Science’s favorite deep-sea explorer gets high-tech upgrades

 It’s the only deep-diving research submersible in the United States, and nearly 50 years after its first expedition it’s getting an upgrade.

Take an exclusive tour of the Alvin submarine, and see how the updated vessel is continuing to push the boundaries of deep-water exploration

From Wired by Jeffrey Marlow

After 50 years of cutting-edge seafloor exploration, the Alvin submersible—renegade deep-sea explorer for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute—just got a long-deserved makeover.
Alvin is the United States’ only deep-diving manned submersible used for science, so its upgrades will have a serious impact on the discoveries we can pull off in the deep.

 For two generations, the human-occupied submersible Alvin has helped scientists expand human knowledge of the ocean and inspired countless to learn more about the ocean.

This year, Alvin turns 50, and we want you to help us celebrate.

To make a tricked-out sub, engineers first had to build a new personnel sphere, the titanium orb that protects the sub’s three passengers—one pilot, two scientists—from the crushing pressure of the water above them.

Metalworkers cast two perfect hemispheres, 6 feet in diameter, and welded them together with an electron beam.

Structural tests showed the sphere was safe to dive up to 6,500 meters below the surface, which opens up 98 percent of the seafloor to exploration.

Archive (1965) : new submarine to observe oceans depths

After the sphere was finished, engineers built a new chasse around it, outfitted with improved tech for the scientists inside.

Five HD cameras—up from three on Alvin’s previous iteration—record the scene for later analysis. Those cameras can see further, too, thanks to the high-intensity LEDs that ring the sub.

And more and larger viewports provide overlapping fields of view, which allow scientists and pilots to coordinate sample collection with the sub’s robotic arms.

Those arms, by the way, got an upgrade too: They have a new shoulder joint that extends their reach to grab awkwardly placed samples.

Once the team has snagged the right rocks, sediment, and animal specimens, they’re dumped on the bulked-up sampling platform, which can carry more than twice Alvin’s previous load to the surface.

The technological upgrades on the U.S. Navy-owned Alvin submersible allow the deep-sea diving vessel to go to new depths.

Reaching 98 percent of the sea floor, the submarine is able to explore complex hydrothermal vents and ecosystems.

After a full day’s work exploring the ocean’s depths, the new Alvin rises to the surface, anticipating a pick-up from its mother ship, the research vessel Atlantis.
With the new brighter hue on the sub’s carbon fiber sail—the same international orange used on the Golden Gate Bridge—the ship has no trouble spotting it in the water.
A faster recovery means a quicker route to the shipboard cold room, where precious samples are preserved.
On shore, a giddy group of scientists will be waiting to start their analysis.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog :  Ocean science giant Alvin set for upgrade / Probing the ocean's undiscovered depths / Unprecedented impact of Deepwater Horizon on deep ocean revealed / The last dive? Funding for human expeditions in the ocean may have run aground
• NPR : Alvin, the little submarine that could

Nautical charts to be revised to reflect unprecedented changes caused by tsunami

 Colorful lines on a nautical chart aboard the Tenyo hydrographic survey vessel show trajectories surveyed by its dinghy.

Black lines indicate trajectories yet to be surveyed.

(Yosuke Fukudome)

From TheAsahiShimbun by Yuri Imamura

About an hour into a Japan Coast Guard hydrographic survey mission, a crew member on lookout abruptly shouted for the dinghy to stop.
The starboard was about to touch a 200-meter-long rope floating about 1 meter beneath the sea surface near Onagawa Port, Miyagi Prefecture.
The rope was being used for an underwater operation to tie a work vessel to a buoy.
The previous day, the crew discovered about 10 caissons, the gigantic concrete boxes that constitute the foundations of a breakwater, in the area.
The boxes, measuring 20 meters per side and each weighing several thousand tons, were dumped there by the tsunami three and a half years ago.
“Even those hefty caissons were swept up by the tsunami,” said Tsuyoshi Takaesu, the chief hydrographic surveyor of the main Tenyo survey vessel.
“You will never know what you will encounter.”

A dinghy of the Tenyo, a hydrographic survey vessel of the Japan Coast Guard,

navigates Onagawa Bay. (Yosuke Fukudome)

The Japan Coast Guard continues to survey waters off the tsunami-affected Tohoku coast to revise nautical charts that take into account disaster-related rubble on the seabed, drifting objects and changing water depths that could pose a threat to safe navigation.

Map of 2011 Tohoku(Sendai) earthquake observed tsunami heights in Japan.

