Teacher Logbook:
Thursday, July 13, 2000 1900 hrs.

Phase two of the camera setup is now complete. The large buoy used for receiving picture tiles and temperature data from the camera mooring is in place. A crowd gathered on the fantail to watch the deployment. A crane lifted and placed the buoy smoothly over the side of the ship, as well as the 1520 meter tether and anchor to attach it to the seafloor. The rope was slowly let out as the ship drove away from the buoy. As it drifted away it gave me a chance to see just how far the seafloor is below us. Reaching its maximum distance, some 1500 meters away, the large buoy seemed like an ant. The anchor, consisting of seven rusty railroad car wheels, was attached to the end of the tether. The crane lowered them into the water without any problems and then released a cable. The 7,000 pounds fell quickly toward the abyss below dragging the buoy toward us from the position from which it drifted. After a few minutes the buoy slowed and then stopped in its final resting-place. Engineer Chris Meinig has already received two "trial tiles" from the camera so everything looks good for NeMONet so far.

The NeMONet camera was positioned last night by ROPOS to photograph a large tube worm bush at Bag City. I've been hearing these weird vent names for a while, so I investigated the origin of some of the more interesting sounding ones.Here's a few:

• Bag City: Named for the "Bag Creatures" that were found around the vent upon discovery. These "creatures" are small spherical blobs and cover much of the area. No one knew if they were some type of vent fauna or not. They turned out to be polysacharides from some type a microbial byproduct.
• Joystick: Named for the ROPOS joystick in the control room. It broke down last year when this vent was discovered. The ROPOS team spent a couple of hours fixing the insides of the control panel while the ROV was still on the bottom.
• Coquille: A French name that means, "shell." This area is covered in clam shells.
• Castle: The vent spires here resemble a castle.
• Nascent: This was the first area that new worms were found on the 1998 eruption lava.
• Dying: This vent is loosing its steam.
• Tombstone: Not sure. Maybe someone had a pizza craving.
• Magnesia, All three named after the milky consistency of the water that made it difficult to see.
• Milky & Ouzo is a Greek drink that, when put in ice, tuns milky. Ouzo Sampling continues at midnight tonight with a long dive at ASHES on the west side of the caldera.

We're still on schedule but starting to feel the crunch. Priorities are discussed at the daily science meetings where chief scientist Bob Embley decides what must be finished on this cruise and what will have to wait for next year. The next few days will be a scramble to get as much accomplished as possible. That means little rest and many cups of watered-down coffee.

Jeff

NeMO Net camera's field of view looking out at Bag City tube worms.

NeMO Net's tripod temperature probes within a tube worm "bush".

Discussing priorities at the daily science meeting as the time remaining at sea becomes scarce.