Mail Buoy
September 9, 2001
Hello everyone!
This is Mrs. Sandez’ fourth grade class in Moreno Valley, California again. As we’re following the expedition online everyday, we have more questions for you. What you’re doing is so exciting and it’s making us think about a lot of different things. Thanks for sharing your discoveries, jobs, and lives with us!
Here are some of our questions:
Amanda asks: How many years of school and college did you go to before you could do this work?
The scientists on board who have their Ph.D. degrees have gone to undergraduate school for 4 years, and then have gotten advanced degrees that take anywhere from approximately 5 to 7 years to complete. We have some students on board who are still working on their undergraduate degrees and some who have recently graduated. Oceanography is a great field because you can specialize in different branches of science, like biology, chemistry, geology, physics and still study those processes in the ocean. Getting a good, broad-based education in sciences AND liberal arts - writing, history, literature, art, is the best way to prepare for any advanced degree.
Jenna asks: We saw the picture of someone fishing and wondered if you catch a lot of fish from the ship and what's the biggest fish you’ve ever caught?
We have been trying to catch fish when we are travelling slowly and also when we are on station dredging. So far we have not had any luck. The last time we were here about a year and a half ago we caught many fish, including a large Ono, or Wahoo, which was about 5 feet long and was delicious for dinner!
Ryan asks: What is the deepest you guys have ever gone on your exploration under water with the sonar?
The great thing about sonar is that it can reach the deepest depths of the ocean, over 13,000 meters. On this expedition our sonar surveys have reached to about 4,000 meters around the Galápagos, and we crossed over the Middle-America Trench when we left Costa Rica which was just over 6,000 meters deep.
Bijan asks the web reporter: Have you ever published a book about your adventures reporting science? Do your arms and wrists hurt from typing so much?
I would love to publish a book about my adventures, but I’m still too busy right now experiencing them. I’ve been lucky so far to avoid getting carpal tunnel syndrome, but I also like to kayak and do sports that keep my wrists strong.
Samantha asks: How many tons of rock have you brought up so far?
We have recovered about 2000 pounds of submarine basalt lava from the seafloor around the Galápagos volcanoes. That’s equal to about 1 ton.
Lisa asks: What kind of sharks are out there and have you found any new species? If so, who will study them and how will you study them when they live so far under the ocean?
In Galápagos, there are about 12 species of sharks. Most common are the white-tipped reef shark, blacked-tipped reef shark, hammerheads, the Galápagos shark, the tiger shark and the whale shark. Some islands in the Galápagos are famous for the numbers of hammerheads swimming near shore. When we went snorkling in Santa Fe Bay, we saw a few white-tipped reef sharks. We haven't found any new species, or seen any sharks from the ship. If a new species of any sort of animal were to come up in the dredge it would be preserved and taken back to WHOI where Tim Shank would study it.
Anthony asks: When you evaporate the ocean water to make fresh water, what happens to the plankton that is in the water? Does it just disappear?
The plankton and bacteria are removed from the water both through the evaporation process and the ultraviolet light we use to purify the water. This is important because some types of plankton can be toxic to humans.
Hi, I am amazed at how professional everyone is on your Galápagos expedition. I follow your activities each day on the WHOI website with special interest, as my son Bob Reynolds is one of the scientists on board. My question is: Have you discovered any active hydrothermal vents in the areas you are mapping?
Best of luck
Charles Reynolds Titusville, PA.
Hi Mr. Reynolds:
Great to hear from you. Bob is doing a terrific job with us here on the cruise, you should be proud of him.
With regards to your question, we have not discovered any hydrothermal vents in the areas we’ve mapped so far. The primary purpose of our research is more along the lines of investigating the volcanic and magmatic history of the Galápagos. Certainly we’re also looking for any evidence of hydrothermal activity in the rocks and sediment brought up from the seafloor in our dredges. So far we have not found any.
Thanks again for your question and hope you continue to follow the expedition.
Best Regards Dan Fornari
Hi -- This is Sue from Maple View, New York
I have a question about the slide show (slide number 10) What is the function of the wax corer? What is the average temperature around the Hydrothermal Vents? Is this the only sign of life around the volcanic areas? What happens when a volcano under water erupts? Is this what causes Tsunami Waves?
I think your site is great keep up the good work.
Hi Sue-
Thanks for following our expedition. Here are the answers to your questions:
The rock corer is used to collect small chips of glass from seafloor lava flows. The corer bashes into the rocky seafloor and the chips of glass get embedded into sticky surfboard wax that is in cups in the nose of the corer.
Hydrothermal vent temperatures vary, from low temperature diffuse flow of perhaps 10-20 deg. C all the way to over 400 deg C. We have written an Information Module on Hydrothermal Vents in the web site. Look under Deeper Discovery for the Hydrothermal Vents InfoMod - it should answer all of your questions.
When a volcano erupts under water, in the deep ocean, pillow lava is formed. If you look at the InfoMod on Mid-Ocean Ridges you can learn more about this. Tsunami's are large waves caused mainly by large landslides and earthquakes in locations where the plates are subducting. The Plate Tectonics InfoMod discusses the different types of plate boundaries.
Thanks for your questions and we hope you continue to enjoy learning with us on Dive and Discover.
Best Regards, Dan Fornari
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