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Amy Ludwig
8th grade Marine Science student
Stanwood Middle School

Hi Amy,

To answer your questions :

1) Rogue waves- I was on the research vessel Atlantis II when a rogue wave smashed out a port hole in the Main lab. Glass and seawater flew about 20 feet through the lab. The ship was hove to (stopped) on station with the bow facing into the wind and seas. The wave hit on the port side far out of phase with the direction of other waves. Repairs were made, no one was hurt, and the cruise continued.

2) Measuring waves - Waves are measured as follows: Length - the horizontal distance from wave crest to crest. Height- the vertical distance from trough (bottom) to crest.

Some wave measurements are made by “wave rider buoys”. Here is a quote from “Weather for the Mariner” Kotsch,ISBN 0-87021-756-9 “ ... the highest wave height scientifically recorded thus far (1965) in the North Atlantic was 67 feet by a wave recorder aboard an ocean-station weather vessel, but this does not mean that higher waves do not occur”.

I wonder what the wave rider records say about the “Perfect Storm”?

Thanks for your questions and best regards,
Capt. Colburn

I have been following the reports on your website, and your research is very interesting. I am pursuing a degree in Chemistry and would like to know the influence of chemistry in your studies.

Thank you for your prompt reply.
Nathan Kothenbeutel

Hello Nathan:
Understanding of fundamental chemical principles and making excellent analytical measurements are critical to what we do. What differs from pure chemistry is that we need to think in terms of a complex natural environment, so our chemistry is tied to understanding the geology or biology of a system as well. This often makes our measurements more challenging because of the variation in the natural environment we are working in. Chemical oceanography, or marine geochemistry is therefore more multi-disciplinary than pure chemistry, but a strong understanding of chemistry and/or analytical chemistry underpins our progress in this field.

Karen Von Damm

My name is Anthony Hathaway and I am a student at Nauset Middle School grade 6 in Orleans, MA. My Science teacher is Ms. Fish. We would like to know how the ship knows where it should be in order for Jason to find the vents.

Hi Anthony:
The way that we know where to look for vents depends on whether the vent has been visited before. Last year, Japanese scientists found the vents that we are now studying, and kindly shared their location with us. By knowing the latitude and longitude, we were able to bring the ship to the site, and then send Jason to the seafloor to look around and find the vents.

The rest of the cruise we will be looking for vents in areas that no-one has visited before. The only evidence that we have is from other scientists who have studied the water column and have found plumes of warm water near the bottom. We are going to go to some of these areas and see if, using clues from the geology, we can locate the seafloor vents that are sending out these plumes of water.

Hope you will follow along!
Susan Humphris

Susan,
My oceanography has a question for you: at what depth does the salinity of the ocean change? My course has a question asking if there is a difference in the salinity between 10 m and 300 m.

Joan Dutt
Science Teacher
UNL Independent Study High School
Lincoln, Nebraska

Hello Joan:
Thanks for your message and question! Glad you are enjoying the web site!

We have done some profiles of salinity out here and there is a big difference between the salinity at 10 m and 300 m. The salinity of the ocean depends on the balance between evaporation and precipitation near the surface, how deep that layer is mixed by the wind, and then below that, what deep water masses are circulating through that part of the ocean.

Where we are now, there is a shallow layer with a salinity around 36 parts per thousand (ppt) that likely reflects the surface waters of the equatorial region where evaporation is greater than precipitation. At around 1000 m, there is a minimum in salinity (about 34.5 ppt) that is a sign that there is some Antarctic Intermediate Water present at that depth. Between the shallow layer and 1000 m, there is a rapid decrease in salinity. Below about 2000 m, we see water that has a pretty constant salinity of about 34.7 ppt -- this is probably deep circumpolar water.

Hope that is helpful -- and hope your class in Nebraska will continue to follow along!
Susan Humphris

Dear crew:
We were wondering what the food scramblies were? Are they like little scrambled eggs? You guys eat so much really yummy sounding food. We were also wondering how you can have all of that gourmet food while on board a reasearch ship?

Anne and Miki

Hello Anne and Miki:
I asked our Steward, Mirth Miller, for an explanation of scramblies as I had never heard the term either! You are right, though - we do eat yummy food! It is really important too, as everyone is working hard all day, and meals are our only break and something we all look forward to! It is great to know that every meal will be good!!

Here is Mirth’s reply:

Hey Susan:
I will gladly explain scramblies! Scramblies are scrambled eggs with added tidbits of flavoring. Our regular Cook Brian O’uallain (who is on vacation) is from Ireland, and has always called them scramblies, even without the tidbits. With so many people to cook breakfast for, it is almost like having an omelet but it can be made for quite a few people at one time.

Glad to hear they think the grub is elegant.

Chow!

Mirth
P.S. You probably called them scramblies in England didn’t you?

So - now you know! Hope you will stay tuned for our expedition!
Susan Humphris