Dive 2932
dive transcript of Melanie Summit
or the world as seen out the starboard porthole
time heading
~9:50 I see the bottom; itÕs pretty flat. Rotating cw.
9:51:20 Dave sees a marker. I have pillows with sediment cover.
9:53:35 The bottom is a broken sheet flow with sediment cover. I donÕt know where the transition occured.
9:57... [4954 6070] Over a ~4m drop.
9:57:40 072 Round disc marker with polypro line directly in front of the sub
9:58:25 109 Crevice is perpendicular to sub here.
9:58:34 Other side of crevice. Wall appears to be higher on the west side. I spot life in the form of sponges!
10:02:08 At the edge of a 5m drop. Rotating cw.
10:04:12 Off edge of scarp. Nice sea stars! One that looks like a sun star but with six rays and one that looks like the rough stubby prickly webbed orange stars at the Seattle Aquarium....
10:04:45 193 Wall directly out the starboard side ~5m away. This canyon seems to trend north/south.
10:05:54 Orange and white discs strung together! Fishing gear?
10:06:42 202 The putative fishing gear is on the 3-chip now.
10:07:31 196 I see worms on the west wall of the fissure 2m off the bottom.
10:10:** I see a marker (one of KimÕs... two squares joined along an edge).
10:10:24 248 KimÕs camera and a round orange disc marker at 2:00. This is the S & M camera and I canÕt tell if it is still upright and filming what it is supposed to be filming.
10:14:04 Back over flat basalt and rotating ccw.
10:14:59 255 Fissure at 10:00. (what sort of drop I donÕt know)
10:15:39 Broken rock .5-1m drop.
10:15:13 264 Another of KimÕs square markers. Blee sticks his head out the starboard side and says that it is marker E. A shrimp comes to visit.
10:18:39 Yet another of KimÕs markers underneath us.
10:19:40 Sulfide and basalt blocks .5m on a side.
10:20:06 Another of KimÕs markers passes underneath us.
10:21:36 KimÕs other camera is underneath the sub now [4872 6015] so we must have made it across to Peanut. IÕm amazed at the short distance.
10:24 165 I can see 8E and 1L.
10:25:36 168 I see snails on basalt blocks. We are 2-4m off the bottom over the talus slope on the west wall.
10:30 144 8E & 1L are at 3:00 and I have tubeworms in crevices of sulfide blocks below me.
10:33:11 WeÕre still in the same place and IÕm watching crabs wave their pinchers randomly. Are those anemones down there?
10:35:14 135 The marker string that Blee has been fussing with for the past 10-15 minutes is finally wrapping and we drop marker CA at [4863 6012]. 8E and 1L are still at about 3:00. (We are about to string a line of markers from the north end of Peanut east along the edge of the Bastille complex toward S & M, nominally along [x 6000].)
10:36:46 103 Passing inactive sulfides. I saw CA beneath me.
10:36:58 CB dropped (actually Dave is noting all the drop times).
10:37:35 Sulfide blocks .5-.7m on a side cascading down the slope of a mound--lots of chalcopyrite glinting at me off the chunks.
10:37:35 Diffuse flow, bacterial mat, and tubeworms directly below me.
10:38:13 080 I see sulfide 1m away. CD & CE dropped together at [4873 6009].
10:39:10 087 Passing a sulfide overhang 4m off the bottom.
10:40:20 065 Sulfides out my porthole... <3m away. And another of KimÕs markers underneath us now.
10:41:03 080 Getting back to that eastward trend after hugging the structures.
10:42:15 143 Maneuvering around big blocks of sulfide about 2m on a side [x 6009].
10:42:30 KimÕs markers again.
10:42:48 Field of tubeworms and something about a big sulfide block.
10:44:35 [x 5995] and marker CM.
10:45:05 Coming east again over pillows with sediments. Marker CN dropped.
10:46:10 076 Over the edge of the scarp! 10m deep. Yowza. We drop another marker into the abyss.
10:47:13 100 I can see white stuff on the rocks at the bottom of the crevasse. It lies in patches. After we passed Bastille etc., we drove along [x 5985-89] instead of [x 6000] and we passed south of S & M instead of taking the northerly route that was planned.
10:48:24 We stop dropping markers and are rotating ccw [4938 5988].
10:49:11 ItÕs murky out and though our altitude reads 7m itÕs hard to see the bottom.
10:49:20 090 We resume dropping markers [4945 5991].
10:52:00 Last of the series! CZ [4968 5995]
10:55ish We have a ground and it is isolated in the 35mm system but what part exactly I do not know. We are OK after a brief video hiatus.
10:59:48 Cameras back up and running.
11:01:04 261 I say I see a scarp at 4:30 to the sub but couldnÕt get this to make sense with the video.
11:02:08 We have gone up the wall of the canyon and I now see Dudley and KimÕs camera. Dudley looks rather ignominious on his side.
11:02:42 312 Wow this is deep. Our altitude is 15m but I see rock 2m below me.
11:03:12 Shimmering water right below me and we are north of S & M.
11:05:40 185 There are sulfides in front of me and I canÕt see the top.
11:06:18 172 Three? white chimneys at 3:00 to the sub. I canÕt tell if they are venting anything.
11:07:21 Sulfide blocks, shimmering water, tubeworms, a spire (how high?).
11:08:30 We are over ŌBleeÕs three pinnaclesĶ that he swears he sampled before and tried to put a large marker on but the marker kept falling off.
11:11:11 192 One of the smokers in BleeÕs pinnacles is directly under us [4895 5998]. There is another smoker (the other smoking pinnacle?) about 2m away and 2m down at 3:00.
11:12:37 172 We are backing up. I see a structure that looks like a mermaid reclining between two smokers at 2:00.
11:13:21 We are up in the water column. I see a lot of water.
11:13:58 177 There is something whitish off in the distance ~7m away.
11:1? I see an old chimney and we are nominally 13m off the bottom.
11:15:52 Rotating cw. I see sulfides with whitish mat? below me.
11:18:13 Water and smoke.
11:18:45 Lots of smoke.
11:21? Saw a large marker at 3:00 someplace around here.
11:27:09 163 Marker at 2:00 (what kind of marker?) about 5m away. Coming down on tubeworms
11:27:54 I see CA, CB.
11:28:54 Sulfide wall with big blocks (probably the same one I saw earlier).
11:30:23 207 In the 3-chip is a smoker that I was looking at for the past minute or so with a beehive-like structure and lots of worms--tube and sulfide.
11:31:46 We have come to a pinnacle and there is a second pinnacle at 3:00 ~4m away.
11:32:24 174 We are attempting to take a water sample. In the background at about 1:30 there is something that is about 2m long and at eye level. I canÕt see anything but the top .5m because thatÕs all thatÕs lit up by the sub. IÕm over a pretty steep slope and I see... well, itÕs easier to sketch it. Ask me for a copy if it isnÕt attached.
11:37:14 We leave the bottom after a failed sampling attempt. The crushed orifice is visible below us.
?? The three niskins are fired in a plume of smoke ~150m off the bottom.