The mission primarily covers 24 ports and surrounding waters along the Pacific coast extending from Aomori Prefecture to Ibaraki Prefecture and is scheduled to be completed by the end of fiscal 2015.
The 2011 disaster caused changes to the seafloor on an unprecedented scale, Coast Guard officials said.
And the mission so far has been full of surprises and potential dangers.
“A big mess would follow if (the rope) were to be caught in the dinghy’s propeller,” Takaesu said in a strained voice about the rope.

 This image, obtained during the Tenyo’s seabed survey immediately following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, is believed to represent a submerged vehicle.

(Provided by the Second Regional Coast Guard Headquarters)

The dinghy’s crew approached carefully and used a pole to get the rope out of the way.
The compact dinghy, which is only 2 meters wide and 10 meters long, was deployed from the 430-ton Tenyo survey vessel on Sept. 17 to survey the shallow interior of the port.
The Tenyo, with a crew of 23 and Koichi Nishimura as captain, was surveying all parts of the harbor off the town of Onagawa for the first time in 32 years.
Takaesu, 50, has served in the post since immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake triggered the tsunami on March 11, 2011.

The tsunami changed water depths significantly in nautical charts in at least one location for every harbor, according to officials of the Second Regional Coast Guard Headquarters, which oversees the coasts of the six Tohoku prefectures.

The Changing Face of Onagawa (March 11, 2011 - March 11, 2013)

Nautical charts show water depths, coastal topography, locations of shoals and lighthouses, ocean flows and tide currents to ensure safe navigation of seafaring vessels and port use.
The new nautical charts will be used to set limits on the size of vessels and their cargo to ensure that seabed objects will not hit the ship bottoms.

Takaesu recalled the time he was in Kamaishi Port in Iwate Prefecture in May, when he came across a spot with a depth of only 1 to 2 meters, despite surrounding depths of 36 meters.
When he hastily brought out measurement equipment, he saw something in the water that looked like Tokyo Tower.
“What’s this?” he thought, and returned to the same spot.
He realized the object was a mess of entangled fishing nets.
“It gave me a shudder to realize that an object like that was still moving along,” Takaesu said. “Rebuilding efforts have proceeded visibly on land, but they probably still have a long way to go in the ocean.”

 This image is believed to represent a submerged vessel.

(Provided by the Second Regional Coast Guard Headquarters)

The dinghy can accommodate 10, but only five or six usually go on board because of the small interior.
A monitoring chamber in the center of the dinghy contains four computer monitors.
A multi-beam sonar on the bottom measures the seafloor topography and produces graphical output.
The constant movement of the dinghy can induce sea sickness.
“I have yet to get accustomed,” said Kenta Kobayashi, a 21-year-old rookie who was assigned to do hydrographic surveys in spring.

 JP79 Ishinomaki Wan (1:50,000) published 2014-09
JHA/Japan Coast Guard

The dinghy shuttled back and forth at a speed of 8-9 kph within a radius of about 100 meters near a tsunami breakwater under construction 1 km off Onagawa Port.
It shifted its trajectory slightly to one side each time, just as you do when you wipe a floor with a cloth.
“We are passing by the caissons,” Kobayashi said as the dinghy entered the waters where the objects had been spotted the previous day.
When the depths became shallower, the computer screens shifted from deep blue to orange.

Koji Saito, a 25-year-old assistant hydrographic surveyor, said he was working for the Second Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, when the quake and tsunami struck.
He said he found a swept-up passenger car in Hachinohe Port, Aomori Prefecture.
“Whenever I am on a survey mission, I can’t help but look for a car that may contain missing people,” Saito said.

W65 Hachinohe Ko (1:12,000) published 2014-03

JHA/Japan Coast Guard

Tsunami breakwaters were destroyed in the ports of Ofunato and Kamaishi in Iwate Prefecture, where water depths lost a maximum of 10 meters.
But in a July 2011 survey, the water was 15 meters deeper than indicated in the nautical chart at one location in Hachinohe Port, Aomori Prefecture.
It is believed that the tsunami induced a big eddy that scooped out part of the seafloor.

 W1093 Ofunato Ko (1:10,000) published 2014-07

JHA/Japan Coast Guard

Coast Guard officials said local governments that administer ports are in charge of surveying any small changes, such as those resulting from wharf construction.
The Coast Guard uses those survey results to modify its nautical charts.

