Participant Perspective - July 27, 2001

Interview with Susan Merle
Geological Research Assistant - University of Oregon/NOAA

Jeff G: Haven't you been going to sea for quite some time now?

Susan: I've been out of school for ten years and over that time period I've been on close to 30 cruises. I've spent about two of the last ten years of my life at sea. Only about ten of those cruises were for research. The rest were with private industry where I was cruised all over the world doing side-scan sonar and bathymetry surveys, mainly to provide information needed to lay fiber-optic cables. One of the first times I went to sea we were offshore Guam looking at the shoreline and palm trees. I turned to one of the other data processors and said, "Oh my god, isn't this just so beautiful." He turned to me and said, "It's an island. All islands look the same from a boat." It kind of gets that way after a while. I'm a little tired from the four cruises this summer. We did the first survey in early June. I just want to go home and see my garden, sip wine with my good friend David and pet my cat, Big Handsome Boy.

Jeff: What are your duties on the ship?

Susan: I do navigation to try and figure out where we are so we can come back next year and find it again. I also edit the dive logs and sample logs and make sure we keep track of what experiments we deploy and recover. I also assist you (Jeff Goodrich) and Andra Bobbitt (on shore) with the NeMO web site.

Jeff: What happens to the mounds of data that are collected out here?

Susan: They end up in the cruise reports that I compile for people to refer to down the line. We get CD ROM's from the ROPOS crew but it's nice to have all the data in a book form so you can make your own notations. I keep everything in spreadsheets and all the sample information is geographically referenced in GIS so that we can look at a map and have the context of where we've been, what we've collected, and what we still have down there. I make maps and posters too. My job is really keeping track of everything because Bob Embley is a very busy
scientist. He's been wonderful to work with on all these cruises. I really admire that he makes sure people get what they need out here. I have a lot of respect for him and it's a pleasure to work for him.

Jeff: What do you find most interesting about studying Axial Volcano?

Susan: The geology of course. I'm into rocks. For me this season, the most interesting thing was finding the two new anhydrite chimneys down at the Coquille vent field. We thought it was all diffuse venting with not much action. It was wonderful to come upon those two vents that looked virtually like ghosts in the distance. It was something that we totally didn't expect because we'd been there the year before and didn't see anything. That kind of discovery is what I really dig about being out here.