1/2/2023 0 Comments Spider crab![]() ![]() And in a battle between Jason claw and crab claw, Jason had the advantage.Ī cheer erupted in the van as the claw made contact and slowly pulled the crab out. “His name is Moriarty,” Collasius said, referring to the criminal nemesis of Sherlock Holmes.Īt this point, it was claw time. The crab saw, or somehow sensed, its impending doom and started to move away.īut then, showing John Wayne levels of grit, the spider crab stopped short of leaving all the way. In the moment, it appeared as if the mere threat of slurpification would be enough. This is your last warning,” Chadwick added from Collasius’ elbow. “That’s for you buddy,” he says, as he moves it towards the crab. This prompted Jason’s pilot, Tito Collasius, to utter the best sentence on the cruise so far: “Stand by to slurp.”Ĭollasius manipulated the claw to grab the Slurp’s vacuum nozzle. So, they decided to try the “Slurp,” Jason’s powerful vacuum hose. “I didn’t put the crab into my dive plan,” deadpanned Bill Chadwick, because he knew this was going to be a problem.Ī seismometer sensitive enough to respond to a slight current is definitely sensitive enough to feel the tippy taps of little crabby feet.Īfter some discussion of strategy, Operation: Crab Extraction began.īecause the crab was so far into the sensor housing, there was worry that Jason’s claw could damage the instruments. While Jason had its back turned, a big orange spider crab - probably about two feet across - crawled into the instrument and took up residence on top of the seismometer. ![]() Then we saw it.Įxpedition leader Akel Kevis-Stirling prepares to deploy the remotely operated vehicle Jason to explore the Axial Seamount, a sub-sea volcano about 250 miles off Oregon's coast. The ROV was just about to place the dome over the instrument. A group of us were in the van behind the pilot watching Jason work. It was Jason’s job to pick up the dome from the seafloor with those titanium claws and drop it down over the seismometer. “The whole idea of that shield is to stop any currents from getting in and tweaking that seismometer,” said Koczynski, who, when not at sea, is based at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York. That seismometer is so sensitive to vibration, engineer Ted Koczynski said it needs a Smart Car-sized plastic dome over the top to protect it. The research team had just dropped overboard a specialized seismometer designed to reveal things like the shape of the magma chamber under the volcano. They show the parts of the ocean floor as Jason glides over them - lava flows, pillars, cliffs, hydrothermal vents - some which no human has ever seen before. There are video feeds from Jason’s cameras covering one wall. ROV Jason and its arms are controlled by a pilot in a tricked-out shipping container that acts as a control room up on deck - everyone just calls this space “the van.” The van is dark and cold and serene. Using the arm to do really delicate tasks,” Chadwick said. ![]() “It looks kind of easy, but it’s actually really hard. It’s got these titanium arms with pincher hands that can pick up things off the bottom, move sensors around, maybe even play the violin if given the opportunity. The saga starts on a Tuesday, our second day out at sea, and the ROV - which stands for “remotely operated vehicle” - called Jason is cruising along the ocean floor. ![]() Because there’s obviously a battle going on between Jason and the crabs at Axial Seamount,” said Oregon State University volcanologist Bill Chadwick, the head scientist on the ship. It’s a story I’ve come to call “The Spider Crab and the Seismometer.” It’s a story of human against nature, a battle of attrition, on the top of the Pacific Northwest’s most active volcano. It’s a 24-7 buzz of prepping, deploying and recovering geologic sensors trying to understand complicated questions about what makes volcanos tick - specifically the undersea Axial Seamount, which is about 250 miles west of Cannon Beach.īeing out on the research vessel Thompson also means witnessing firsthand a drama beneath the waves. There’s engine noise and exhaust blowers and climate control and winches and wind - but very few actual waves.īeing out on a research ship 250 miles away from land means the science never stops. Reporter’s notebook : OPB science reporter Jes Burns shares a strange tale of “crabotage” that emerged as scientists aboard the research vessel Thompson tried to answer complicated questions about the Axial Seamount.īeing out on the research vessel Thompson in the middle of the ocean means never really hearing the ocean at all. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |