16 January 2019 Students from American Fork, Utah and Antarctic Diving Scientists Team Up To Make History

This is the helmet Dr. Shawn Devlin used to communicate with students in American Fork, Utah.

American Fork Junior High students team up with Antarctic scientists to do something never done before. They chatted live, from their classroom, to an Antarctic Scientist / Diver who was on a dive, below the ice, of a lake in Antarctica!

On 1/16/19, at 10:24am Antarctic time, history was made. 9th grade science students from American Fork Junior High teamed up with Antarctic scientists to do a first...they chatted with a diver / scientist, while he was underwater, while under 12 feet of ice, in a lake, in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica.

Here's how it went down: The logistics to make this event happen were no easy matter. I had made plans with Sarah, one of my top biology students, to be prepared to accept a call from our satellite phone during class. She agreed and it was "game on" from there. I called her at 9:50am on Wednesday Antarctic time (which was 1:50pm Tuesday Utah time). The connection seemed to work. It was fun to have a 1-minute chat with Sarah to see how everyone was doing. It has been almost a month since I have seem my students.

Testing the satellite phone connection.

Dr. Shawn Devlin, from the University of Montana, would be the scientist who my students would be talking with. Here he is preparing for his dive in the 33 degree water. He wears several warm layers under his dry suit. He wears gloves, and a hood that will keep him dry. He has dove these waters, studying the microbes of these freshwater lakes for many years. For many years, people did not think anything was living in these lakes. Not too many years ago, scientists found "microbial mats", which are colonies of photosynthesizing bacteria who have made these waters their home.

Dr. Shawn Devlin, from the University of Montana, is preparing to dive under the 12 foot thick ice of Lake Bonney.

Notice the valves in Dr. Devlin's dry suit. The one on his chest is used to add air to his dry suit. That increases his buoyancy as he descends to deeper water, which also compresses his body, making him more dense and less buoyant. Adding air to a dry suit also increases warmth since air is such a good insulator. The valve on his left arm is used to dump air. He needs to do that as he ascends since there will be less pressure as he ascends, making him more buoyant which can be dangerous if he ascends too quickly.

This is the dive helmet that gives Shawn the ability to communicate with the students. Notice the attachments on his right side. One hose is his air line and the other is for communication. Dr. Devlin then dropped into the hole to conduct his science. Notice the "umbilical". One hose is his air, the other is for communication.

The Connection Under Antarctic Ice To Utah

Once Shawn was through the ice, James McClure, another diver / scientist manned the communication box and air supply. I would communicate with students in their classroom (who had their phone on speaker mode and running through their classroom sound system) by way of the satellite phone. The question would then be relayed to James, who would then relay the question to Shawn who was below the ice diving. He would reply back and the kids could hear his answers straight from him by placing the phone up to the com box's speaker.

James McClure (a scientist / ice-diver) and myself on the line with students from American Fork Junior High.

Some of the Questions asked:

Q: How do you stay warm down there?
A: Lots of warm layers and a dry suit on top.

Q: What kind of wildlife do you see down there?
A: No "wildlife" other than the bacterial mats attached to the bottom of the lake.

Q: Do you see plankton in the water?
A: Nothing in the water column was seen. The life was down attached to the soil.

Q: What do you do when you need to go to the bathroom while diving?
A: Don't!

What About The Science?

As fun as it may sound, diving in 33 degree water in a lake with 12 feet of ice on it, in Antarctica, this is not recreational diving. This is science research diving. The divers, who are also scientists, collect samples from specially documented locations, place them in specimen containers, and then take them back to their labs where they will look at the different types, and how much life was found at those locations.

Here are some of the bottles these divers placed samples of the cyanobacteria mats into while under the ice. It takes great skill to get those specimens into those bottles while wearing thick gloves. Sometimes they are floating upside down to collect them. Other times, they are having their backs up against the ice to collect. Here is James prepared to take these collection bottles down the hole to collect more samples. Look closely and you can see Dr. Shawn Devlin under the ice. He is about 130 feet from the hole in the ice he entered through. He is approaching the shore, which is still iced over. Those white patches on the ice are his bubbles from his exhaled air. He is approaching what is called the "moat". This is that very small area of melted water between the shore and the ice. More discussion will be done about the moat. It has to do with an experiment called "SLIME". Stay tuned. Dr. Ian Hawes, from New Zealand, is another diver / scientist that I have had the pleasure of being with these past few days. He is analyzing the samples here, preparing them to be placed on the helicopter to be transported to the Crary Lab in McMurdo.

Here is a video clip showing Dr. Shawn Devlin's viewpoint of the conversation. If you listen closely, you can hear him talking to the students through his helmet. At the end of the video, Dr. Devlin is showing you how he collects his samples of the cyanobacteria mats on the bottom of the lake.