2017-2018 Annual Report Cover Pages

Bergy Bits

An ERI researcher (UCSB graduate student) surveys the ice conditions along the Joinville Island coast while checking on the status of a tide gauge deployed for the field season.  The researchers were reconstructing late Holocene sea levels on Joinville Island from the island’s raised beaches. The record of sea level will provide insights into the glacial history and Earth structure beneath the Antarctic Peninsula. Photo credit: Alex Simms.

Awaiting Pickup

Rock samples from raised beaches on Joinville Island.  The rock samples will be dated via optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to determine their age, which when combined with the elevation of the beach ridges will be used to reconstruct late Holocene sea levels for the northern Antarctic Peninsula.  The record of sea level will provide insights into the glacial history and Earth structure beneath the Antarctic Peninsula. Photo credit: Alex Simms

Mummified Seal

Two ERI researchers (UCSB graduate students) survey the raised beaches of Joinville Island.  The beach is home to several fur seals, some of which come there to die.  The surveys were taken to determine the age and elevation of the beach ridges in order to reconstruct late Holocene sea levels for the northern Antarctic Peninsula.  The record of sea level will provide insights into the glacial history and Earth structure beneath the Antarctic Peninsula. Photo credit: Alex Simms.

Preparing for deployment at dawn

As dawn breaks over the central Pacific ocean, we prepare to deploy a rosette containing 31 acoustic communication units (black cylinders). We will lower this rosette to a depth of 3.5 miles beneath the waves before testing to make sure that each one of the communication units works. These units will be installed on the ocean bottom seismometers (seen here stored on the back deck) and will allow the ship to communicate with these sensitive instruments as they detect remote earthquakes once they have been deployed on the seafloor. 

Photo credit: Zach Eilon

Deploying an ocean bottom seismometer sinks into the Pacific

Deployment of an ocean bottom seismic instrument off the fan-tail of the R/V Kilo Moana in the central Pacific Ocean. Once released, this instrument will spend the next two hours sinking to the bottom of the ocean, where it will deploy a seismometer sensitive enough to detect earthquakes on the other side of the world. It will record data for 15 months before we call it back to the surface to recover it (with the assistance of the red flag on top!)

Photo credit: Zach Eilon

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