NEPTUNE@Sea Blog Blog from July, 2009

Working in our future Middle Valley site see our overview map, the C/S Lodbrog has successfully grapnelled the spur cable and has it leading up from the seabed to the stern. The cable has been tested and jointing between the spur cable and the node tail is beginning. Deployment of the Trawl-Resistant Frame (TRF) to the seabed is scheduled for first light tomorrow (8-July).

Middle Valley is an as-yet unfunded study location. By connecting the TRF to our observatory now, it will be ready to house a science node, should future funding become available.

Meanwhile, the R/V Atlantis. is working in Barkley Canyon, surveying the location where our second TRF and science node will be installed.

Location of Middle Valley

(Map generated with Google Oceans. Click to enlarge.)

During survey operations at Barkley Canyon, water made its way into the ROPOS lighting pod. Resulting repair work delayed the start of the site survey and may affect the TRF deployment schedule at Middle Valley. The Lodbrog has been informed and will be kept advised.

Scattered rocks were observed at Barkley Canyon TRF site, but they are not viewed as problematic.

Muddy seabed overlying hard clay with rock shards were observed in the Post-Lay Inspection and Burial (PLIB) trench. The soft sediment layer is estimated to be less than 10cm deep.

ROPOS
The front of ROPOS including its two manipulator arms. The rack at top holds cameras and lights.

(Click to enlarge.)

Middle Valley TRF Installed

Middle valley TRF installation is now completed, as both the Lodbrog and the Atlantis steam toward Victoria to retrieve the next node and TRF, slated for Barkley Canyon. The Lodbrog's ETA in Victoria is 1300 UTC on 10-July.

Problems with positioning equipment

During placement, it is critically important for Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks to accurately locate ROPOS as it waits on the seafloor. During this install, however, there were troubles with the combined subsea positioning systems.

Thus, it's necessary to repair these systems and the Atlantis is returning to Victoria with the Lodbrog for this purpose. ETA for Atlantis at Victoria Pilot is 1200 UTC on 10-July. The ROPOS team is working hard to arrange for spares, service techs, customs, equipment transport etc.

This Victoria port call will be extended to (a minimum of) 48 hours while the Lodbrog engineers do some fault finding on the hydraulic system for the steering gear. These two maintenance tasks will likely set back the installation of the Barkley Canyon node by 2-3 days, with lowering likely to occur on Wednesday, 15-July.

Photos from TRF deployment in Middle Valley
This fish kept an eye on ROPOS for several hours as it waited on the bottom (2500m) during the descent of the TRF.	The view on a reference monitor after the Middle Valley TRF touched down on the seafloor.	An octopos eyes ROPOS eyeing it during survey work in Middle Valley.

(Click the images to enlarge them.)

The Barkley Canyon TRF and science node have been loaded onto the Lodbrog as crews ready for several major installation tasks. While our first TRF deployed (in Middle Valley) was empty, due to lack of funding. The Barkley Canyon TRF contains a fully-functioning science node. This means the next deployment will be more complex, as diagnostic tests will be run from our shore station through the backbone cable to the node on the seafloor.

Repair/maintenance tasks for both the Lodbrog and ROPOS are nearly finished and both ships will depart Victoria soon. In the next few days, the node will be deployed. Then two 10km cable extensions will be laid and connected to the node. These extensions will carry power and communications from the node to the sites for our Vertical Profiler System and Wally, our benthic crawler.

Photos from the Lodbrog during preparation for node deployment in Barkley Canyon
The Barkley Canyon science node docked within its Trawl-Resistant Frame.	Lodbrog crew members stand with the Barkley Canyon TRF and node. Reynald Civel (right) is a tester and Ponciano Dabu (center) is a cable hand.	Lodbrog, Alcatel-Lucent and ROPOS crews consult on deployment rigging for wet-mate connector and hose at the end of one of the Barkley Canyon extension cables.

(Click the images to enlarge them.)

