Explore the Deep Sea
Tools & Techniques
Photostories
- Tour a research vessel: …the R/V Kilo Moana, and the R/V Melville.
Hot links
- More about the R/V Kilo Moana, and the R/V Melville, from their home institutions.
- Information and photos on other ocean-going research vessels, from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Details of many of the 600 or so research vessels currently working around the globe, from OCEANIC.
Ships, more formally known as research vessels, are the most vital part of any expedition. They are like floating, high-tech cities, equipped to:
- Deploy heavy deep-sea equipment, such as submersibles
- Record huge quantities of data
- House sophisticated laboratories, so that samples can be analyzed on-board
- Provide living space and supplies to allow dozens of researchers and crew to live and work in safety, even in atrocious weather.
Two research vessels were employed for the set of five expeditions to the Lau Basin in the South Pacific:
- the R / V Kilo Moana from the University of Hawaii (the first two expeditions)
- the R / V Melville from Scripps Institution of Oceanography (the last three expeditions)
