Throughout the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the first dredges have been conducted. During dredging, a heavy steel net is let to the seafloor on a cable, which is then dragged along a pre-defined track, usually for a couple hundred meters. This way, lose rock samples are being released and sampled from the seafloor. These samples are then brought to the surface and are immediately described, cut in halves, and each sample is documented in fine detail allowing for further analysis later on.
After a slight technical delay, the ROV was launched at 11 a.m. (UTC). ROV stands for Remotely Operated Vehicle, in other words a diving robot which is controlled from the main deck of the ship. The MARUM ROV Quest is capable of diving up to 4000 m below sea level, where samples can be collected from individual outcrops.
During our first dive, rock samples from so called pillow lava flows have been recovered from 2500-2600 m below sea level. For the biologists among the science team, a dead coral stem was also collected.
You can watch those streams on the bottom of our website "the science" or under the following live stream: https://www.youtube.com/user/marumTV
This live stream includes detailed audio description, that is scientists on board the vessel are commenting on the procedures of diving and sampling.
