earth science

RV Knorr

RV Knorr is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand RV Knorr rather than just read about it. In short: RV Knorr was a research vessel formerly owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the U.S. research community in coordination with and as a part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) fleet.

Key takeaways

RV Knorr belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect RV Knorr to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of RV Knorr from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

RV Knorr was a research vessel formerly owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the U.S. research community in coordination with and as a part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) fleet. On March 14, 2016, Knorr was officially transferred to the Mexican Navy and renamed Rio Tecolutla. She was replaced at Woods Hole by the RV Neil Armstrong. Knorr is best known as the ship that supported researchers as they discovered the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1985. R/V Knorr (AGOR-15) has traveled more than a million miles—the rough equivalent of two round trips to the Moon or forty trips around the Earth. Her sister ship is the RV Melville.

Ship R/V Knorr was named in honor of Ernest R. Knorr, a distinguished hydrographic engineer and cartographer who was appointed Chief Engineer Cartographer of the U.S. Navy Hydrographic office in 1860. Chief Engineer Knorr was one of the leaders of the Navy’s first systematic charting and surveying effort from 1860 to 1885. She was launched on August 21, 1968 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan, Knorr was delivered to Woods Hole on April 15, 1970. The ship was built with Cycloidal propulsion that was replaced during a 1989-1991 midlife refit at which time propulsion was changed to two azimuthing stern thrusters and a retractable bow thruster as well as the hull being lengthened from 246 ft (75.0 m) to 279 ft (85.0 m). The overhaul between 1989 and 1991 added 34 feet (10 m) of length to her midsection. In 2003 a Dynamic Positioning System capable of holding the ship in position within one meter was installed providing capability for ocean drilling and other precise operations. During a 2005–2006 refit a 25,000 pounds (11,000 kg) long coring system capable of 150 ft (45.7 m), longest in the U.S. research fleet, deep cores was installed. The ship has anti-roll tanks and an ice-strengthened bow enabling her to work in all of the world’s oceans. She can take a crew of 22 and a scientific party of 34 to sea for as long as 60 days. Knorr was designed to accommodate a wide range of oceanographic tasks, with two instrument hangars and eight scientific work areas; a fully equipped machine shop; three oceanographic winches; and two cranes. Knorr is equipped with sophisticated navigation and satellite communication systems, as well as a dynamic positioning system that allows the ship to move in any direction and to maintain a fixed position in high winds and rough seas. In 2005–2006, the ship was refitted to support a new “long-coring” system that can extract 150-foot (46 m) plugs of ancient sediments from the sea floor. Weighing nearly 25,000 pounds, the new piston-coring system is the longest in the U.S. research fleet (twice as long as existing systems). Knorr and its long-corer will allow scientists to sample deep, ancient sediments that are rich with historical information about the ocean and climate.

Role in search for Thresher, Scorpion, and Titanic In 1985, operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, she was the ship that discovered the wreck of the RMS Titanic, using side scan sonar. The U.S. Navy was interested in finding out what happened to their missing nuclear powered attack submarines, the USS Scorpion and the USS Thresher, which sank in the 1960s. Robert Ballard approached the Navy about using his new deep sea underwater robot craft, the Argo, to search for the Titanic. The Navy agreed it would finance use of the RV Knorr for Ballard's Titanic search only if he first searched for and investigated the two sunken submarines, and found out the state of their nuclear reactors after being submerged for such a long time, and whether their radioactivity was impacting the environment. When they searched for the two submarines, Ballard and his team discovered that they had imploded from the immense pressure at depth. It littered thousands of pieces of debris all over the ocean floor. Following the large trail of debris led them directly to both and made it significantly easier for them to locate them than if they were to search for the hulls directly. Using that lesson, they had Argo sweep back and forth across the ocean floor to find the Titanic's debris trail, following the trail to the wreckage of the ship itself.

Decommissioning It was announced on December 4, 2014, that the research vessel Knorr was being decommissioned after more than 40 years as the workhorse of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution research fleet. The ship's last full research cruise, with Chief Science Officer Richard W. Murray, was completed in December 2014. Knorr was transferred to the Mexican Navy in 2016, and was replaced by a new $74 million research vessel, the RV Neil Armstrong.

Specifications

Ownership: Title held by U.S. Navy; Operated under charter agreement with Office of Naval Research Other Features: Two instrument hangars, fully equipped machine shop, dynamic-positioning system, four transducer wells, one rigid-hull inflatable rescue/work boat.

See also RRS James Cook – British equivalent RRS Charles Darwin – Predecessor to the James Cook

References

External links WHOI Marine Operations – R/V Knorr Dive and Discover – Oceanographic Tools Where is Knorr Now?

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with RV Knorr

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what RV Knorr claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to RV Knorr before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about RV Knorr ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of RV Knorr

In research: RV Knorr appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses RV Knorr in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: RV Knorr is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1968 ships, IMO numbers, Robert D. Conrad-class oceanographic research ships, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for RV Knorr outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “RV Knorr” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study RV Knorr in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what RV Knorr means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain RV Knorr out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is RV Knorr in simple terms?

Why does RV Knorr matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study RV Knorr?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on RV Knorr.