When you’re out here on the ocean doing the work that we all love so well, it’s sometimes hard to remember another life existing. Reality is so in-the-moment, so larger-than-life, and there is little time to reflect or consider times or places other than what is happening right here on deck, with 3500 pounds of metal swinging toward you on a thin cable, or right now in this control van, as we stare intently into the blackness at the periphery of Hercules’ lights, literally on the edges of our seats, anticipating a glimpse of something…

We've had a very productive series of dives this leg exploring large submarine landslide features off the coast of Israel. We discovered seafloor pockmarks and areas of disturbed sediment, a large deep water coral habitat, cold hydrocarbon seeps with large buildups of calcium carbonate and associated deep sea fauna of tube worms and clams, and lots of methane seeps actively emitting gas bubbles and supporting interesting worm communities. The leg was cut short a bit due to a major storm system that will dominate the Eastern Mediterranean Sea for the next several days.

 Krystal Waltman wrote earlier in a blog about the AERONET Project we are working on with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.  We take six handheld sunphotometer readings twice a day onboard Nautilus for use in studies about aerosols in ocean environments. While collecting this data, I wondered how it would be used in the future.