VOL. 28, NO. 1, SUPPLEMENT | MaRCH 2015
GUEST EDITORS | KaTHERINE L.C. BELL,
MICHaEL L. BRENNaN, aND NICOLE a. RaINEaULT
Oceanography
The E/V Nautilus 2014
Gulf of Mexico and
Caribbean Field Season
New Frontiers
in Ocean Exploration
PREFERRED CITATION
Bell, K.L.C., M.L. Brennan, and N.A. Raineault, eds. 2015. New frontiers in
ocean exploration: The E/V Nautilus 2014 Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean field
season. Oceanography 28(1), supplement, 60 pp., http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/
oceanog.2015.supplement.01.
Contents
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 1
TECHNOLOGY ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4
DATA MANAGEMENT ..............................................................................................................................................................................10
NAUTILUS SAMPLES ...................................................................................................................................................................................13
EDUCATION & OUTREACH ..................................................................................................................................................................16
2014 FIELD SEASON SUMMARY .........................................................................................................................................................24
Exploration of the Straits of Florida and Great Bahama Bank ...................................................................................26
Ecosystem Impacts of Oil and Gas Inputs to the Gulf of Mexico (ECOGIG) ....................................................28
Documenting WWII Shipwrecks in the Gulf .......................................................................................................................30
Fate and Transport of Gas Bubbles from Natural Seeps in the Northern Gulf of Mexico ..........................32
Exploration and Mapping of the Deep Mesoamerican Reef ......................................................................................34
Exploration of the Windward Passage and Jamaica Channel: Tectonic Gateways to
the Caribbean Sea .....................................................................................................................................................................36
Exploring Kick’em Jenny Submarine Volcano and the Barbados Cold Seep Province,
Southern Lesser Antilles ........................................................................................................................................................38
Transforming Remotely Conducted Research Through Ethnography,
Education & Rapidly Evolving Technologies (TREET) ...........................................................................................40
A Symposium on Archaeological Oceanography in the Mediterranean and Black Sea..............................44
Workshop on Telepresence-Enabled Exploration of the Eastern Pacific Ocean ..............................................46
EPILOGUE ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................52
AUTHORS .........................................................................................................................................................................................................54
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..........................................................................................................................................................................56
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................................................................................59
Cover photo credit:
Ocean Exploration Trust and
ECOGIG Consortium
The Ocean Exploration Trust (OET) Workshop on
Telepresence-Enabled Exploration of the Caribbean Region
was convened in November 2012 to plan for the 2013 field sea-
son with the idea that Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus and
its Corps of Exploration would spend only one year working
in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. However, the
strong showing of interest in the area from the international
group of marine scientists who submitted white papers to and
participated in that workshop was so impressive the Trust
and its Nautilus Advisory Board decided to schedule a second
year in this area of the world before moving on to the Pacific
Ocean, as originally planned.
This fifth Oceanography supplement chronicles the 2014
field season: four months of exploration in the Gulf of Mexico
and the Caribbean Sea, as well as rapid growth in our science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education
and outreach programs and continued research on best prac-
tices of telepresence and archaeological oceanography.
The first section of this supplement (pages 4–15) describes
the technology used on board Nautilus to explore the deep
sea and to make our expeditions accessible globally to the
public, students, and scientists alike. The biggest technology
strides during 2014 were made in data management and
accessibility. On board Nautilus, we completely renovated the
Data Processing & Visualization Laboratory in advance of the
2014 field season, creating a space for scientists, students, and
engineers to process and analyze data during expeditions and
share them with scientists on shore. Our Data Team was hard
at work creating online collaboration tools that now make
it significantly easier to access Nautilus data in real time or
near-real time on board the ship, on shore at the Inner Space
Center, and in scientists’ homes and laboratories. Continued
emphasis on data management in the coming years will result
in easier collaboration among scientists at sea and ashore, and
will accelerate the pace of discovery and research.
The area of largest growth for the Nautilus Exploration
Program in 2014 was in education and outreach (pages 16–23).
