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September 18, 2001 My students had a few general questions: 1. What type of weather are you experiencing at the Equator at this time of the year? 2. Are you using an ROV of any type to gather samples and/or images? 3. What are the biggest science surprises have you had since arriving at you study area? Thanks for willingness to field student questions, Ken Harasty Hi Ken and students: Thanks for participating in Dive and Discover’s Galápagos expedition. Here are the answers to your questions: 1) The weather is COLD..., we were not expecting such cold weather as none of us had ever been down here at this time of year. It turns out that the cold Humboldt Current is very active this time of year in bring cold deep water to the Galápagos. So the weather is often cloudy and cool, even though we are in the tropics. Our daily journal of Sept. 16th talks about this. 2) We are using a dredge to sample the rocks from the seafloor. We have, on other Dive and Discover expeditions, used the Alvin submersible and the Jason ROV, but for this cruise we are focusing on mapping with the MR1 sonar and dredging. If you look at the Hot Topics section under the Daily Journal area you’ll see write-ups and photos of lots of interesting topics which we have covered. 3) One of the biggest surprises is to find the very large submarine terraces south of Isabela which we think reflect the early constructional volcanism that built up Isabela. The sonar data have also show us the character the submarine flanks of the western volcanoes; where there are very young flows far away from the coast, where there are submarine rifts zones, and where there are terraces. Thanks for Diving and Discovering with us. Please keep following our site and pass the URL along to other teachers and students. Best Regards,
Hi, my name is Sam Robinson and I am in Ms. Sheild’s seventh grade science class, in Lexington, MA. I have been reading about Expedition 5 and was wondering if any of the crew members are young enough to still have homework? Anyway, thanks for reading! ~Sam Robinson Hi Sam- Thanks for participating in Dive and Discover’s Galápagos expedition. The crew members on board, and the students are all over 18 years old, so they have finished high school. Some are still in college and are doing their homework out here. Some of the member's of the ship’s crew are studying for their advanced licenses so that they can advance in their careers. Being at sea is always a learning experience so you could say that all of us are ‘doing homework.’ Thanks for your question and keep Diving and Discovering with us. Best Regards,
Hello DiveDiscover I have a question. Do the mechanics on board the boat or the remote control submarine break? If they do, what do you do and how often does the equipment break? Florian Boulnois, Hi Florian- Thanks for your question and for joining the Dive and Discover Galápagos expedition. We do have mechanics and engineers on board to help keep all the equipment in top shape, and to repair it if it breaks. We have had problems with the dredging winch this trip, but all the engineers on board got together and figured out a way to fix it so we can still use it. When we get to port, they'll get new parts and supplies and will repair it so it is as good as new. The ship and the equipment we use gets used a lot, so we do what is called protective maintenance -= which means we try to replace parts before they wear out. This is like changing the oil and filter n your car every 3000 miles so that the engine keeps running well. The engineers on board do a lot of protective maintenance to keep all the equipment running smoothly. Thanks for your question and keep Diving and Discovering with us. Best Regards,
I am one of Ms. Sheild’s seventh grade science students in Lexington, MA. We have been following your expedition carefully. I have learned a lot. I would like to ask, how you preserve live sea animals or vegetation that you see on the ocean floor before you bring them back to the lab for research? Hi- Thanks for your interest in what we are doing. I’m glad that you are enjoying the site. Specimens brought up from the seafloor are preserved in one of two ways. If it is the first one of a species that we have brought up we preserve it in formaldehyde so there is a specimen that can be identified easily from the books. Any further specimens of that species are frozen at minus 70 degrees Celsius. These frozen specimens can be thawed out later and used for genetic studies. In order to transport frozen samples, they are packed in dry ice, which keeps them frozen until they reach the lab in Woods Hole. Thanks again for you questions. Sincerely,
