Hail Resourcefulness
[This post written 6/13/08; position: lat -57’49”, long -44’28”; temp -1C; wind chill -19C]
First, we have a couple of questions and comments to address. Katie and Mike, I am surprised at how far and wide Cthulhu’s fame has spread. 🙂 And Mrs. Betz, how wonderful to hear from you! I’m glad to know you are well and doing art, and let me say I’m not much surprised to learn that you’ve done your share of skydiving. Phil, we will be changing our location on June 15, moving to a much larger iceberg. That’s the current plan anyway. I’m not sure whether that’s further south or not.
You might notice that the temperature has decreased since yesterday. Rough weather is approaching, and the researchers are adjusting their plans accordingly. Some of the sampling, the MOCNESS, for example, will be placed on hold in favor of other activities that can be done no matter what is happening on deck. Sometime in the next 24 hours, we hope to begin a methodical program of water sampling for salinity, temperature, and fluorescence in the vicinity of the iceberg. This can be done using the ship’s intakes, with the ship traveling a prescribed “lawnmower” path around the berg. In this way, the scientists hope to confirm various phenomena they have observed in the past few days concerning effects of the iceberg on the nature of the surrounding water.
Also a couple of days ago Paul McGill shared with us the video footage the ROV collected just before we lost contact with it. As with the plane, it managed to send back some tantalizing and useful information before the end. The photo above shows the underside of the iceberg. Amazing, isn’t it? We don’t know what causes this exquisite pattern of dimples in the ice. There are theories, mostly mathematical in nature and having to do with turbulence, but nobody really knows. Nature is more imaginative by far than we are.
Meanwhile, our amazing engineers are at it again, this time roving through the ship scavenging parts with which to build a new ROV. They have found a couple of thruster motors, a video camera, and some other useful items they will mount on a frame and send out into the deep. This machine will, of course, be rough n’ ready compared to the old ROV, but as we’ve seen, it is possible to get useful data from even fairly primitive tools.
The change in the weather means we’re unlikely to be able to use the second plane to plant a GPS beacon before we have to leave. So Steve E. and Kim have been working on a kite. What a lovely, simple idea. The available materials are far from ideal — plastic hose and heavy duty garbage bags. But it just might be crazy enough to work. 🙂 Also, Jake is hard at work on his more powerful slingshot. We shall see what the future holds.
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment