I never thought I would be excited to say I found a hole in my dry suit! I have found one and am in the process of patching the hole and putting aquaseal around the cuff ring edges. I'm excited because now that I know where the water is coming from, I can fix it! I noticed this hole just as I was about to get in the water today. This is definitely where the recent water has been coming in. It is high up on the wrist, just under the cuff ring. Since I knew where it was before the dive, I could keep that area elevated while diving as much as possible today. That allowed me to keep air up in the suit near the hole which helped keep the water out! Of course every time I lowered my hand to work, water came in, but not as much! Yeah!
Peter's last task before leaving us today was to finish making sediment traps for us to deploy along the transect line. These traps will catch debris falling through the water column which will allow Peter, Ian, and Kay to get a sense of the rate of sediment dumping, as well as analyze what ever else may be falling from above. Peter also joined us out at the dive hole for the morning dive. Ian collected some small syringe core samples for a colleague back in McMurdo. Peter took the samples back to town when he left.
Another probe malfunctioned on Hal, so we had to pull him back out of the water today to replace the probe. He will be relaunched tomorrow. It may seem like we need to take him in and out a lot.... we do. That's not the ideal plan, or the way it is supposed to work, but part of the mission of this field season is to work out the "kinks" in instruments like Hal. Plus, the data that is being retrieved between deployments is incredibly valuable and well worth all the extra effort. Each time, we get a little better at it, and we come up with ideas for improvements for future deployments. That is what experimentation is all about!
|
Peter prepares the sediment traps. The brown bottles are the traps. We will take the lids off and put them in the water with the "mouths" of the bottle facing up. The three silver wires are the anchors to hold the bottles in place along the transect line.
|
Can you see the hole? I am surprised I didn't notice it before. But - it is on the opposite side of the suit, so I really had to twist my wrist to see it. You should see it bubble in the water - it's like alka seltzer! Not for long!
|
 |
|
This is one of the syringe cores Ian collected today. As we swim along the transect line, there are definite regions of mat. Different types of mat are growing at different depths. You can get a sense of what depth you are at by looking at what type of mat you are swimming over. Of course, you also know when you are below 34 feet, because you can smell the sulfide! Compare this mat to the next one and notice how different they are. (The upper most portion in the tubes is the live mat)
Can you see all the pinnacles in this mat?
|
This mat is from deeper water. You can tell because there are no pinnacles - it has a much flatter surface.
|
 |
|
Here are two of Hal's probes. They are sharp and fragile!
|
My mission today was to collect a water sample and a core sample from the area where Hal was placed. This is the core sample - it came out pretty good!
|
 |
 |
An up close view of the core I retrieved today. Kay and Ian are very pleased with this sample. Notice all the layering in the active layer on top. Kay and Ian estimate there is about 35 years of growth here. The sediment dump below the mat is of interest. There may have been a large dump into Lake Fryxell at about this time. It would be interesting to know what caused the dump, if it indeed did happen.
|
Peter (on the left) heads to the helicopter. |
 |
 |
Bye Peter! Thanks!
|
| |
|
| |
|
Antarctica 2006 
Antarctica 2006 homepage.