the cruise.
23rd November
Mapping the seafloor using Isis.
Photo by: Shannon
22nd November
Photo by: Michelle
On the bridge – experiencing ship navigation and control.
Photo by: Vanessa
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
Surprise find: Huge fossil shark teeth!
Photo by: Jesse
19th November
Brittle star haven
Photo by: ISIS
Shark encounter! – Near the top of Vayda seamount.
Photo by: ISIS
Miniature of ISIS dive
17th and 18th November
Yacht in sight.
Photo by: Michelle
In the land of sponge
First dive at Vayda seamount.
Photo by: ISIS
16th November
Happy Birthday Kais!
14th and 15th November
Photo by: Michelle
12th and 13th November
Solitary lives among the abyssal rocky masses.
Photo by: ISIS
11th November
Dredge deployed to catch some coral.
Photo by: Michelle
Polystyrene cup that had travelled 5km deep below sea surface – at Vema fracture zone. They are totally squeeezed by the pressure.
Photo by: Veerle
Happy Birthday Maricel!
Photo by: Shannon
9th and 10th November
The cutest core section we have ever had!
Photo by: Jesse
Photo by: Jesse
A 5km deep core – at Vema fracture zone.
Photo by: Maricel
7th and 8th November
Coral Garden
Photo by: ISIS
A long long bamboo coral
Photo by: ISIS
First ROV dive in VEMA – the very middle of Atlantic Ocean.
Photo by: ISIS
6th November
Happy Birthday Shannon!
4th and 5th November
Veerle carefully polishing the sediment cores.
Photo by: Melanie
Peeking through the gravity core – do we get some mud??
Photo by: Melanie
More coring activity.
“Mud pie” (Ocean sediment sliced off the mega core).
Photo by: Melanie
3rd November
Laura and ISIS
Photo by: Michelle
2nd November
!!!
Photo by: ISIS
Brittle star colony on coral.
Photo by: ISIS
More ROV dives at Knipovich.
Photo by: ISIS
1st November
The morning team waiting to collect ISIS harvest.
Photo by: Veerle
31st October
A large polystyrene cup? Nope, it’s a sponge!
Photo by: ISIS
ROV dive at our second destination: Knipovich seamount.
Photo by: ISIS
30th October
Photo by: Torben
Happy Birthday Veerle!!
Photo by: Kais
28th & 29th October
Captain Torby supervising core-splitting operation.
Photo by: Torben
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
Captain Torby on board!
Photo by: Torben
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
Mega core processing and sampling.
Photo by: Jesse
We got some mud! Megacore from four and a half km deep.
Photo by: Hong Chin
22nd October
Getting lively in the biology lab
Photo by: Jesse
ISIS coming out from her third dive. Working in the rain to collect ISIS harvest.
Photo by: Melanie
21st October
Fossil corals obtained from second ROV dive. Trust me, sorting out all these corals are no easy job.
Photo by: Hong Chin
Second ROV dive: Giant shark wants a piece of action too.
Photo by: ISIS (screenshot by Maricel)
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
Commencing first ROV dive on Carter seamount.
Photo by: Peter
Arrived at our first sampling destination: off Carter seamount. Team seawater sampling in action.
Photo by: Melanie, Vanessa, Michelle
18th October
Flying fish moment
Photo by: Kais
Michelle operating seawater dissolved oxygen measurement by titration
Photo by: Hong Chin
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
When scientists are not on their working shift……
Photo by: Allison
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.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
CTD rosette ready to go!
Photo by: Hong Chin
Pete’s sewing in action (making nets to collect corals)
Photo by: Hong Chin
13th October
Team Science!
Photo by Hong Chin
RRS James Cook
Photo by: Allison
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 !