Location: 43° 58' N - 32° 36' W
Temperature: 20°C
Wind: 25.5 Knots - 310°/North
Hello fellow teachers!
After taking cores, there are many things that we must do. For instance, during this time university professors on the cruise give talks about various topics related to the larger topic. For instance, Dr. Kiki (Helga) Kleiven has presented information about marine sedimentation and the properties of seawater and ocean circulation.
The lectures help us to understand more about the significance of studying ocean sediments.
We also visited the bridge where we saw how complicated and sophisticated the equipment necessary to control the ship is. Despite this very technological aspect, the people controlling the equipment are absolutely indispensable. For instance, if the wind is very strong during a coring effort, someone must control the equipment to keep the boat steady manually with a joystick. Otherwise, coring would be impossible during high winds.
We also visited the building housing the winch system and the network of cables necessary for lowering coring equipment to the ocean floor, into the sediment, and back out again. This equipment can withstand an incredible amount of tension, (~ 1.50 x 105 N on the cable to extract the core, but this tension must be reduced to ~ 200 N on the cabledrums) and is designed very carefully for its purpose. For instance, the density of the cable allows it to be weightless in water so that it does not add extra weight to the system. Seeing this equipment made us appreciate how difficult it is to launch and recover the cores. We have had first-hand experience with these difficulties. Our first attempted Calypso core in the Azores was lost due to the bolts failing. We have no idea why this happened. Our second Calypso core in the Azores was very bent. We are unsure what the core hit to cause this to happen. Yet, a little longer than a week into the mission we have already been able to collect many excellent samples which we have already begun analyzing.
That's all for now. Have a nice day!
Your fellow teachers at sea
Hélder - Jean - Gertrud - Catalina - Angela - Carlo
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