45o 31.9′ N 130o W The goal of today’s dive was to sample lavas and take sediment cores on large flows located on the eastern flank of the South Rift of Axial Seamount. An analysis of the recent high-resolution AUV bathymetry suggests that two of those large flows may have resulted from the same eruption. …

MBARI’s Tethys long-range autonomous underwater vehicle recently travelled to one of the world’s largest freshwater ecosystems—the Great Lakes. This operation is a collaborative effort between MBARI and the Great Lakes Science Center, and is this vehicle’s first-ever freshwater deployment.

46o 01.9′ N 130o 01.1′ W The ROV dive today covered lava flows of the April-May 2015 eruption on the mid-North Rift of Axial Seamount, in between those sampled yesterday and those sampled on August 1. The good folks on the R/V Rachel Carson mapped the axis of the North Rift over the past few …

Bill Chadwick 46o 07.7′ N 129o 57.6′ W Today’s ROV dive was full of surprises, and one of the biggest surprises for me was finding miniature black smoker chimneys near the top of one of the thick lava flows that erupted in April-May 2015. This particular lava flow is over 60 meters thick and we …

Peering into the insides of a machine can be a useful way to learn about how it works. MBARI researchers Ken Johnson and Hans Jannasch created a transparent version of a profiling float, an instrument that makes biogeochemical measurements in the ocean, for educational purposes.

In 2014, MBARI researchers discovered a jet engine on the floor of Monterey Bay. Since that time, MBARI Deputy Director of Marine Operations Chris Grech has been gathering clues as to how this engine arrived on the muddy seafloor of the bay.

45o 59.6′ N 129o 57.4′ W After a long steam from Newport, Oregon, we arrived to Axial Seamount about midday. Although we only had time for a short ROV dive, it was a very important dive for some of the long-standing work we have been doing here. The primary objective of today’s dive was to …

45o 37.5′ N 124o 02.7′ W We departed Newport, Oregon, at 7:00 a.m. in the fog and were welcomed back onto the northeast Pacific Ocean by surprisingly calm seas. We steamed west toward Axial Seamount at nine to 10 knots all day. The clouds remained overcast and it even sprinkled, and the seas gradually grew …

45o 37.5′ N 124o 02.7′ W We entered Yaquina Bay in Newport, Oregon, this morning in heavy fog. The sun broke out just as we passed under the iconic Highway 101 bridge. We tied up promptly at 10:00 a.m. and everyone evaporated from the ship! We will resume the logs when we depart again on August 8.

45o 33.9′ N 126o 46.5′ W We began steaming for port as soon as the dive on August 2nd was completed and the ROV was on deck. The wind has kicked up again so our transit will be slow and would take too long to have allowed us to get a dive at another vent …

Morgane Le Saout 45o 33.7′ N 129o 55.4′ W The goal of this dive was to sample the different flows from the valley of the eruptive axis of the Vance Segment toward the eastern flank of the South Rift of Axial Seamount. The Vance Segment is the next spreading ridge segment south of the one …

45o 59.4′ N 130o 1.5′ W Our dive today started with biology collections at the CASM (an acronym for Canadian American Seamount) vent site on the northern caldera floor at Axial. Then we headed north up the caldera wall and crossed several old, heavily sedimented flows, and ended with geology collections on two flows that …

44o 39.5′ N 130o 21.9′ W Today’s dive started at the same point as our short dive yesterday at a hydrothermal vent site that was named “Vent 1” by the US Geological Survey (USGS) years ago. Our priorities today were to do the fluid sampling we ran out of time for yesterday at the same …

Shannon Johnson, Robbie Young, and Corinna Breusing 44o 39.5′ N 130o 21.9′ W After a terribly long and miserable transit the weather calmed a bit and what was to be a quick test dive became an exciting reprieve from boredom, seasickness, and an otherwise helpless feeling that we’d never get any science done. We had …

43o 43.4′ N 129o 45.8′ W at 2200 Well, we are making progress! We will pass over the Blanco transform fault zone during the night and reach our first (fingers crossed) dive target in the morning. We have had to change our dive plans considerably because of the weather. We were unable to dive at …

41o N 127o 29.5′ W at 1500 We are crossing the Escanaba Trough of the Gorda Ridge right now, five kilometers south of NESCA (Northern Escanaba Trough). NESCA was to have been our first dive target of this expedition but the weather continues to be awful. We held a small ceremony, waving and blowing kisses …

A newly designed seawater sampler promises to automate monthly water sample collection, freeing up ship and personnel resources for other research projects.

39o 44.8′ N 125o 29.55′ W at 1800 in the evening The wind picked up all day and with it the swells. This evening we are now SW of Cape Mendocino and heading NNW at about five knots. It is overcast; the wind is blowing 35 knots from the north and “it has definitely gotten …

121o 47’ 13” W, 36o 48’ 16” N Our departure was timed with the high tide and we slipped from the sleepy, foggy, calm waters of the harbor into Monterey Bay right on schedule. We are eagerly anticipating exciting science on the ROV dives ahead, but we’re not at all excited about the windy weather …

Last Thursday, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) awarded the prestigious Maurice Ewing Medal to MBARI marine chemist Peter Brewer. This medal is given annually to recognize “significant original contributions to the ocean sciences."