What a year it’s been! May 2012
Posted: December 24, 2012 Filed under: Home, Investigator, Marine National Facility, RV Southern Surveyor, The Future Research Vessel Project Leave a commentIn May, Australia’s Marine National Facility research vessel, Southern Surveyor, headed off on a transit voyage to Fiji, with Dr Robin Beaman from James Cook University as the Chief Scientist.
Dr Beaman’s team used multibeam mapping and rock dredging equipment onboard, to investigate the Gardner Bank near Fraser Island, to determine if it could become an extension of the Great Barrier Reef.
We showed you the first images of the three main engines for RV Investigator.
We had the Keel Laying Ceremony, where two sections of the keel, each weighing around 140 tonnes, were lifted into place, ready for welding together, to form the foundation of the vessel.
And, we introduced you to Anya Waite, an oceanographer whose primary research interests are the links between ocean physics, biology and biogeochemistry. She is a Professor at the Oceans Institute and School of Environmental Systems Engineering at The University of Western Australia.
Professor Waite has been a Chief Scientist onboard Southern Surveyor. One of the things Professor Waite and her team use Australia’s Marine National Facility research vessel for, is to track patches of plankton in the ocean. Initially looking at satellite images to identify eddies that might contain important biota like western rock lobster larvae.
By tracking eddies and understanding how currents work, they have been able to discover what drives our ocean productivity in certain areas.
What a year it’s been! April 2012
Posted: December 21, 2012 Filed under: Home, Investigator, Marine National Facility, RV Southern Surveyor, The Future Research Vessel Project Leave a commentIn April, after successful sea trials, the Marine National Facility vessel Southern Surveyor headed off for the first research voyage for 2012.
CSIRO oceanographers, Ken Ridgway and Dr Bernadette Sloyan, deployed five deep water moorings across the East Australian Current, 240 kilometres east of Brisbane, to gain an insight into the characteristics of the largest ocean current in the Australian region.
We shared with you some groovy 3-D graphics of Investigator.
And, the Executive Director of the Future Research Vessel Project, Toni Moate, visited the Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore, to inspect the construction work. With her went Ben Rae, the Project Support Officer, who took these fabulous photos.
What a year it’s been! March 2012
Posted: December 20, 2012 Filed under: Home, Investigator, Marine National Facility, RV Southern Surveyor, The Future Research Vessel Project Leave a commentIn March we produced a brochure to answer everything from, how long is RV Investigator, to what kind of bow thruster will the ship have, and how many engines will there be.
Here’s an up-to-date copy: CSIRO Investigator brochure
We opened the doors of Southern Surveyor for ship tours during the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (CMAR) Science Symposium in Hobart, and manned a stall inside Princes Wharf No 1, where the event was being held.
And, work continued in the shipyard…
What a year it’s been! February 2012
Posted: December 19, 2012 Filed under: Investigator, Marine National Facility, The Future Research Vessel Project Leave a commentIn February we said a fond farewell to Professor Craig Johnson, the Chairman of the Marine National Facility Steering Committee, who went off on study leave for a year in France with his family.
We welcomed Professor Richard Arculus as the Acting Chairman of the MNF Steering Committee.
You were introduced to one of the Future Research Vessel Project’s team members, Dr Lindsay Pender, one of our amazing specialists, who has brought his expertise to the construction and commissioning of RV Investigator.
And, sparks continued to fly in the Sembawang Shipyard as Investigator started to take shape.
What a year it’s been!
Posted: December 18, 2012 Filed under: Investigator, Marine National Facility, RV Southern Surveyor, The Future Research Vessel Project Leave a commentIt’s been an amazing year for everyone involved in the construction of Australia’s Marine National Facility research vessel, Investigator.
Let’s look back at all the hard work and contributions from CSIRO, Teekay Australia, the Sembawang Shipyard Pte Ltd in Singapore, and many more global and local organisations, which are making this project possible.
In January, Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, was met by CSIRO’s Chief Executive Megan Clark and Marine and Atmospheric Research Chief, Bruce Mapstone. The PM toured the Marine National Facility, Southern Surveyor, and was briefed on progress with the new ship, Investigator.
Then we got to a glimpse of what Investigator was going to look like, with the first artist’s impressions of the ship released.
The coolest blog of the year, announcing the arrival of LEGO® Investigators from Denmark.
And, the construction of Australia’s new Marine National Facility research vessel, Investigator, began in the Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore.
Jumping into The Helix!
Posted: December 3, 2012 Filed under: Marine National Facility, RV Southern Surveyor Leave a commentCSIRO Education produces a couple of great magazines, among other things, and we’ve partnered with them to produce two fantastic posters!
The Helix magazine has this poster, all about Australia’s Marine National Facility and Southern Surveyor, which is aimed at our future scientists.
If you would like a copy of the poster, then you’ll need to get your hands on The Helix December/January issue, with a front cover like this:
Un-discovering Sandy Island onboard Southern Surveyor
Posted: November 23, 2012 Filed under: Marine National Facility, RV Southern Surveyor 1 CommentHow can you un-discover something?
Well that’s what journalists around the world are calling the discovery by the scientists onboard Australia’s Marine National Facility research vessel, Southern Surveyor.
At the outer limits of the Coral Sea, some of the maps the scientists were using showed a 26 kilometre long island, which was identified on the maps as Sandy Island. However, when Southern Surveyor arrived at the location, there was no island to be found. You can read more about the discovery in the media release below.
Here’s some of the global coverage of the un-discovery by Chief Scientist Dr Maria Seton from the University of Sydney onboard Southern Surveyor:
http://www.channel4.com/news/scientists-discover-sandy-island-doesnt-exist
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-22/australian-scientists-un-discover-pacific-island/4387012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20442487
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/11/22/sci-south-pacific-island-missing.html
Here are some more images from the voyage:
THIS MEDIA RELEASE WAS ISSUED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY ON 23 NOVEMBER 2012 REGARDING THE RESEARCH VOYAGE:
When is an island not an island?
In a reversal of the centuries-old tradition of explorers undertaking ocean voyages of discovery with the hope of finding new land, a scientific party has done the complete opposite.
A team of Australian and international scientists led by the University of Sydney has solved a mystery regarding the existence of a supposed island in the Southwest Pacific.
The detective work took place on the RV Southern Surveyor, Australia’s Marine National Facility research vessel during a research voyage aimed at understanding the tectonic evolution of the eastern Coral Sea.
“We became suspicious when the navigation charts used by the ship showed a depth of 1400 metres in an area where our scientific maps and Google Earth showed the existence of a large island,” said chief scientist Dr Maria Seton from the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney.
The maps that the scientists were using are based on a combination of the CIA World Data Bank and the World Vector Shoreline Database. Even Google Earth shows a black blob in the area of the mythical island.
The rogue island has regularly appeared in scientific publications since at least the year 2000.
“So we decided to solve this modern day mythical island mystery. We found the navigational charts were accurate and there was no island in the area, so global maps including Google Earth need to be corrected.”
Dr Steven Micklethwaite from the University of Western Australia said, “We all had a good giggle at Google as we sailed through the island, then we started compiling information about the seafloor, which we will send to the relevant authorities so that we can change the world map.”
As well as mythbusting the existence of islands, the team have been collecting submarine data and rock samples from a little-explored part of the eastern Coral Sea. After 25 days at sea, they have collected 197 different rock samples, collected over 6800 kilometres of marine geophysical data and mapped over 14,000 square kilometres of the ocean floor.
Not only did they uncover rocks formed around 100 million years ago as Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand broke apart, but they also found extensive limestone samples at 3000 metres below the waves, revealing a massive drowning of the region over time.
The original copy can be found on the University of Sydney’s website: http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newscategoryid=2&newsstoryid=10619&utm_source=console&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=cws
