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A porpoise swims around while we wait for a seismometer to show up on the horizon. Photo: Dr. Vera Schlindwein

A special kind of fishing trip

Text and photos: Andrea Plaza-Faverola, researcher CAGE; project leader SEAMSTRESS.

Seven ocean bottom seismometers (OBS) have been recording earthquakes for about a year at more than 1000 m water depth offshore the west-Svalbard margin. In a calm sea, surrounded by whales and dolphins we fished out one by one. We managed to retrieve all of the instruments.

Each seismometer is attached with a hook to an iron frame that keeps them on the sea-bottom for the desired recording period. To bring them back to the surface they are released from their weight using an acoustic device that sends a signal from the ship through the water, and basically tells the hook to rotate to free the instrument so that it can float up. When one instrument is released, we are all out on the bridge looking for it to show up in the horizon.

Sunil, Przemek, and Stefan enjoy the calm sea while waiting for the instrument to appear on the surface.

When the OBS is at the surface one of the crew fishes it out and grabs it with the crane or picks it up using the dingy.

Jan throws the hook to fish the OBS so the crane can grab it.
Stormer and Peter are picking up an OBS that appeared farther away from the ship.

Usually it takes about half an hour for one OBS to raise through 1200 meters of water. There is always a latent fear of not getting the instruments back to the surface. But once again the operation was successful, and we retrieved the seven instruments.

An OBS picked up from the sea and safely placed back on the ship using a crane.

 

 

24. August 2020

Cruise blog, Fram Strait OBS cruise CAGE 20_05

Contact

Andreia Plaza-Faverola

Researcher & Project Leader
77 64 57 02
andreia.a.faverola@uit.no

Andreia is a researcher within ‘Gas Hydrates and Free Gas Reservoirs‘ at CAGE, and leader of the project SEAMSTRESS – Tectonic Stress Effects on Arctic Methane Seepage

Read more about Andreia Plaza-Faverola

Contact

Maja Sojtaric

Senior communications advisor
+47 77 62 52 40
maja.sojtaric@uit.no

Maja Sojtaric

Maja is the senior communcations advisor for CAGE.

Read more about Maja Sojtaric

26. August 2020

Searching for the unexpected signals in the deep sea

21. August 2020

An altruistic beginning for SEAMSTRESS expedition

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