Deployment of our Barkley Canyon node is underway. In the past 48 hours, the C/S Lodbrog:

• departed Esquimalt Graving Dock and transited to Barkley Canyon (121 nautical miles)
• grappled and recovered the end of the spur cable that extends from the Barkley Canyon branching unit on our backbone cable
• spliced or "jointed" the spur cable to the Barkley Canyon TRF tail (Photo of the tail secured to the TRF for transport is shown below.)
• commenced deployment of the Barkley Canyon TRF to the seafloor

Map and images from node deployment in Barkley Canyon
Overview of backbone and spur cables near Barkley Canyon. Bathymetry: University of Washington TN175, J.Delaney, D. Kelley, D. Glickson 2004.	Anemone spied by ROPOS during cable inspection in Barkley Canyon.	Barkley Canyon TRF and tail cable segment prior to loading onto the Lodbrog.

(Click the images to enlarge them.)

The Barkely Canyon TRF and node are installed and operational. It's sitting at a depth of about 646m at 48° 20.7536' N, 126° 09.4752' W.

Tomorrow, the Lodbrog will likely begin laying the extension cable leading from the node up to the site where our Vertical Profiler System will be installed.

From the R/V Atlantis, ROPOS also surveyed the area where our benthic crawler will be deployed. Uncharted hydrate mounds were discovered, and it's been decided to reroute the southern extension cable, which will provide power and communications to our benthic crawler in the Barkley Canyon hydrates site and three benthic pods in Barkley Canyon. Plans call for this southern extension to be laid on Thursday.

Methane Hydrates
Some of the methane hydrates observed by ROPOS in Barkley Canyon, 13 July 20009.

(Click to enlarge.)

The Lodbrog is laying the first of two 10km extension cable that will carry power and communications from the Barkley Canyon node to our instruments. The one to the north that is now being installed will service our Vertical Profiler System and shelf-break benthic pod, which will sit at a depth of 400m. When finished, the Lodbrog will lay the second extension cable, running from the node down into the canyon.

To prep the seafloor for this cable lay, the Lodbrog first deployed a flatfish cutting grapnel to clear the route of old ropes, out-of-service cables, fishing gear, etc. This has been completed for both the northern and southern extension cable routes.

Once laid, ROPOS will plug the extension cables into the node (via ODI wet-mate connectors) and the connections will be tested.

Extension Cables and Connection Ports
Lodbrog captain Jean Le Roux monitors the view from ROPOS as the extension cable connector hose (coiled on its deployment frame) is lowered to the seafloor next to the Barkley Canyon trawl-resistant frame.	Cables in the Lodbrog's cavernous hold. The center structure holds ropes. Surrounding it, in the second ring, are the Barkley Canyon extension cables.	Connection ports on the Barkley Canyon node. The right and left dummy connectors shown here will be removed at the seafloor by ROPOS and replaced with wet-mate connectors at the ends of the extension cables.	Lodbrog crew deploy a metal frame holding the coiled connector hose attached to the end of the northern extension cable. ROPOS will remove the hose from this frame when attaching to the node. Atlantis appears dimly in the distance, obscured by fog.

(Click to enlarge.)

Lodbrog and Atlantis crews finished laying the northern extension and are now completing the cable lay for the southern extension from the Barkley Canyon node down into the canyon.

The northern extension end is sitting at a water depth between 397 and 398 metres at 48° 25.6520' N by 126° 10.4647' W. This is the area where our Barkley Head "shelf-break benthic pod" instrument frame (photo below) and Vertical Profiler System will be placed later this summer.

Several of our latest photos from the operations are shown below.

Lodbrog and Atlantis work at close quarters
Lodbrog as seen from the deck of the Atlantis. The crane arm in the foreground is used to deploy and recover ROPOS. When this photo was taken, ROPOS was working underwater.	Lodbrog during nighttime operations.	Lodbrog crew are able to monitoring ROPOS operations via ship-to-ship communication links. In this image, ROPOS is removing the northern extension connector hose from its deployment frame.	The "shelf-break benthic pod" destined for placement at the end of the northern extension cable. Photo taken aboard the Atlantis, 10-July-2009.
Atlantis through the fog, as seen from Lodbrog.

(Click to enlarge.)

Lodbrog and Atlantis have finished their node and cable installation work at Barkley Canyon, and are now preparing for the node deployment to ODP 1027.

The southern cable lay was completed at approximately 2:30am (local time) yesterday morning. The southern cable is located in around 800m of water at 48 18.7217"N, -126 03.9412"W. This is approximately 7m from the planned position. The nearest hydrate mounds are about 10-15 meters from the cable end.

Lodbrog has returned to Victoria to load the next node. Atlantis and ROPOS are surveying the plannned deployment site at ODP 1027.

"Life aboard the Lodbrog"
Lodbrog crew measure the length of a cable prior to deployment.	Lodbrog crew enjoy a barbeque in one of the deck muster ("mustard"?) stations.	Lodbrog crew work on a fast rescue craft, used to ferry items between the Lodbrog and Atlantis.

(Click to enlarge.)

ODP 1027 Survey Completion.

Atlantis has completed the ODP 1027 Site visual inspection and transitted to Endeavour, arriving about 13:00 UTC (06:00 PDT)

ROPOS is currently doing visual inspection of Endeavour cable from KP 4.200, heading WSW towards TRF/Node site.

The site survey will continue until ASN determine ROPOS must be recovered in order to meet Lodbrog at ODP 889 for TRF/Node placement.

Degrading Weather

Despite the good weather on land in British Columbia, degrading weather conditions have made working on the Atlantis and Lodbrog far from pleasant. Enviroment Canada has issued a Gale Warning with Wind northwest 15 to 25 knots except 30 over southeastern sections. Wind becoming northwest 25 to 35 Tuesday afternoon. Wave conditions are expected to be 1 to 2 metres building to 2 to 3 Tuesday afternoon.

"Life aboard the Lodbrog (Part II)"

(Click to enlarge.)

The weather at 889 site is still awful, with 4m waves, so CS Lodbrog has buoyed off its cable recovery line and is heading back into Victoria to make use of the downtime with engine maintenance.

The Atlantis , at Endeavour site, saw a gap in the weather this afternoon and was able to launch ROPOS. Ropos is doing a seabed survey to confirm a new node site that hasn't as much exposed rock and as many crevasses as the first. We're getting live video back to shore, and some of the seabed features are very reminiscent of recent lava in Hawaii - thin crusts of rock with sediment below, and free standing columns of rock several metres tall.

Endeavour Survey

In spite of bad weather R/V Atlantis and ROV ROPOS completed this survey phase of possible Endeavour node sites. At a depth of approximately 2200 meters, Endeavour is the second deepest node that will be deployed.

About the Location

Originally planned for a site that turned out to have too many obstacles, a second site was explored about three kilometers north.
The terrain at Site 2 was similar to the original node site. However there were more large holes and ledges present and very few fissures in this area.

Findings

During the site and cable route survey lava pillars and pillow lava were found at the site. Piles of rubble, and similar rough terrain, were also found. Placement of the node would again prove to be difficult in this area. The flatter regions did begin to appear as the cable route was surveyed back toward the main ring. The spur cable was located and found suspended approximately 2 meters above the seabed.

The history of volcanic activity of the region is very evident in the photos (see below). The photos are screen captures from the video survey performed during node operations with Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks by the RV Atlantis and ROPOS.

"Endeavour Site Survey"
Rubble Pile	Lava Pillows	Lava Pillar	Lava Pillow
Lava Pillow	Lava Pillow	Crevice under Lava Pillow	Complete survey area. Original Node Site and Site2 selected by Alcatel.
Site 2 - Area surveyed, ROPOS tracklines in blue.