In June, we launched our first Community STEM Program
(CSP) in South Florida, sponsored by the Florida Panthers
Foundation. This new initiative focuses our STEM education
efforts in select geographical regions, allowing single com-
munities to engage their members in all of the educational
programs OET offers, thereby increasing the impact these
programs can have in any individual location. By working at
the intersection of education and ocean exploration, our goal
is to promote STEM fields using the excitement of exploration
and technological innovation. Our programs range from the
public website Nautilus Live (http://www.nautiluslive.org), to
live interactions with museums, aquariums, and science cen-
ters, to K12 Learning modules for schools and out-of-school
programs, to seagoing opportunities for high school, college,
and graduate students. By the beginning of the 2015 field
season, CSP will have grown to more than 10 communities,
and we expect further expansion to 15–20 communities by
the 2017 field season.
The first exploratory program of 2014 was carried out at
Great Bahama Bank and in the Straits of Florida, two High
Priority Target Areas identified during the 2012 Caribbean
Workshop because of their potential geohazards and sink-
holes (pages 26–27). This cruise was followed by a series
of exploratory transits in and around the Dry Tortugas,
By Robert D. Ballard and Katherine L.C. Bell
INTRODUCTION
including documentation of a German U-boat supporting
a dense concentration of invasive lion fish that is threaten-
ing the shallow- and deepwater communities in the Gulf of
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
Approximately one month was devoted to conducting four
missions in the Gulf of Mexico. Two of these projects were
continuing efforts to (1) document how natural and acci-
dental oil and gas inputs affect deep-sea coral communities,
working with the Ecosystem Impacts of Oil and Gas Inputs to
the Gulf (ECOGIG) Consortium (pages 28–29), and (2) study
the fate and transport of gas bubbles from natural seeps, in
conjunction with the Gulf Integrated Spill Response (GISR)
Consortium (pages 32–33).
The other two projects were concerned with investigat-
ing a series of shipwrecks that were involved in “Operation
Drumbeat,” when, in 1941, Adolph Hitler sent a wolfpack
of U-boats to the East Coast and into the Gulf of Mexico
to disrupt US shipping routes and transport of oil and
other commodities of critical importance to the war effort
(pages 30–31). These two expeditions resulted in a NOVA/
National Geographic program aired on Public Television in
May 2015 as well as a second show aired on CBS’s 60 Minutes
that highlighted not only the human history preserved in the
depths of the Gulf of Mexico, but also the natural resources
contained within the US Exclusive Economic Zone.
Following our efforts in the Gulf of Mexico, Nautilus
continued to explore the Caribbean Sea, further responding
to the recommendations of the 2012 Caribbean Workshop.
Targets of exploration in 2014 included the deep waters of the
Mesoamerican Reef off the coast of Belize, the second larg-
est barrier reef system in the world (pages 34–35), and the
Windward Passage between Jamaica and Haiti (pages 36–37).
The geological and biological aspects of both locations were
investigated using the Nautilus EM302 multibeam sonar
system to create maps of the seafloor before diving on
selected targets with the remotely operated vehicles (ROVs)
Hercules and Argus.
The expedition then continued on to the Anegada Passage
in the eastern Caribbean to follow up on successful explora-
tion there during the 2013 field season. The 2014 cruise, which
included collection of new rock and core samples, was again
led by US Geological Survey scientist Amanda Demopoulos
and funded by a Targeted Research RFP solicited by the US
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.
Nautilus completed the 2014 field season by continuing
exploration of Kick’em Jenny volcano west of Grenada and
the Barbados Cold Seep Province in Trinidad and Tobago
(pages 38–39). The 2013 exploration of Kick’em Jenny revealed
debris avalanche-induced cold seeps and their unique ecosys-
tems dominated by giant chemosynthetic mussels and associ-
ated communities. In 2014, we continued to explore this area,
resulting in the discovery of many more cold seeps, as well as
what is believed to be the largest B. boomerang mussel ever
found. Our work on the Barbados mud volcanoes was the first
ROV exploration in this area, following manned submersible
research nearly 20 years ago. Through the combined use of
the shipboard EM302 multibeam to detect bubble plumes
and ROV dives, we discovered cold seep sites that had not
been previously explored, including large areas with methane
hydrates and associated biological communities.
