Dive 3804
(personal notes for Michael Rowe)
Bottom sighted 17:53, depth 3038m
Very sediment rich-silty, pale white, scattered fine and coarse pebbles, mostly angular.
-Pale white spider crab, smaller than previous spiders, moves sideways, relatively fast.
While Positioning
Niksin #1 fired at 18:03, 3038m
1st push core taken (far right)
a lot of sediment present for such a steep slope (several inches minimum)
positioning indicates started to the NE of original target but on the same line.
Start moving (18:22)
Barren slope, scattered bio: (mostly anemones and seastars)
2994m- increasing rubble still no outcrop, very steep slope, increasing slope.
2976m- less rubble smaller clasts
-spider crabs fairly prominent , seem to like the soft sediment.
-Rubble seems to be concentrated in zones with sediment in between (possibly debris
flows or slides from outcrops above)
2930m- appears to be the top of a flow, mostly covered in sediment. Pushing on for a
clearer outcrop
2898m- appears to be the top of a flow again but more visible (lots of the pock marks
present. The flow is very intact, it is difficult to find a good piece)
Sample 1 taken
2874m- increasing boulder size, had to tell if its in situ, somewhat rounded and it doesn’t
appear to be very intact.
2854m- partially buried flow
2830m- very discontinious exposures of flows
2757m- another good flow top very hard and intact. The best sampling approach is to
sample from the edge of the flow.
Sample 2 taken (2757m)
-hard to tell if it is just an altered sample of if it is manganese? Good flow though.
Small pillows seem to be on the surface of the flow also very rubbly though.
-attempting sample 2657m—NOPE (too hard)
-geology and flows become more prominent
2652m- Huge white squat lobster (greater than 10cm across the body). X=5990,
Y=11915
Sample 3 taken (2649m)
Possibly manganese, really black but the outcrop looks good so we are going to go with
it.
SWITCH TO TAPE 2
Good rock but continuing to move across the surface of a flow making it difficult to
sample.
2577m- slope increasing again.
-much more rock and very little sediment evident.
2568m- We’ve hit a huge wall of rock (massive basalt flow)
-some scattered columns lying on the see floor (time 20:18)
2547m- columnar jointing in place.
Sample 4 taken
2465m-Coral collected? Unknown species with odd barnacles attached. X=5908,
Y=11653, X and Y are unreliable do to computer failure. Depth is accurate though.
Niskin bottle #3 fired (time 21:07)
2459m-Collections for Marty’s microbiobox. Due to the difficulty of sampling multiple
pieces of a single sample, we have taken several pieces from a couple of locations to try
and insure at least some good samples. X, Y data not available due to continuing
computer problems.
Sample 5 taken (2459m)
-several small corals taken from the same location all one species placed into the large
container.
Still goin gup same shear rock wall
2416m- samples for Amy beginning
2414m- Niskin #2 fired (time 22:24)
ground levels off just slightly until 2342 then very steep.
2310m- Really big coral sampled. Same fan-like species that has been observed up until
this point, only coral present. (time 22:47)
Sample 6 taken (2306m)
Firing niskin. Confusion over which bottles were fired. Four and five have now been
fired but Phil thought that he had just fired #2. Number 2 had already been fired so what
happened? The order appears to be 1 32followed by 4 and 5.
2278m- Continuing to be very steep.
-solid rock
Sample 7 taken (2254m)
had to grab one last sample before leaving.
Dropping one weight and continuing up slope at a faster pace. Continues to be rock.
2200m- Pink coral disappears completely, begin to see small red corals, but are going to
fast to sample.
2163m- Final depth (time 23:19)