I have received many questions about our polystyrene cups!! You may recall an earlier Journal, October 20, 2011, my students began a polystyrene cup experiment. They measured their cups, calculated density and decorated them. I carried those cups from Ohio, all the way to the Arctic. I also brought along cups from First, Second and Third grade classes at Graham Elementary, a cup from Mrs. McGuire's class at Graham Middle School, cups from Addie and Andrie and Mr. Schmidt's class in Arizona and a cup and an egg carton from Brian! That was a lot of cups!!
Pyramid of cups I brought to the Arctic!
The cups were stuffed with a paper towel so they did not get stuck inside one another during their trip to the bottom of the Chukchi Sea. Then they were placed inside a mesh laundry bag. The Crew of the Healy and the science team decorated cups as well! Toby, a Marine Technician from STARC brought along some cups from a school in his hometown, and a styrofoam head! LCDR Drzewiecki also brought a bag of cups from his son, Cody's second grade classroom in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Thank you Mrs. Clinger!
Bags of cups in the CTD hangar
I helped ziptie the mesh laundry bags filled with our polystyrene “stuff” closed and then zip tied them to the CTD rosette. Occasionally, bags of cups do not make it back to the surface...I did NOT want to lose any of my cups!!
Ms. Rose zip-tying the mesh bags closed and then to the CTD!
Most of the CTD casts for this mission are shallow. This cast was off the continental shelf into Barrow Canyon. This was Station 38, Hannah Shoal 24. The CTD reached a depth of 1675 meters. Below you can see the map showing the location where the cups were submerged – look for the outline of the Healy!
Healy at Hannah Shoal 24 on the Map Server
CTD returning to the deck with our cups from the bottom of the Arctic!
Check out the cups now!! Graham High School students will be calculating the density of these cups when they return from Winter Break!
All of our submerged cups!
For size comparison, we held onto a polystyrene cup that did NOT go to 1675 meters. Here you can see the side by side difference!
Side by side comparison - the control and the cup that was submerged to 1675 meters!
Since I got the question last week...I'll go ahead and answer it for this week. Yes, the entire Science Party passed Inspection yesterday! This does not JUST mean cleaning your room and making your bed. We have to scrub the shower, sink, mirror and “head” in our stateroom, vacuum and dust. The Science party is responsible for the passageways in our areas on the 02 Deck, the Science Conference Lounge also gets vacuumed and cleaned, trash needs taken to the trash van, all of the areas in the Main Lab area need swept, cleaned, “swabbed”, trash taken out, etc. It took the better part of the morning to finish it all! We passed with flying colors according to the page from the XO!
Page from the Executive Officer about our Inspection!
The Healy is in full pack ice...this is the thickest ice we expect to transit through. The ice is 5 to 6 feet thick and several times the Healy has had to back and ram the ice to get through. The sound is amazing – so much power! The past few journals have shown the spectacular sunrises...today, I'll finish with a stunning shot of the moon as the Healy cut through full ice pack.
Healy in full pack ice...with the Arctic moon!
Question of the Day
Explain why the polystyrene cups shrank. Cite your resource!
Stay tuned as we continue our exciting voyage on the USCG Cutter Healy. Until then...
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever” - Mohandas Gandhi