In addition to scientific exploration, the final expedition
included ethnographic and educational components through
a study called Transforming Remotely Conducted Research
Through Ethnography, Education & Rapidly Evolving
Technologies (TREET), funded by the Integrated NSF
Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education
(INSPIRE) program (pages 40–43). The primary goals of this
project are to use ethnography to study how telepresence
can be best used in the context of oceanographic and other
research, and to determine how to best engage groups of
undergraduates through remote but authentic research expe-
riences. The results of this study will be useful not only for
the Nautilus Exploration Program but also for the University-
National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS, the
organization that coordinates the US academic research fleet),
NOAA, and other organizations as they continue to develop
their own telepresence-enabled capabilities.
Following up on our previous archaeological work in the
Black, Aegean, and Mediterranean Seas, OET held a sym-
posium to present our findings to the public and academic
communities in October 2014. A summary of the symposium
proceedings and plans for continued research is presented
on pages 44–45.
This volume concludes with a view toward the future
of the Nautilus Exploration Program through a summary
of the Workshop on Telepresence-Enabled Exploration
of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, held in December 2014 in
San Francisco (pages 46–51). This workshop hosted nearly
70 scientists at the Exploratorium to identify key oceanogra-
phy questions about the eastern Pacific that need answers, as
well as 33 High Priority Target Areas that are poorly under-
stood or completely unexplored. The results of this workshop
will be used to plan the Nautilus 2015–2018 field seasons.
Since 2009, Nautilus has been home to 656 scientists, engi-
neers, students, filmmakers, songwriters, artists, and guests,
40% of whom are women, representing 38 countries. We have
spent 610 days at sea, mapping over 126,000 square kilome-
ters of seafloor and exploring the water column and seafloor
for 4,254 hours (177+ days). Nearly 2,000 geological, biolog-
ical, and chemical samples have been collected, more than
200 of which have been requested for follow-up research,
and more than 50 publications, theses, and dissertations have
resulted from our expeditions. We are very proud of all that
has been accomplished in six short years, and we look for-
ward to what the Pacific Ocean has in store for Nautilus and
her Corps of Exploration.
TECHNOLOGY
BUILT | 1967, Rostock, Germany
LENGTH | 64.23 meters (211 feet)
BEaM | 10.5 meters (34.5 feet)
DRaFT | 4.9 meters (14.75 feet)
TONNaGE | 1,249 gross, 374 net
RaNGE | 24,000 kilometers (13,000 nautical miles)
ENDURaNCE | 40 days at sea
SPEED | 10 knots service, 12 knots maximum
FUEL CaPaCITY | 330 cubic meters
PROPULSION | Single 1,286 kilowatt (1,700 hp)
controllable pitch main thruster; 250 kW bow
thruster; 350 kW jet pump stern thruster
SHIP SERVICE GENERaTORS | Two 500 kVa generators,
one 350 kVa generator, and one 450 kVa shaft generator
PORTaBLE VaN SPaCE | One 20-foot van
COMPLEMENT | 17 crew; 31 science and operations
FLaG | St. Vincent and the Grenadines
