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On board the James Cook, heading to some black smokers in the middle of the Atlantic

Last Summer , I took part in the most wonderful adventure of my scientific life (so far!) , two back-to-back cruises on a hydrothermal field located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (where the oceanic tectonic plates are formed and go apart). This field is the very well known TAG Hydrothermal Field. Photo: location of the TAG Hydrothermal Field on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 26 degrees North. (Google Earth credit) The first cruise was on board a German ship, the Meteor. Continue reading →

My path to a PhD

Hi everyone! My name is Vicki and I am a first-year PhD studying at the National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton within the Palaeoceanography and Palaeoclimatology research group. I have always been a naturally very curious person, with an interest in the environment and oceans. Continue reading →

Mapping the ocean’s depths

I am a post-doctoral researcher at the National Oceanography Centre and I did my PhD at the University of Southampton where I studied seafloor and habitat mapping.  I probably chose this field as the ocean for me represents an incredibly large area for which we know too little.  We either have a broad view of the processes occurring at the global scale or a very detailed understanding of a few specific habitats.  However for the most part, we still do not know what things (e.g. Continue reading →

Foraminifera: The tiny and mighty

This post is reproduced from a 2014 cruise blog: http://slidesinthedeep.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/big-things-in-small-shells.html   Contrary to popular belief, euphemisms, idioms and trite sayings often have little relevance to real life. Foraminifera on the other hand, lend credibility to the notion that big things do indeed come in small packages. Foraminifera are small, single-celled marine plankton; more specifically known as Protists. Continue reading →

Guest post from Gwen Owen Jones – Biomarkers: what can they tell us about the past?

Throughout this course, you are learning lots about how the ocean behaves today but have you ever thought about how it behaved in the past? Both Matthew and myself are Palaeoceanographers and this is precisely what we study: how the oceans and climate have varied throughout time. Hopefully over the remainder of the course you will hear a bit more about this subject from me, Matthew and some other members of our research group. Continue reading →

How did you get a job like that?

I often get asked about my career path and I thought I would share my journey with you. The truth is my career has been one happy accident after another. I'm currently gainfully employed as a Research Technician in Ocean and Earth Science at the University of Southampton. I have been within the department for 8 years now doing a variety of roles. It all began way back in 2004 when I took up a place to Study a BSc in Marine Biology at the University of Aberdeen. Continue reading →

A guest post from Prof. Maarten De Wit, Nelson Mandela University

Last year Marten De Wit was hosted at Southampton and took part in the MOOC. Maarten is an Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society and a Professor at Nelson Mandela University. He wrote a short post about his time here for the blog: As I travelled back from Southampton to my own university flanking the Indian Ocean (Nelson Mandela University) I came to appreciate and respect much better the global value of the NOC and the Ocean and Earth Centre of the University of Southampton. Continue reading →

What do the oceans mean to me?

It has been asked in the first week to describe the oceans from your own point of view. Here below is what they mean to me. For me, oceans are MYSTERY. Light disappears rapidly in depth, after 1000 meters, it is the absolute darkness, deep and unknown. I chose this picture of a ROV (remotely operated vehicle) surrounded by this obscurity. Thanks to it, light is brought in the most obscure parts of our planet, and discoveries are infinite.  (Image credit to NOAA ) For me, oceans are LIFE. Continue reading →