How big is the JOIDES Resolution?
471 meters long and 60 meters wide (at its widest point)
How deep is the water at our research site?
It was tagged yesterday at 2672 meters below the rig floor (mbrf).
Does the whole ship vibrate when you're drilling?
No, not at all. If you're not on the drilling floor, you can hardly tell that they're drilling at all. There's no machine noise, no vibration, no nothing. Kinda cool too because then it doesn't interfere with our meetings/science/outreach.
How does the Dynamic Positioning on the boat work?
Yes, the ship has GPS but it's "fairly new", says Captain Alex. They actually use sonar! When we reach our site, we deploy a weighted beacon on the bottom of the ocean to mark our spot. A signal is sent from our boat to the beacon to turn it on. The beacon sends a "ping" every 1.5 seconds and there are 5 receivers on the bottom of the boat that record the time the ping was received. The difference in the times recorded at all 5 receivers is used to measure how off the boat is on the surface from the position on the seafloor. A computer on the boat tells the thrusters which ones (of the 12) need to be turned on and how much in order to get the boat back into position. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it's done!
Is there anyone else blogging from the JOIDES?
Yes, tons of us! See the JR blog site. A very popular one has been the Tales of the Resolution.
I enjoy reading your blogs, Favorite Amanda! They are very informative, interesting and well written, as usual.
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