HEaVY EQUIPMENT |
• Dynacon 421 ROV winch with 4,500 meter
(14,764 feet) Rochester A302351 1.73 centimeter
(0.68 inch) diameter cable
• DT Marine 210 winch with 1,200 m Rochester
A320327 0.82 centimeter (0.322 inch) diameter wire
• Bonfiglioli knuckle-boom crane, 4.2 ton capacity,
two extensions
• A-frame, 6 ton capacity
Data Processing & Visualization Lab
aREa | 44.5 square meters (480 square feet)
WORKSTaTIONS | Seven workstations for
data manager, data loggers, navigators,
educators, data engineers, satellite engineer,
video engineer; high-resolution map,
multi beam, and side-scan sonar processing;
flexible bench space
Exploration Vessel Nautilus
Telepresence Technology
VSaT | 2.4 meter tracking antenna capable of up to
20 Mbps (C-band circular or linear)
REaL-TIME VIDEO STREaMING |
• Four Tandberg standard definition encoders with
multiplex for encapsulating real-time video
• Harmonic Electra 7000 high definition encoder
CaMERaS | One Sony BZR-800 high definition pan/tilt/
zoom camera mounted in the Control Van and on the
aft deck; one Marshall Electronics VS-570-HDSDI high
definition camera with pan/tilt/zoom, and microphone
for interaction with shore, mounted in Wet Lab and
ROV hangar
COMMUNICaTIONS |
• Ship-wide RTS Telex intercom system for real-time
communications between ship and shore
• Handheld UHF radios are interfaced with the RTS
intercom system for deck, bridge, and Control Room
communications
Control & Imaging Vans
aREa | 28 square meters (301.4 square feet)
WORKSTaTIONS | Nine; typical configuration for ROV
operations: two to three scientists, data logger, Hercules
pilot, Argus pilot, navigator, video engineer, Science
Communication Fellow
Rack Room
aREa | 17.3 square meters (185 square feet)
VIDEO STORaGE | Two Omneon Mediadecks
(MDM-5321 and SMD-2200-BB) for video recording,
playback, and storage
DaTa STORaGE | 16 TB online storage for non-video data;
28 TB disk storage for video data
EMERGENCY COMMUNICaTIONS | Iridium phone
ELECTRONICS WORKBENCH | 80 cu ft of storage
Wet Lab
aREa | 19 square meters (204.5 square feet) with
5-meter-long (16-foot) stainless steel worktop
REFRIGERaTION |
• Panasonic MDF-C8V1 ULT –80/–86°C scientific freezer,
0.085 cubic meters (3 cubic feet)
• Science refrigerator/freezer, approximately 0.57 cubic
meters (20 cubic feet)
MICROSCOPE |
• Nikon SMZ800 trinocular microscope, 6.3× zoom,
Vari-Mag C-mount camera adapter with additional
2.5× ocular
• Dual output cold light source
• Nikon D300 SLR camera
• HDMI out for
sharing microscope
video with shore
HaZMaT |
• Fume hood
• HAZMAT locker for
chemical and waste storage
• Carry-on, carry-off
chemical policy
Production Studio
aREa | 12 square meters (130 square feet)
CaMERa | Remote controllable high definition
Sony BRC-H700
SWITCHER | Ross CrossOver16 with ability to switch
underwater, topside, or scaled computer video streaming
to the Inner Space Center for live interactions
ROV Hangar
aREa | 24 square meters (258.3 square feet)
POWER | 110/60 Hz and 220/50 Hz available
PERSONaL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT | Hard hats,
PFDs, high voltage gloves
LIFTS | 2 × 2-ton overhead manual chainfall lifts
STORaGE | Storage for spares and other equipment
ROV Workshop
aREa | 18 square meters (193.8 square feet)
TOOLS | Complete set of hand tools, cordless tools,
electrical and fiber optic test equipment,
mill-drill combination machine
STORaGE | Storage for spares and
other equipment
Kongsberg EM302 Multibeam
Echosounder
FREQUENCY | 30 kHz
DEPTH RaNGE | 10–7,000 meters (33–22,966 feet)
SWaTH WIDTH | Up to 5.5 times water depth, to
approximately 8,000 meters (26,247 feet)
PULSE FORMS | CW and FM chirp
BEaMWIDTH | 1° × 1°
aPPROXIMaTE GRID RESOLUTION | 10% water depth
(e.g., 10 m at 1,000 m depth)
SOUNDINGS PER PING | Up to 864
SWaTHS PROFILES PER PING | 1 or 2
Knudsen Subbottom Profiler
and Echosounder
PROFILER | Knudsen 3260 Chirp subbottom profiler
and echosounder
OPERaTING FREQUENCY | Dual frequency, 3.5 kHz
and 15 kHz
POWER | 4 kW on Channel 1 and up to 2 kW on Channel 2
RaNGE | 50 to 5,000 meters (164 to 16,404 feet)
Ultra-Short Baseline Navigation System
SYSTEM | TrackLink 5000MA system for USBL tracking
of ROVs Hercules and Argus
RaNGE | Up to 5,000 meters (16,404 feet)
POSITIONING aCCURaCY | 1° (better than 2% of
slant range)
OPERaTIONaL BEaMWIDTH | 120°
OPERaTING FREQUENCY | 14.2 to 19.8 kHz
TaRGETS TRaCKED | Up to eight
Side-Scan Towfish Diana
SIDE-SCaN SONaR | EdgeTech 4200 MP CHIRP
side-scan sonar with depressor wing
DEPTH CaPaBILITY | 2,000 m (6,561.7 ft), currently
limited by 1,000 m (3,280.8 ft) cable
TOWFISH SIZE | 125.6 centimeters × 11.4 centimeters
(49.5 inches × 4.5 inches)
FREQUENCY | 300 and 600 kHz dual simultaneous
OPERaTING RaNGE | 230 meters (300 kHz),
120 meters (600 kHz)
HORIZONTaL BEaMWIDTH | 0.54° and 0.34° (high
speed mode), 0.28° and 0.26° (high definition mode)
VERTICaL BEaMWIDTH | 50°
DEPRESSION aNGLE | Tilted down 20°
RESOLUTION aLONG TRaCK (High Speed Mode) |
300 kHz: 1.9 meters @ 200 meters;
600 kHz: 0.6 meters @ 100 meters
RESOLUTION aLONG TRaCK (High Definition Mode) |
300 kHz: 1.0 meter @ 200 meters;
600 kHz: 0.45 meters @ 100 meters
RESOLUTION aCROSS TRaCK | 3 centimeters
(300 kHz), 1.5 centimeters (600 kHz)
SENSORS | Heading, pitch, roll, pressure
Acoustic Systems
General
DEPTH CaPaBILITY | 6,000 meters (19,685 feet),
currently limited to 4,000 meters
CaBLE | 4,000 meters, 0.681 electro-optical,
3x #11 conductors, 3x SM fibers
SIZE | 3.8 meters long × 1.2 meters wide × 1.3 meters high
WEIGHT | 1,800 kilograms (4,000 pounds)
MaXIMUM TRaNSIT SPEED | 2 knots
aSCENT/DESCENT RaTE | 30 meters/minute
(98.4 feet/minute)
PROPULSION | Two Deep Sea Systems International 404
brushless DC thrusters for heading control
Imaging & Lighting
CaMERaS |
• One Insite Pacific Zeus Plus high definition camera with
Ikegami HDL-45A tilt head with Fujinon HA 10×5.2
lens -1080i SMPTE 292M output format – 2 MP still
image capable
• Three Insite Pacific standard definition mini utility
cameras (fixed mounted) 480 line NTSC format
• One Insite Pacific low-light “fish-eye,” downward-looking
standard definition camera (fixed mounted)
LIGHTING |
• Two Deep Sea Power & Light 1,200 Watt HMI,
100,000 lumens each
• Two Deep Sea Power & Light 400 Watt HMI
• Two Deep Sea Power & Light 250 Watt Incandescent
Vehicle Sensors & Navigation
USBL NaVIGaTION | TrackLink 5000 system,
acoustically triggered
PRIMaRY HEaDING | Crossbow high resolution magnetic
motion and attitude sensor
SECONDaRY HEaDING | TCM2 solid state
fluxgate compass
PRESSURE SENSOR | Paroscientific Digiquartz 8CB series
