Night Time Fun in the Indian Ocean
Posted by: Rory Wilson
Thursday, June 21, 2007
6:00 AM Indian Ocean
HHmmmm. What a night!
We arrived on site, still with some stiff winds and right away began to put our instruments over the side to begin collecting data. Before we go into any details of what we are doing, let's review our science process.
We started this project by looking at what we know about our earth. We have to be careful not to assume too much unless we have DATA to support our ideas.
Then, we asked a question. Our question is about Hotspots. Remember, there is more about that in the... About section of this website. Or click here to go directly to the Hotspot background.
And this trip was organized because we needed to collect DATA to help answer our question.
Then we navigated out to the location where we needed to collect our DATA. This was important, and why we organized the challenge problem to focus on these skills. If we could not accurately go to the right place, we lose before we even begin collecting DATA of any kind.
All right, so WE ARE HERE. First thing we do is measure.. Measure what? Well, we do need to know how deep it is to get to our DATA, so we bring in a group of scientists that are awesome at physical measurements. Imagine, they are called geophysicists. (geo = earth) The measurement of depth is called bathymetry, and yes, the same word as bath. Both are water and metry or metric is measuring. This weekend, we will put a challenge question out for you to try.
And, once we look at the underwater peaks and valleys, then we can decide where we actually are going to try to collect DATA. This is a team decision because we want to have the best chance to use our expedition time wisely.
Once we decide, then we begin setting up for the dredge. A dredge is basically a really tough bucket that we lower down to the seafloor and drag along on a steel cable in the hope of picking up our DATA, in this case...
ROCKS, YES!!
stay tuned... will be back after I get some rest, and we hopefully gather our ROCKS.
JULY
7/30 - Final day at sea: on the way into Singapore
7/26 - A Day in the Life of a Teacher at Sea
7/18 - Checking our Position (Latitude) with a Sextant
7/16 - Monsoon Blues in the Indian Ocean
7/15 - WAVES, Rough Weather, but an exciting day... WHALES
7/11 - Not the Best Day for Science at Sea
7/9 - Discoveries on the 90 East Ridge
7/5 - Closer to Home, Life Here Onboard
7/2 - Ocean Careers: Texas to Russia
JUNE
6/30 - Easy Cruising Day: Now in the Southeast Trade Winds
6/27 - We Crossed the Equator Today, Heading South.
6/21 - Night Time Fun in the Indian Ocean
6/20 - Transit Gale in the Indian Ocean
6/17 - Arrived in Phuket, Thailand (finally)
