We are no longer in the Southern Ocean, and sailed past the Île Amsterdam (Amsterdam Island) yesterday. We have been sailing for over three weeks now, and have another three weeks to go before we return to Fremantle. A couple of days ago, we sailed past the Île Saint-Paul (Saint Paul Island) around 4:30 pm local time. By now you might have gotten the idea that our days are long and sometimes very stressful. So an event like this drive by has a lot of significance. Science party and crew gathered on the deck to see those islands. Last few days have been particularly busy with lots of long and short sediment cores collected, often twice a day. Part of my research involves collecting these small cores, slicing them into 1 cm thick slices and then squeezing them to extract water that are in that mud. This water is essentially stored in the pore spaces in the mud, and we call this ‘pore water’. Studying pore water chemistry, how that affects the ocean water chemistry, and if interaction between pore water and ocean water can tell us anything about Earth’s past climate are some of the goals of my research endeavor. While it is a lot of work to squeeze mud for water, the hope is that it will help us learn something new. Many of you must have tried squeezing orange to make OJ but squeezing mud is quite different. It is messy, and tedious. Last night when we were done processing our last core, it was 3 am and we still needed to clean up the apparatus so that it was ready for the next deployment. As we were washing down the mud off the core liner out in the deck, it was a clear night with bright moon and its glittery reflection on the dark ocean. Not a bad view to end a long day. Comments are closed.
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AuthorChemical oceanographer, Paleoceanographer, Chef-in-my-kitchen.......not necessarily in that order. Archives
December 2018
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