Mail Buoy
January 20, 2000
Dear Cruise,
WOW. It must have been neat to see the six foot long tube worms!
I think they’re really interesting!!! But, I have a question,
is there a way to know if they are male or female? I think they
are really cool to learn about them.
There cool! Thanks a lot!
Sarah A
Ms. Sheild’s Red Class
Lexington, MA
Dear Sarah:
A very good question! I have checked with Tim Shank and Craig
Cary, and they tell me that the way you tell a male tubeworm
from a female tubeworm is that the male has two grooves extending
along the muscle. These grooves have “cilia” (or
fine hair-like structures) in them, and are related to the way
that the tubeworm releases sperm into the water column.
Thanks for the question -- visit us again!
Susan Humphris
I am interested in whales and dolphins,
so getting to hear them was really neat. I was wondering, what
exactly is a hydrophone, and how does it work? Thanks for letting
us be the guinea pigs for the web site. I’m in Ms. Sheild’s
class, and the site is great!
From,
Sarah
Dear Sarah:
Hope you have been enjoying the whales and dolphin pictures that
we have been posting on our web site. A hydrophone is just like
a microphone -- except that it is used underwater. Just as you
can speak into a microphone and record what you say on to a
tape deck, a hydrophone records noises made underwater and records
them to a tape.
Hope that helps -- visit us again!
Susan Humphris
Dear Susan Humphris,
I am a student of Ms. Sheild’s and I am evaluating your
site. So far, it is awesome! This summer I visited the Banff Hot
springs; I was wondering about the Hydrothermal Vents at the bottom
of the ocean. Are Hydrothermal Vents at the bottom of the ocean
related to the Hot springs on the earth? If so how? Please write
back!
Sincerely,
Andrew Ho
Dear Andrew:
Absolutely!! Both hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean
and hot springs on land are caused by the same processes. “Hydrothermal” means “hot
water,” so they are both hydrothermal vents and result from
water that seeps into the ground being heated up by magma (molten
rock) or hot solid rock and then returning to the surface. So -- somewhere
deep below Banff, there must be hot rock that is heating the rainwater
as it seeps into the ground.
Thanks for the question.
Susan Humphris
My name is Andrew Gordon O’Neil (watch that spelling).
I am a member of Ms. Sheild’s class. My amazingly stumptacular
question is “If these vents are found at such low depths
then why are the aquatic animals encircling them at all colorful?” What
I mean is the fact that objects only are perceived as being a
certain color because that is the color that bounces off of them.
If an animal cannot be seen without artificial light why would
it evolve to be of any color?
Dear Andrew:
That is not a painstakingly brain-boring question -- it is a REALLY
good one, even though it sounds simple! I asked the biologists
on board, and they had a long discussion about this one! One
suggestion is that the animals that are red are scavengers;
that is, they are eating dead things that used to live up closer
to the surface. Those types of animals contain the red pigment,
carotenoid, and very often, animals get colored based on what
they eat! Another suggestion was that many of the animals have
larval forms that live nearer the surface where they eat other
organisms that contain red pigments; hence, the color is a holdover
from when they were young. Yet another suggestion is that it
is nothing to do with this, but a consequence of evolution.
Many crustacea (crabs are one variety) are red, and perhaps
through time, they have preserved that pigmentation. So - you
see, there are lots of ideas, but it seems as if there is no
clear answer. A good research project!
See you in April! Susan Humphris
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