Speed 8.7 knots (kts) Course 135° Location Canada Basin, 75.31° N, 139.38° W Depth 3669 meters
SPECIAL FEATURE DISCUSSION:
(see previous journal for the questions.)
Since pressure increases by about 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters of water depth, the cups experienced about 380 times more pressure when they were at 3800 meters deep than they do at sea level.
TODAY'S JOURNAL:
Bill Schmoker, aided by communications officer Holly McNair, calls in to Centennial Middle School for his PolarConnect event on 31 August 2010 via satellite phone from the wardroom on USCGC Healy. Photo by Dale Chayes.
I woke up to a fun sight today- snow falling outside! Snow flurries continued on and off throughout the morning, and a little even accumulated in protected spots of the ship. Pretty neat for the last day of August!! We also recovered a piston core today from about 3700 meter-deep water, our deepest core sample yet of the trip.
Fresh snow dusting on fenders (big red cylinders) and mooring 'hard hats' (yellow spheres) aboard USCG Cutter Healy the morning of 31 August, 2010.
Light snowfall was a nice surprise this morning on the USCG Cutter Healy!
I had a special event today, calling in to Centennial Middle School where I teach 7th & 8th grade science. Our AP, Chris Meyer, lined up back-to-back assemblies so I could speak to all 600 or so students. It was great hearing their applause and getting questions from them- technology can be so amazing! It's hard to believe that I'm on a ship in the middle of the Arctic Ocean and still have a conference call with 300 people at a time back home in Colorado. The questions kids asked were great, and I was proud of how attentively each group listened. The satellite phone worked pretty well, only dropping my call once towards the end of the second assembly. I was able to call back and wrap it all up satisfactorily and then breathe a sigh of relief that the event went well. Big thanks go to Mr. Meyer at Centennial and to Kristin Timm at PolarTREC in Fairbanks, AK for coordinating the conference calls.
Just before the PolarConnect call I snapped this picture of myself on the flight deck overlooking coring operations below on the fantail. Light snow was still falling and the core was being recovered after its trip up from 3700 meters deep.
That's all for now! Best- Bill