RESEARCH VESSELS

GEOL 1033

Lesson 6 in the Study Guide

RESEARCH VESSELS• Ships • Submersibles• Habitats• Drilling ships• Platforms• Airplanes• Satellites

SHIPS• Coastal ships & boats

– Small – Relatively cheap

• Ocean-going– Large– Expensive– Many requirements

• Special facilities• Special equipment

– More staff• Sailors• Technicians• Scientists

– Construction• Some are built for research, not just refitted, e. g., Glomar Challenger, JOIDES

Resolution• Ships were usually remodelled & re-equiped vessels originally designed for

other purposes, e. g., Challenger

CONSIDERATIONS FOR A LARGE RESEARCH VESSEL

• Costs:– Initial

– Operating

– Maintenance

• Maneuverable when slow or stopped

• Stability in rough waters

• Laboratory facilities on board

• No electrical interference with scientific instruments

• Winches for lowering and raising instruments

• Endurance - 30 days or more at sea

• Living quarters for crew, technicians & scientists

• Dependability– Long-range planning of "legs" (=cruises)

– Travel to remote & hazardous areas

CONSIDERATIONS FOR A LARGE RESEARCH VESSEL

• Shipboard computer facilities

• Certain specialized facilities & equipment for certain projects– Handle submersibles

– Drilling derricks

• Trends– Toward more coastal research

• Cheaper

• More applied

– Smaller ships are cheaper to build & operate

– Joint institutional efforts• Share costs

• Alternate scientists

– International cooperation on large projects, e.g., ODP & IODP

– Increased emphasis on applied research

Gyre showing large hoists used to tow and lift oceanographic equipment

Glomar Challenger• Ocean-drilling 122 m (400') vessel used for the Deep-Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), which ran from

1968 to 1983, remains one of the milestones of oceanography.

• Used a dynamic, computer controlled positioning system to maintain her position with precision while drilling in deep water and obtaining cores up to a mile long.

• Gathered invaluable information about the structure and age of the oceans, confirming plate tectonics and sea-floor spreading hypotheses.

• Traveled more than 600,000 km, drilling 1,092 holes at 624 sites, and recovering a total of 96 km of ocean-floor core.

SUBMERSIBLES• "Submarines"

• Early manned underwater exploration– 1st = 1620, 12 oarsmen, sunk at each of 3 attempts

– 1776 = Turtle = one man, war vessel

• 1880's = many European & American– Battery operated

– Recharged onshore

• 1890's = recharged at sea– Gasoline engine used

– Must surface

• WWI (1914-1918) = "subs" were common

SUBMERSIBLES• 1934 Wm. Beebe built the Bathysphere

– For scientific research

– Attached to surface by a cable

– Reached 3,028 feet (923 m), a record not broken

until the 1950's by the freely navigable bathyscaphes

• 1954 Piccard reached 4,177 m in a Bathyscape– No cable

– = 13,700'

• Late 1950's– Bathyscaphes

reached 9,200 m

SUBMERSIBLES• 1960 Piccard used the Trieste

– No cable

– Reached 35,795' (10 913 m) in the Challenger Deep of the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific

The Bathyscaphe Trieste • The bathyscaphe "Trieste" seen on the surface.

• Bathyscaphes are free-diving, self-contained, manned, deep-sea research vessels

The Bathyscaphe Trieste• Deep-diving submersible Trieste is 15.7 meters (59.2 feet) long

• 130 dives earned three world records. Her last voyage was in 1963.

• Large structure of vessel contains mainly machinery & flotation/ballast tanks.

• 2-person crew is confined to a small sphere at the underside of the vessel.

• Pressure hull of sphere is 13 to 18 centimeters (5 to 7 inches) thick.

The Alvin• Alvin being prepared by divers after

being launched from its original Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute support vessel, the Lulu

• Recovery of the Alvin

• Alvin being hoisted onto the rear of a

support vessel.

The Deep-Diving Submersible Alvin WHOI• Best known & oldest of the 6 deep-diving manned research subs in operation

• Made over 2,500 dives in 28 years

• Carries 3 people

• Can dive to 4,000 meters (13,120 feet)

Titanium Sphere inside Alvin• All deep-diving submersibles, regardless

of their exterior shape, are constructed around central spheres which house the crew and protect them from the crushing pressures of the deep. The larger vessel simply encloses support apparatus, including ballast tanks, engines, pumps, and similar equipment.

• Cartoon of the cramped quarters inside the sphere of the Alvin. The pilot is at the forward viewing port & 2 scientists are at

each side port.

• Alvin aboard a support vessel. Observation ports and the manipulator area are visible on the forward section of the submersible.

• Instruments line the inside of the sphere in the Alvin

SUBMERSIBLES• 1970's - over 60 submersibles

– Non-military

– Some for research

– Industrial use, such as by

offshore oil & gas companies

• Well over 100 today

• Disadvantages:– Depend on a surface support vessel

– Smallness mean a small "pay load"

– Cost per dive is still expensive

• Advantages:– Direct human observation (see what photograph, measure, sample)

– No cable - freely moving

– Can stay on one spot & relocate same spot better than a surface vessel

SUBMERSIBLES• Advantages over large sub are fairly obvious:

– Cheaper

– Smaller

– Lighter

– Relatively simple support (winch, etc.)

– Less maintenance

– Small crew

– Operate at greater depths

– Can provide "real time" information to surface through a cable if desired

HABITATS• Movie "Sphere”• Work longer• No regular decompression• Can't breath ordinary air in very deep water

– Air• 78% N2

• 21% O2

• 1% Ar

• traces of other gases, such as CO2

– Change N2 to He for ~1000'

– Change to He + H2 mixture with 1-2% O2 for great depths

– Record is about 2,300'

– Pioneered by Jacque Cousteau

DRILLING SHIPS• Remember the Mohole project

– Late 1950's

– Developed deep-sea drilling technology

• DSDP of JOIDES (began 1964)– Glomar Challenger (1968-1983)

• Drilled in depths down to 23,116'

• Drilled 5,709' below seafloor

• Used sonar to reenter borehole with funnel at opening

• OMDP was next & used the Glomar Explorer• Then, came the ODP that uses the JOIDES Resolution• IODP is next…

• JOIDES Resolution (= SEDCO/BP 471) is a 470 ft-long and 70 ft-wide drilling ship used for the Ocean Drilling Project (ODP).

• Derrick towers 202' above the waterline.• Has a computer-controlled dynamic positioning system, supported by 12

powerful thrusters and two main shafts, that maintains its position over a specific location while drilling in water depths up to 27,000'.

• A 12,000 sq ft, 7-story stack of laboratories and other scientific facilities occupies the areas fore and aft of the derrick.

• Deploys up to 30,000'of drill string.

ODP Drilling Sites up to 1994• A diagram showing the locations of worldwide sites cored by the Ocean

Drilling Project (ODP) as of 1994. The more than 600 sites drilled by the earlier DSDP are not shown here. The last leg of the ODP will be leg #210.

• JOIDES Resolution: the ship can deploy up to 30,000' of drill string. This view shows pipe being lowered and connected by “roughnecks.”

• JOIDES Resolution: roughnecks handling drill pipe with rotary drill bit.

Rentry Cone

• JOIDES Resolution: reentry cones are used to reenter an existing hole

• End of drill string is positioned using either sonar or an underwater television system.

RE-ENTRY TECHNIQUE• Computer coordinated• Multiple thrusters• Sonar• Funnel

• The "JOIDES Resolution": the 30-ft (9.5-m) cores are brought from the rig floor to the 'catwalk,' a platform outside the laboratories where core is prepared for analysis.

• JOIDES Resolution: scientists take samples from the working half of cores for both shipboard and shore-based analysis. The shipboard curatorial representative inventories all samples and enters the information into a computer. No samples are taken from the archived half.

