Development of a Remotely Operated Vehicle for Under Sea Ice Research in Polar Environments
November 4 - December 19, 2008 | McMurdo Station, Antarctica
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The Live from IPY! event with Cameo Slaybaugh and Robin Ellwood about thier Antarctic Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) underwater research on Monday, 24 November 2008, is now archived. To access the archive, click here.
The Live from IPY! event with Cameo Slaybaugh and the team on Wednesday, 3 December 2008, is now archived. To access the archive, click here.
Cameo Slaybaugh has dug for mammoth bones in South Dakota and searched the mountains of Mongolia for the elusive Pallas’ cats, but after earning a degree in Geology from Colgate University, she spent the next ten years working in the business world. During this time Cameo volunteered at the National Aquarium as a herpetology assistant and taught classes at the Maryland Science Center using a variety of live animals. Ms. Slaybaugh finally gave in to her love of teaching and went back to school and earned a Masters degree in Special Education from Old Dominion University. For the past 15 years Ms. Slaybaugh has taught for the Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs (SECEP), a regional public day school for emotionally disturbed children. She currently teaches a variety of subjects to students in grades 8 to 12, and is the school’s Science and Math Chair. Ms. Slaybaugh lives and plays on the Chesapeake Bay in Norfolk, Virginia.
Stacy Kim is an adjunct professor at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in central California. She completed her Bachelors degree at UCLA and her Ph.D at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Dr. Kim studies benthic ecology – how animals that live on and in the seafloor interact in communities. She hopes that this project, which links biology and engineering, will set an example for students of how different interests and skills can merge to solve a single set of problems. Dr. Kim has previously hosted a teacher in Antarctica through the ARMADA/TEA program and through PolarTREC 2007. The experience taught her how to connect better with younger students and enhanced her education and outreach efforts with local schools and clubs. She hopes in particular to engage women and minorities in fields where they are traditionally underrepresented.
Bob Zook is the “Chief Gizmologist” for the project. He has worked in Antarctica for many years. He is also Stacy’s husband.
The research team continued exploration of remote regions of the seafloor around McMurdo Station, Antarctica with a recently developed remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for underwater research. The new ROV can be deployed through a small (15 cm) hole in the sea ice, enabling access to regions beyond scuba diving depths (at 40-170 m). The researchers located historical experimental structures on the sea floor around McMurdo Station and investigated the colonization of these structures by species of sessile invertebrates. This will provide an unprecedented opportunity to explore and document the rates and patterns of ecological succession from one of the most extreme habitats in the world. The team also tested protocols for conducting sonar mapping with the new ROV as a first step towards creating high-resolution, bathymetric maps of the entire seafloor around McMurdo Station.
The team worked in the waters around McMurdo Station, Antarctica. McMurdo is the largest station in Antarctica with more than 100 buildings, a harbor, landing strip and helicopter pad. More than 1000 people live and work at McMurdo Station during the austral summer!