aLTIMETER | Benthos PSA-916
FORWaRD-LOOKING SONaR | Mesotech 1071, 675 kHz,
100 meters range
SIDE-SCaN SONaR | EdgeTech 4200 MP
SUBBOTTOM PROFILING SONaR | TriTech SeaKing
Parametric Subbottom Profiler (10–30 kHz)
Scientific Instrument Support
POWER | 110 V 60 Hz AC, 24 VDC, 12 VDC,
5 VDC power options
DIGITaL DaTa CHaNNELS | Three RS-232,
one 100base-T Ethernet
Remotely Operated Vehicle Argus
General
DEPTH CaPaBILITY | 4,000 meters (13,123 feet)
TETHER | 30–45 meters (98.4–147.6 feet), 20 millimeters
(0.79 inches) diameter, neutrally buoyant
SIZE | 3.9 meters long × 1.9 meters wide × 2.2 meters tall
(12.8 feet long × 6.2 feet wide × 7.2 feet tall)
MaSS | ~ 2,500 kilograms (5,500 pound-mass) in air
MaXIMUM VEHICLE SPEED | 0.77 meters/second
(1.5 knots) forward, 0.25 meters/second (0.5 knots)
lateral, 0.5 meters/second (1 knots) vertical (on site,
within tether range)
MaXIMUM TRaNSIT SPEED | 1 meter/second (2 knots),
no sampling, in layback mode
MaXIMUM ON-BOTTOM TRaNSIT SPEED |
0.5 meters/second (1 knot), no sampling
MaXIMUM SaMPLING TRaNSIT SPEED |
0.25 meters/second (0.5 knots) on flat seafloor;
< 0.13 meters/second (< 0.25 knots) over featured terrain
ROV CLOSED LOOP POSITION CONTROL |
Station Keep, X/Y step, Auto Depth, Auto Altitude,
X/Y/Z step and hold velocity control
DESCENT/aSCENT RaTE | 30 meters/minute
(98.4 feet/minute)
PROPULSION |
• Six hydraulic thrusters powered by 15 kW (20 hp),
207 bar (3,000 psi) hydraulic system
• Fore/Aft & Vertical – Four 27.94 cm (11 inch) ducted
thrusters, each providing 900 N (200 lbf) thrust
• Lateral – Two 22.86 cm (9 inch) ducted thrusters,
each providing 450 N (100 lbf) thrust
Remotely Operated Vehicle Hercules
Vehicle Sensors & Navigation
HEaDING aND aTTITUDE |
• Primary Heading – IXSEA Octans III north-seeking fiber-
optic gyrocompass (0.1° secant latitude accuracy with
0.01° resolution)
• Secondary Heading – TCM2 solid state fluxgate compass
PRESSURE SENSOR | Paroscientific Digiquartz 8CB series
CTD | Seabird FastCAT 49
OXYGEN OPTODE | Aanderaa 3830
TEMPERaTURE PROBE | WHOI high temperature probe
(0°–450°C, .1°C resolution)
USBL NaVIGaTION | LINKQUEST TrackLink 5000
DOPPLER NaVIGaTION & aLTITUDE | RDI Workhorse
Navigator Doppler Velocity Log 600 kHz, 0.7–90 meter
range (2.3–295.3 feet)
FORWaRD-LOOKING SONaRS |
• Kongsberg Mesotech 1071 profiling sonar, 300 kHz,
200 meter range (164 feet)
• TriTech Super SeaPrince 675 kHz, 50 meter range
(164 feet)
Imaging & Lighting
STaNDaRD IMaGING SUITE | One high definition video
channel on fiber optic, four standard definition video
channels on coax, generally configured as:
• Insite Pacific, 6,000 msw rated, Zeus Plus with 10× zoom
lens, Ikegami HDL-45A with zoom/pan/tilt/extend
–1080i SMPTE 292M output format
• Insite Pacific, 6,000 msw rated, Titan Rotate-Tilt standard
definition camera (bubble camera) 480 line NTSC format
• Three Insite Pacific NOVA utility cameras, mounted to
view the starboard sample box, 480 line NTSC format
• One Insite Pacific Aurora utility camera, NTSC format
LIGHTING |
• Two Deep Sea Power & Light 400 Watt HMI with dual-
ballast, 12,000 lumens, forward mounted
• Two Deep Sea Power & Light Matrix-3 LED lamps,
20,000 lumens, forward mounted
• Six to twelve Deep Sea Power & Light Sphere LED lamps,
6,000 lumens mounting configurable