But the 2011 disaster created so many changes that the Coast Guard took the unusual step of conducting comprehensive surveys and republishing nautical charts for all 24 ports affected.
It takes workers two to eight weeks to survey a single harbor.
They work in three shifts around the clock.
Data analysis requires an additional six months to one year.
“There is a pressing need for port maintenance to help rebuilding efforts,” said Hirokazu Mori, the 47-year-old chief of the hydrographic surveys division in the Second Regional Coast Guard Headquarters.
“We hope to produce highly reliable nautical charts.”

 Japan’s first nautical chart was created in 1872 by the navy and covered Kamaishi Port.

Vessels of a certain dimension are legally obligated to equip themselves with nautical charts on a permanent basis.

Links :

• Hydro : Hydrography After Huge Earthquakes (2011)

Route du Rhum 2014

Yann Elies skipper on his MOD 70

From The Independant by Stuart Alexander

The biggest gathering of fans at any sports event in Europe this weekend will not be at a soccer or rugby match but crowding the dockside of St. Malo in Brittany at lunchtime Sunday to watch 91 singlehanded sailors start their 4,500-mile Route du Rhum race across the Atlantic to Guadeloupe in the French West Indies.

3542 nautical miles
www.routedurhum.com

A few of the competitors will be at the helm of giant machines, most will be steering smaller boats that can and will be tossed about just crossing the English Channel, they race in five different divisions, and there will be just three Brits among them.

 250,000 set to line the banks of Brittany

to wave off 91 singlehanded sailors on their wet and windy path to exhaustion

In the run-up to the start, up to 200,000 people a day, say the police, have crowded the walled city and its harbour to catch a glimpse of these crazy adventurers and a fleet festooned with flags in part celebrating its 10 edition.
Sunday, weather willing, there will be 250,000 to watch the kick-off and then to wonder, as they make their way back to warm homes and beds, what is waiting for the departed masochists.
Answer, in the first 24 hours a wet and windy path to exhaustion.

 Robin Knox Johnson, the oldest competitor

Fatigue and lack of sleep is one of the biggest dangers.
The sea is no respecter of age and reputation and the oldest competitor, the 75-year young Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, admitted worrying not a little about the task of hoisting his relatively big mainsail on Grey Power and not being able to sleep much until through the shipping lanes, across the Biscay, and then turning right into the warmer Atlantic .
Relative because on the two biggest boats, the 105-foot trimaran Banque Populaire and the even bigger 130-foot Spindrift, Loick Peyron and Yann Guichard have adapted a bicycle pedalling solution to the task.
Legs are stronger than arms.

Wind forecast (NOAA)

The fleet is predicted to be bashing into stiff breezes and lumpy seas as they exit the Channel but the quick boys – Sidney Gavignet estimates his 70-foot trimaran Musandam-Oman Sail will be past Finistère soon after breakfast on Monday morning – will then pick up a favourable shift in wind direction and enjoy some fast progress.
The Bay of Biscay could be free sailing as they head for the big right turn.

The record, 7d 17h 19m, was set by Lionel Lemonchois in the 60-foot trimaran Gitana in 2006 and odds are that it will be broken this year.
As he is in a stretched, 80-foot version, Prince de Bretagne, Lemonchois could break it himself, but others should be even faster.
But while the fastest eight or 10, assuming no disasters like capsizes, should make it in just over a week the class that constitutes nearly half the fleet, the Class 40, can look forward to 10 more days before enjoying the rum punches and Franco-Caribbean cuisine of Point à Pitre.

Among them are the two other British competitors, Conrad Humphreys, carrying from Plymouth the colours of Cat Phones, and Miranda Merron racing against instead of with her French partner Halvard Mabire.
“It will be like doing half a dozen Figaro singlehanded races in succession,” says Humphreys, whose goal is a second crack at the Vendée Globe singlehanded non-stop round the world race in 2016 or 2020.

Ninety-one boats and 91 goals but two in complete contrast are those of Peyron and Gavignet.
For Gavignet the mission was almost accomplished before he left the dock.
It was strictly commercial as thousands trooped through the Oman tourism marquee picking up leaflets – or having their children’s hands hennaed.

There are various strands to the initiative which is Oman Sail from youth development and sail training/schools at home to tourism and inward investment abroad and its Yorkshireman ceo David Graham is quietly proud about seeing the programme, which includes having an Omani sailor in the Olympic opening ceremony, knit together and expand.
He is more animatedly proud of having built a team in Muscat which continues to promote Omani women to senior management positions.
And he is working on having a Volvo round the world campaign to run alongside the Olympic goal. The dots of what may turn out to be a permanent national strategy built around sailing are being joined up.

