Thursday, September 25, 2014

Station is permanently offline, replaced by CCMI2 buoy

The LCIY2 station as seen in 2011.

The CREWS station located just offshore from Little Cayman Research Centre in the Cayman Islands is now permanently offline.  It was destroyed while feeling the effects of wind and surf from Hurricane Sandy to the east as it crossed from Jamaica to Cuba on October 26, 2012.

This CREWS station was installed on July 22nd, 2009, through a collaboration between the Central Caribbean Marine Institute's (CCMI) Little Cayman Research Centre (LCRC) and the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory's (AOML) Coral Health and Monitoring Program (CHAMP).

The fiberglass tube is believed to have broken at its weakest point, where the internal polyurethane foam contained an air gap rather than providing continuous, uninterrupted reinforcement as per the station's design (see photo).

A closeup of the station's breaking point, showing where there was an air gap in the internally-reinforcing polyurethane foam.

During its lifetime this station was notable for surviving the effects of a magnitude 5.9 earthquake on January 19, 2010, whose epicenter was 45 miles ESE of Grand Cayman.  The station lost one of its lower support lines to the earthquake (see photo) but this was quickly repaired by LCRC personnel.

Minor damage from the earthquake on January 19, 2010.

Approximately one year after this station's loss, it was replaced by a new CREWS buoy at a location somewhat removed from this station's original site and in deeper water.  The new buoy is designated 42089 by NDBC and is known informally as CCMI2, as it is the second CREWS station to have been deployed by CCMI.

The CCMI2 station as seen shortly after its deployment in October of 2013.

There are not expected to be any further updates on this blog.  For updates on the CCMI2 station, please visit the new CCMI2 Field Log.