R/V Marcus G. Langseth

The R/V Marcus G. Langseth is a 235 ft, 2578 gross ton research vessel which is owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.  Langseth replaces R/V Maurice Ewing, which has just ended a distinguished career.

Langseth will be classed by the American Bureau of Shipping as A-1 Baltic Ice Class IA and Coast Guard inspected; certificated to carry a total of 55 personnel of which approximately 20 are the ship's crew.

R/V Marcus G. Langseth is expected to be available for science operations in mid-late 2006.

Originally constructed as a seismic vessel the Langseth was acquired in 2004, modified, and outfitted to perform the tasks required of a general purpose research vessel. This includes hull mounted 3.5 and 12 khz transducers and a Simrad 1x1 degree deep ocean multibeam swath bottom mapping system.

Over the side sampling capabilities include 25 MT SWL starboard a-frame serving four winches carrying 10,000m of 9/16" 3x19, 0.680" coaxial cable, 0.322' CTD wire, or 1/4' 3x19 wire.

Particularly unique to the academic research vessel are the Marcus Langseth's extensive geophysical capabilites which include a Syntrak 480-24 seismic recording system with four 6km solid-state hydrophone streamer cable and a 2000 psi, 40 pneumatic sound source array towed in four "strings" that can be configured either as a single, 2D source or dual, alternating 3D source arrays.