Around midnight, at the start of 5/2/07, we lowered the multicorer down to the deepest station we’ve had this entire cruise- 3,500 meters. That’s over 10,000 feet deep!! The multicorer takes about 3 hours to make the entire trip, and we sent it down twice at this station. We were lucky enough to get 16 beautiful cores, full of mud- each around 1.5 feet in length. This is what we like to get at every station, but aren’t always able to, because of the condition of the sediment, trouble with the multicorer, the weather, or all of the above!! The CTDA research tool that is submerged in the water to measure conductivity (salinity), temperature, and depth. also made the trek down to the bottom a few hours earlier, and took with it an interesting cargo. For those of you who have also read Ms. Prevenas’ and/or Ms. Staup’s journal(s), this will not be new to you! We sent down decorated Styrofoam cups, enclosed in mesh laundry bags. I decorated two to go down with the CTDA research tool that is submerged in the water to measure conductivity (salinity), temperature, and depth.:
I have a challenge for all you Nooksack Valley Middle school students (and anyone else who wants to play along…but don’t play if you already know what happens!!!)…what happened to the cups down there under all that water? What do they look like now? Post your answers in the "Ask a Question” section …include a reasonable hypothesis/explanation as to how they got the way you think that they are now. When I get a few good answers, I’ll post a picture of what they actually look like!!
Happy hypothesizing… ?
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