27 April 2008 A Trawl Full of Rocks!

Actually, the trawl was mainly full of rocks, but useless rocks. The rocks are useless for geophysics research, but the mate, John, used a rock saw to make beautiful pieces of art with them.

The rocks are useless for research because they are considered "drop stones." They dropped off an iceberg that could have carried them from anywhere, so they are not originally from the area that was trawled. The drop stones are easy to identify because they are highly eroded and weathered from the water and ice, making them smooth and rounded. We want to dredge up rocks that are jagged and rough from the actual seafloor. Also found in the trawl were a couple of sea stars and sea cucumbers.

We are now traveling about 50 miles south from Starfish Seamount to waypoint 12, known as The Lost Fracture Zone. During our travel, we are continuing to survey and map the seafloor. Once at The Last Fracture Zone, we will be searching for the perfect dredge site. I hope we find it.