Dear Dr. Kurz and Dr. Fornari, My name is Sharon and I’m a 7th grade student of Miss Sheild’s class in Lexington, Ma. I went to your website and have been reading the Daily Updates Section of your site almost every day. I was just wondering when you found the gray-green sediment in the core catcher, but it was not the ash you were looking for, after all that work, were you frustrated with your findings? Can you still use the sediment to help you the next time you use the core catcher? I really enjoy your site especially the video of the Cerro Azul Volcano, good luck and thanks for taking the time to read my questions! ~Sharon Dear Sharon- Thanks for your question and for checking in on Dive and Discover’s Galapagos expedition. We were not frustrated with our finding the gray=green sediment. That’s one of the great things about doing science and field research, you are always surprised by the results. Sometimes the results match what your theory or idea was, and sometimes you get answers or data you were not expecting- that's when the fun starts - to begin to figure out the puzzle. Geological research is, in many ways, a puzzle that takes lots of different type of data or evidence (clues) to figure out. That’s why on this cruise we are using both sonar mapping and dredging to sample the rocks, as well as trying to core the sediments. Yes- we certainly can use both the sediment and the glass we got in the corer in our analyses. We’re glad you like the site and the information we are posting. Keep Diving and Discovering with us. Best Regards,
Hello, Our names are Rachel and Emma, and we’re in Mrs. Shield’s 7th grade class at Clarke Middle School in Lexington, Massachusetts. We really enjoyed reading about your expedition and we have some questions we would like to ask you. Emma: We were having a discussion in school about professions, and I was totally lost. I was wondering how and when you guys decided to become scientists. Were you our age, younger, or older? Did you always know you wanted to be a scientist? Rachel: I really love learning about living things, so I was wondering what kind of animals you saw under water. Have you gotten close to any whales or sharks or octopi? What are the fish like? I really don’t know anything about undersea creatures so I’d love it if I could learn something about them. Thanks a lot for your time! Hi Rachel and Emma, Glad to hear that you are enjoying following our website. I cannot speak for everyone on the cruise, but I personally have known that I wanted to be a scientist since I was about your age. I had a really good biology teacher in sixth and seventh grade, who got me really interested in learning more about science. I took some summer courses in marine biology and decided that was what I really wanted to do, and still do. It is different for other people though. Some like me have always been interested in science, while others did not discover a passion for it until college, or later. You can see photos of some of the animals that we have seen in the Daily Update slideshows. We see whales from the ship quite often, but no sharks or octopi. We saw both sharks and an octopus when we were snorkeling in Santa Fe Bay. The fish around here are very diverse. We’ve seen things such as the deep-sea tripod fish as well as damselfish and wrasse depending upon the area that we are in. If you are interested in learning about more about sea creatures, there’s a lot of information about them out there. Keep following our website, or go talk to your librarian about where to find some books about marine biology. Sincerely, Kate Buckman
Hello, my name is Leigh, and I’m one of Ms. Sheild's students at Clarke Middle school in lexington, MA. I’m doing this for extra credit, and I have a few questions I would like to ask you. When you were on the bus ride from Puerto Ayora to the airport, and had to go from the length of the island, what was it like to feel the climates change all of a sudden? Does it feel strange or anything? Also...what exactly is that sea cucumber (or the red holothurian), and how can you tell which side is the head? Do you take notes on the organisms you find, measure them, and then put them back, or do you take them with you? And finally...Do you enjoy having animals, such as gulls, accompanying you along the journey? I really enjoyed reading and seeing the slide shows. I’ll be checking in every day!! Leigh Hi Leigh, Thanks for your questions, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the website. We didn’t experience a very drastic climate change in Puerto Ayora. Sea cucumbers are a type of animal that live on the seafloor. They are in the same family as sea urchins and starfish. A sea cucumber often looks like a large worm (or a cucumber), and is basically a tube with an intestinal tract inside. The head side can be distinguished by mouthparts, whereas the other end is just a hole. We do measure and take notes on the organisms we find, and we also take them with us. Most of the animals are already dead when they come up with the dredge, so throwing them back would not benefit either the organism, or our studies. It is always neat to be accompanied by animals on our journey. Keep checking the website for new information.
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