Before I begin today's journal I need to stop for a moment and reflect upon the sea. It is in a word, glorious! I could sit for hours, ahhh the luxury, and just watch the waves. Reminds me of our family fireplace when I was a child, when you park yourself as close as possible so as not to get burned and watch the flames. Well the sea pulls me in the same way. I am not even sure there are words within my vocabulary to do justice to this amazing ecosystem. The waves are timeless, moving as they wish, guided by the currents of time and the winds from above. There is no science to this pleasure for me, just pure enjoyment.
Now back to science...
It is time for us to look at another component of the research being completed aboard the Healy, and for this team we need to hit the depths with "The Multi-Core!" Yes you heard me, we have sampling equipment aboard that actually goes to the floor of the Bering Sea Shelf and collects sections of the sediments.
The team brings the multi-core to the deck, excited about the prospect of new sediments.
Once the multi-core returns to the surface there are nine separate tubes with sediment samples. And I must say I am impressed with the ingenuity in developing a device that can go down to depths of over three to five thousand meters and collect eight simultaneous unique samples of sediment.
Notice how excited David is with a new sample, now he has hours of work in the lab.
Before we go to deep into the science, let me introduce the team: David Shull the principal investigator for Western Washington University works with a Cracker Jack team of dedicated professionals
Dedicated professionals in their mustang suits, awaiting the delivery of sediments!
There are Heather and Amy graduate students at the University of Washington, and Greg an undergraduate student from Western Washington University. There is also Chris who works at Oregon State University working with the team as a marine geology coring technician, so as you see a great group of dedicated professionals
It is important to have a sense of humor while sampling sediments and working ALL NIGHT!
One of the unique components of this multi-core is that it was designed to capture the sediment water interface without disturbing the sample as both the water and the sediments will be tested for different elements which you will learn more about tomorrow.
During our thirty day period aboard the Healy the multi-core team hopes to capture between fifteen and twenty stations, with two corings per station and sixteen samples per station...well you do the math=)
The sediments are fascinating and tomorrow we will look at the science of studying this "groundwork" portion of the Bering Sea.
Here is today's photo challenge, what is in the multi-core?
Quote of the Day: I care to live to entice people to look at nature's loveliness. My own special self is nothing (I want to be) like a flake of grass through which light passes. -John Muir
FOR MY STUDENTS: Do you think we could develop a similar piece of equipment to study sediment samples from Francis Short Pond?