Oceanographic research vessel gets midlife overhaul

The ship has helped scientists study kelp forests in the Aleutian Archipelago and harmful algal blooms in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Times reported (http://bit.ly/1ZWN5fE).

The overhaul will bring the ship into the digital age, with modern equipment that takes up less room but is easier to use, said Doug Russell, manager of marine operations for the UW.

The Thompson was used to install the groundbreaking Cabled Array, a suite of 140 instruments located 300 miles off the coast of Oregon that allow scientists to watch a seismically active part of the seafloor in real time.

[...] researchers often use a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), a kind of submarine outfitted with high-definition cameras and connected to the ship by a fiber-optic cable.

Sent to the depths of the sea, the ROV sends pictures back from as far as 10,000 feet below, allowing scientists to explore landscapes and sea life never before seen by the human eye.

In 2011, the Thompson captured an arresting sight: billions of microbes streaming out of the seafloor, three months after the eruption of an underwater volcano called the Axial Seamount.

Last spring, the Thompson was cruising the equator as part of a project to service buoys that measure El Niño fluctuations when a bearing in one of the ship's two motors failed.