PLATFORMS• Two kinds :

– Floating– Fixed

• Floating Arctic ice "islands"– 1st (Alpha) occupied during mid-1960's by USA (Discovered Alpha Ridge)– Later, USSR also used floating Arctic ice islands for Arctic research– Canada in 1983-4 CESAR (=?) Project

• Drift at ~2 km/d• Dangerous

• Buoys– Anchored & free-floating– Measure surface & subsurface phenomena– Data is stored or transmitted to shore or to satellite

• Offshore oil & gas platforms– Drilling (floating & jackup) platforms– Production platforms

• FLIP of Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California

PLATFORMS - FLIP OF Scripps Inst. Of Ocean.• FLIP passing through the Panama Canal in 1969 en

route to an Atlantic Ocean research project in Barbados. This unique 355-foot Floating Instrument Platform of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography is towed to her work station by a tug (background) & is then upended to provide a stable platform for acoustic and other studies. The shift is accomplished through flooding of ballast tanks; the process is reversed by pumping water back out of those tanks. Working position is 55 feet above water & 300 below.

OFFSHORE OIL & GAS PLATFORMS• Drilling

– Jackup

– Semisubmersible (floating)

• Production– Non-floating

– Floating

On Scotian Shelf

OFFSHORE OIL & GAS PLATFORMS• Oil production platform in the North Sea

AIRPLANES• Remote sensing

• Examples– Sea surface temperatures with infrared photography

– Observe & study waves

– Observe and study ocean currents

– Site fish schools

• Can drop expendable instruments– XBT = expendable bathythermograph

EARTH ORBITING SATELLITES• Modern oceanography uses satellites:

– Navigation

– Telecommunications.

– Photography (high resolution)

– Sea surface temperatures (with IR)

– Salinities (reflectivity changes)

– Sea surface elevations related to seafloor topography

– Surface currents

– Sediment suspensions

– Fish schools

– Waves

– Pollution

GPS satellite

Simulated view of an earth-orbiting satellite (the joint U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon) gathering oceanographic data.

END OF FILE

Tabilai, a type of small, ocean-going boat used by Polynesians to sail across much of the Pacific Ocean long before the invention of modern navigational instruments.

TOPEX/Poseidon Satellite

• The joint U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon satellite orbits 1,336 kilometers (835 miles) above the Earth in an orbit that allows coverage of 95% of the ice-free ocean every 10 days. The satellite was launched in 1992 and is supplied with a positioning device that allows researchers to determine its position to within 10 centimeters (4 inches) of the Earth's center. Such accuracy makes possible very accurate determination of sea-surface height by radar transmitters on board.

Example of an Ice Breaker/Research Vessel

• In Antarctica during 1992

• Specialized oceanographic vessels: The C.S.S. "John P. Tully," a Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) research/hydrographic vessel designed for operations in the North Pacific and the Canadian Arctic. Home port is the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, British Columbia.

READING ASSIGNMENTS• 7th Edition, 2003, Sverdrup & others:

(Pages correspond to the lesson topics in the Study Guide)– Lesson 1 page 2– Lesson 2 p. 29-38, 45-51– Lesson 8 p. 54-59 (Q7 assigned)– Lesson 3 p. 38-42 (E3 assigned)– Lesson 4 p. 2-21, 24-26 (Q3 assigned)– Lesson 5 p. 40-45; 3(bottom+fig)-4(fig); 259(bottom)-260(top) (Q4 assigned)– Lesson 6 p. 42-45, 87-89, 364(gases)– Lesson 7 p. 99-101(top),108-109,143-144(sound),120(bottom)-124 (Q6 assigned)– Lesson 9 p. 62-63, 101(bathymetry)-112(fig)– Lesson 10 p. “ “ “ “ – Lesson 11 p. “ “ “ “ (Q9 assigned)– Lesson 12 p. “ “ “ “ , 107(fig+bottom)-110(top), 464-465– Lesson 13 p. “ “ “ “– Lesson 14 p. 112(sediments)-127 (Q11 assigned)– Lesson 15 p. 393-413– Lesson 37 p. 393-413, 374-379 (Q27 assigned)– Lesson 16 p. 53-61, 65 (E9 assigned)– Lesson 17 p. 64(fig), 66, 73-75, 127(Min Dep), 87, 90-96, 468-469– Lesson 18 p. 71-79, 81(hot spots)-83

• 6th edition, (2000), or 5th edition, (1997) may be used. See handout for pages.