TODAY'S WEATHER
Sunny
84°F (28.9°C)
Latitude:
20 deg 48S
Longitude: 60 deg 15E
Wind Direction: E
Wind Speed: 12 Knots
Sea State 2
Swell(s) Height: 3 Foot
Sea Temperature: 80 °F (26.7°C)
Barometric Pressure: 1015.8 MB
Visibility: 18+ Nautical Miles
Daily Update: Packing up
April 30,
2001
By Amy Nevala
We left Mauritius a month ago carrying 70 tons of equipment
on Knorrs decks and in the labs, and we return
even heavier. Consider the rocks Geologist Susan Humphris
collected. She has 350 pounds of sulfides that ROV Jason
collected from the two hydrothermal vent sites. She and Dan
Fornari also dredged 1,650 pounds of volcanic rocks from
the Central Indian Ridge rift valley and on Knorr Seamount.
Thankfully
she doesnt have to carry them home in her suitcase. Except
for a plastic baggie of lava glass chips and a box of scrapings
from the sulfide samples, her rocks will return to Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution with Knorr at the end of August.
The ship is needed for several more research expeditions before
it returns to its home port.
Scientists spent today carefully packing labeled
vials, bags and boxes of biology, chemistry and geology samples
for the long journey home. Chemist Chi Meredith collected 600 bottles
of water samples, each one acidified to keep the hydrothermal vent
metals in solution. Her samples will travel on a ship from Mauritius
to the Pacific Northwest.
Microbial Biologist Colleen Cavanaugh and her graduate
student Zoe McKiness will pack the majority of their samples in
their backpacks. They spent this afternoon discussing how to pack
small Styrofoam coolers containing neatly-labeled bottles of sulfide
scrapings, bacteria samples, bits of tissue from mussels, snails
and shrimp.
We hand-carry everything because they are priceless samples, said
Colleen. Otherwise we risk the samples getting crushed or lost or stolen.
The sound of ripping tape, pounding hammers and shouted
questions like where
are my scissors? and anyone have a screwdriver I can borrow? reverberated
from emptying labs throughout the ship. The decks piled high with labeled boxes
containing everything from computers to chairs to film, each destined for a spot
in the vans and then for scientists labs in Britain, California, Washington,
Virginia, Massachusetts, Oregon and New Hampshire.
While scientists scrambled to get all their gear
packed, the DSOG team faced an even more daunting task. They are
dismantling the heavy equipment and electronics required to operate
Jason. After two 10-hour days of work, they still have to fit all
the vehicles into the shipping containers and then get the winch,
drum of fiber optic cable, vehicles and shipping containers off
the ship when we get to Mauritius.
The sun is blazing close to 90°F as we near Mauritius
and the ships pool today
had plenty of aching, hard-working bodies to fill it. Graduate student
Rachel Gallant, reading near the pool, could practically taste
land today when a flock of terns paid a visit to the starboard
side of the ship. Hey did you see
that? she said with a wide grin and a nod to the noisy birds, the
first flock weve seen in weeks. Theres hope of land
yet!
[Back to top]
|