For Peyron, well, what can you say?
He is a phenomenon who can straddle all types of sailing, solo or in a crew, and he picked up this gig at the last minute because Armel le Cléac’h suffered a bad injury to his right arm.
It means that Peyron’s own Rhum project, a yellow 30-foot trimaran called Happy, is for sale up on the hard at La Trinité with part of the sale contract including the stipulation that Peyron can borrow it back to do the quadrennial Rhum in 2018.
That will be after the America’s Cup in 2017, date to be confirmed, venue to be confirmed.

Peyron is a key part of Sweden’s Artemis AC team, run by British gold medallist Iain Percy and recently joined by fellow China Games gold medallist Paul Goodison, who had been sailing with Ben Ainslie.
The Artemis team will be travelling mob-handed to Melbourne at the beginning of January with Peyron as both coach and competitor in the Moth World Championship.
“My job is to control the back of the fleet,” he says self-deprecatingly about an event which will attract several America’s Cup team personnel. Before that “I am in a war, for sure. Especially with this weapon.”
Every major manoeuvre takes at least an hour but the platform is more stable.
“I wouldn’t have given up my project to do the Rhum in a MOD70 [the boat in which Gavignet is racing] and I already have a lot of grey hair from sailing small trimarans,” says Peyron ruefully

Yann Guichard, whose at other times co-skipper and partner is Dona Bertarelli, has the kit to deliver a new record.
Peyron is a canny and doughty competitor.
Both have weather experts working around the clock to calculate the fastest route.
And so do many of their rivals.
But competitors without the grandee budget touch just have to work things out for themselves.
Which is what Columbus had to try to do.

Surfing @ 1000 frames per seconds

Surfing @ 1000 frames per seconds from Chris Bryan

Thilafushi: An island of trash in the Maldives

Thilafushi Gon'Dudhoh, waste final destination in Maldives from GreenwichPlus7

Documentary of the waste problem in the Maldives

From AsianCorrespondant by Graham Land

The Republic of the Maldives is the smallest country in Asia, both by landmass and population.
It is also the country with the lowest elevation on Earth, rising to only 1.5 meters above sea level. Due to climate change, the Maldive Islands are under threat of rising sea levels.
In 2012 President Mohamed Nasheed called his country the 3rd most at risk from flooding due to climate change, even stating that, “If carbon emissions continue at the rate they are climbing today, my country will be underwater in seven years.”

Thilafishi, artificial island situated to the west of Malé (Marine GeoGarage)

While President Nasheed’s predictions may sound extreme, there are legitimate concerns about the future of the Maldives.
In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that most of the 200-some islands that make up the Maldives will need to be abandoned by 2100.
It seems like it may be too late to slow climate change in time for the survival of this tourist paradise and there are plans to buy up land in other Asian-Pacific countries for future climate refugees from the Maldives.

Praised as a pristine eco-destination and a nation that is abandoning fossil fuels (as well as a symbol for what the world is losing through burning them) the Maldives stands on figurative high ground if not literally so.
It is also a diver’s paradise where one can spot the illusive and rare whale shark.

Because the island sits only one meter above sea level, environmentalists worry that toxic waste could leach into the water.

Yet there is a dirty secret that has helped to keep most of the Maldives clean, pristine and litter free.
It is Thilafushi, a manmade island of rubbish — a landfill in paradise, overflowing with floating plastic waste.
It is estimated that around 330 tons of garbage are brought to Thilafushi daily — so much that the island is physically expanding by about one square meter with each new day.
The hazardous waste that is mixed in with the regular rubbish in the landfill has lead to Thilafushi being described by local environmentalists as a “toxic bomb“.

Thilafushi lagoon fill, with used batteries, asbestos, lead and other potentially hazardous waste mixed with the municipal solid wastes, is an increasingly serious ecological and health problem in the Maldives. Even though batteries and e-waste are quite a small fraction of municipal waste disposed at the Thilafushi, they are a concerted source of toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium. Chemicals can leach out into water table or sea and endanger the surrounding sea and reefs.
—Maldives environmental activist group Bluepeace 

Thilafushi aerial view

Links :

• : Filmmaker Alison Teal has made a documentary about her time in the Maldives, including footage of her riding her surfboard through piles of floating plastic garbage.

Check out some remarkable photos of Alison’s trip to the garbage island here.