Day 2 @ Sea, Educator’s Blog (March 6, traveled 190 nautical miles today)

Meet the JOIDES Resolution

Enjoy this image of the JR at night. The JOIDES is a beautiful site day or night sunset or sunrise. The JR has traveled almost 500,000 miles, crossed the Equator; Arctic Circle, and Antarctic Circle several times, drilled in all the ocean basins and recovered over 155 miles of core. Only a vessel equipped like this one is capable of the research we soon begin our search for earth’s secrets in the Lesser Antilles.

Another point of interest about the JR is that it can drill down more than 2,000 meters into the seafloor and in waters as deep as 7,000 meters. Wow, 2000 meters into the earth’s crust.

A good night’s rest

We have been sailing through the night and awoke to beautiful deep blue water. There is nothing like sleeping aboard a vessel. Something about the humming engines and gentle rock to and fro that makes sleep deeper and more peaceful. Well, unless you do not yet have your sea legs!

This is where we sleep aboard the JR. The living accommodations are called the Hotel. When below deck in our quarters we must keep the noise level to minimum because we work around the clock, so someone is always sleeping and someone is always working.

Sunset between Volcano Peaks

Day two of our travel in the late afternoon we had our first glimpse of the Lesser Antilles islands. We first passed Antigua and then continued south to Montserrat. What a spectacular volcano! We are at our first sampling location after traveling 347 nautical miles in about 33 hours. It is almost time for sunset so the entire volcano is not visible. The sun is setting on the west side of the island and the JOIDES Resolution is anchoring on the Eastern side.  Here is a photo of the island as the JR stopped steaming in order to begin preparation of the sampling site for drilling.