Mail Buoy
September 16, 2001
Hi, I would like to ask science writer Dr. Reed a question, would you ever write a science fiction story about the volcanos, or do you think other writers use stuff like this to make stories up? Could the underwater fissures you are exploring right now ever suddenly open up? Like the idea for the Hellmoth in Buffy the Vampire Slayer came from a volcano or underwater fissure? Maybe you could send some ideas to the show in time for the episodes starting Oct 2nd? Josh F., Age 12
Washington, DC
Hi Josh,
Thanks for following along on our Dive and Discover Expedition. I hope you and your friends are safe in Washington.
Joss Wheadon and the writers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer could easily find inspiration for their storyline here in the Galápagos, where Darwin sprung forth his theory on the origin of species and evolution of life. Yes, magmatic intrusions can tear open fissures quickly, much the same way hot liquid can crack a chilled glass. The pictures we received from the first camera tow show fissures in the seafloor below us, but we don’t know when those opened up, perhaps tens to thousands of years ago. If I were to write science fiction, my personal favorite feature to include in a story would be the lava tubes. Check out the Sept. 14 daily journal with the virtual reality movie Karen Harpp took of the lava tube on Santa Cruz Island. Now that’s a place for stories!
Keep diving and discovering!
Christy
My name is Sophie and I’m from Lexington, MA. I’m in seventh grade with Miss Sheild. I can’t imagine being on a ship for so long, but you’re doing it! What’s it like to be living on a ship? an you concentrate with the rocking of the ship? I thought it was really interesting how you can make salt water into fresh water, and you also said it tastes even better than bottled water.
I was reading the daily update for September 9th, and I was wondering why you need to keep track of birds’ distribution around the islands. I thought your cruise was for geological information.
Dear Sophie,
Thanks for your questions. You are lucky to have such an energetic and enthusiastic teacher as Ms. Shields. She visited us in Woods Hole (and she has an ocean floor rock; ask her to show it to you).
Living on a ship has both good and bad aspects. Of course we miss our families while we are out here, and we feel isolated from important events back home. We also miss our normal activities like going for a walk or a bike ride. However, we come to sea to learn about the ocean and every time you come on a cruise like this we learn a lot, and that makes it very worthwhile. We are also very lucky to have a great group of scientists and crew, who make it very pleasant to live out here. One of the most important people on the ship is the cook; our cook Ed is great, which helps a lot! After a few days we get used to the motion of the ship, and it doesn't bother us unless we are doing something like trying to look down a microscope, or the weather gets really bad. The day you go ashore after a cruise like this it is kind of hard to walk straight though.
Yes, it is true that the main goal of the cruise is geological. However, we cooperate closely with the Galápagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Research Station, and we share their goal of preserving the unique wildlife here. Fernando Cruz, the Charles Darwin Research Station observer, is working on birds, and Jules Paredes is a Park Ranger. We are really happy to help them with their important preservation work, and they are helping us by allowing us to do our studies within the National Park. It is rare for a ship like the Revelle, with all of its state-of-the-art equipment, to work in this area, and we want to do as much as we possibly can to take advantage of it. It also is very interesting to have different researchers on the ship together. Even geologists enjoy wildlife!
Keep asking those good questions, and say hi to your teacher for us.
Mark and Dan
My name is Max and I’m in Ms Sheild’s seventh grade science in Lexington, MA. I was wondering what kind of tropical fishes you have seen and what is the most unusual. I also want to know what you have found out so far about the underwater volcanoes in the Galápagos Islands. We have been following your expedition very closely and I would like to thank you for you giving us this chance to almost be part of your very interesting expedition.
MAX, MA
Hi Max-
Thanks for your questions, and I am glad to hear that you are enjoying the website. We haven’t seen too many fish from the boat however, when we were snorkeling in Santa Fe Bay we saw a lot of fish. Each fish is pretty unique, so I will just name a few that seem really special.
While snorkeling we saw a type of wrasse that is known locally as a hogfish. Wrasse are pretty cool because they start out as one sex and change sex and coloration partway through their life. The ‘supermale’ of the hogfish has a huge bump on its forehead that makes it really distinctive. We also saw a fish called a blenny that lives inside the shell of large barnacles. From the ship we have been seeing flying fish, which look like they are skipping across the surface of the water, and the other day someone spotted an ocean sunfish. This fish is unusual because it can weigh over a ton, yet is considered to be plankton because it drifts around with currents and rarely swims under its own power.
While using the towed camera system we got a photo of the deep sea tripod fish, which stands on the bottom on elongated fins to enhance its prey detecting ability. While dredging and mapping the underwater lava fields surrounding Fernandina and Isabela we have discoverd varied and some unusual sorts of terrain, from terrace structures to sediment covered flows, and maybe even some landslides. We dredged rocks from these different areas and have seen that the rocks vary greatly in structure, much more so than the lava flows on land.
At sea, it is difficult to do much more than look at the surface characteristics of the rocks we pull up. Once back on land we will analyze the rocks in much greater detail, which will provide us with information on the composition of the mantle where the lavas originated, how old the flows are, and give us a more complete picture of how these volcanoes have formed. I hope that answered your questions sufficiently.
Keep checking the site for more info and write back with any other questions you have.
Sincerely, Kate Buckman
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