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Naomi Ward - Atlantis Science Expedition
Journal - Live July 30 to August 23, 2004
Wednesday August 4, 2004
16:55:06 GMT, 9:55am shiptime
Dickins Seamount, 54W 136N
Since I last wrote, we have
moved about 30 miles NE to Dickens Seamount.
Dickens and Denson (our last seamount)
are an intriguing pair, because they are
geographically very close, but geologically
vastly different in age. We are making
our way up a chain of seamounts that,
as a rule, get older the further we move
from the coast. This is because each seamount
originally was positioned over a volcanically
active region called the Cobb Hotspot.
As the tectonic plate slid over the hotspot,
each seamount was formed, and then pushed
northwest as the plate continued to move.
The hotspot is currently located off the
coast of northern Oregon. So Dickens is
the odd man out, a baby seamount at only
4 million years old, while its neighbor
Denson is 18 million years old. One of
the geological objectives of our cruise
is to try to figure out this puzzle.
So yesterday was a big day for some of
us on the Atlantis. Catalina Martinez,
Expedition Coordinator from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) Office of Ocean Exploration (OE),
was getting her first Alvin dive. NOAA
OE is funding this cruise, and Catalina
is responsible for liason between science,
crew, and Alvin group, for making sure
all the reports, logs, websites, and other
information vehicles are generated and
submitted, for coaxing essays and logs
out of harried scientists, and for generally
being the glue that holds the whole expedition
together. It helps that Catalina is a
vivacious, high-energy, and personable
creature, with a hallmark laugh that can
penetrate the deepest corners of the ship.
She is a Rhode Islander of Cuban heritage,
and doesn't take any BS, but is amazingly
good at soothing ruffled feathers. And
believe me, we have some ruffled plumage
out here sometimes...
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| Catalina Martinez
enters the DSV Alvin for her first
dive (Alvin dive 4027), with Mark
Spear, Alvin Pilot in Training, preparing
the sub for launch. Image courtesy
of of G.P. Schmahl, FGBNMS - From
NOAA
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Catalina has been coming to sea on the
Atlantis for 3 years, but not yet had
an Alvin dive, which must be something
of a record. So as you can imagine, yesterday
morning she was up with the larks at 5am,
very excited to be finally seeing a dream
come true. She was swaddled in several
layers of clothing (it gets very cold
in the sub when they reach the bottom
- ambient temperature is about 2 degrees
Celsius, or about 35F), topped off with
a borrowed sweatshirt that swamped her
rather diminutive frame. The need for
borrowed clothing was due to the Alvin
ban on synthetic fibers. The awful possibility
of fire within the personnel sphere means
that anything flammable, including the
cozy warm fleece that most of us bring
out here, is a no-no in the sub. Natural
fibers only. Same goes for anything of
petrochemical origin, including makeup
and, to Catalina's chagrin, lip balm.
We had a delayed launch yesterday, so
Catalina was bouncing around the ship,
restraining herself from drinking caffeinated
beverages due to the limited restroom
facilities on Alvin. When it was finally
time to launch, we watched her disappear
into the sub with one of the biggest smiles
I have ever seen on the Atlantis. As the
last orange of the sail sank below the
waves, I have to admit I felt some qualms.
Since we first met on Atlantis two years
ago, Catalina and I have become very close.
At the end of 2002, we both moved to the
same part of the DC area, she from a grim
grey apartment block in Silver Spring,
and me from the suburban blandness of
Germantown. We both landed in Takoma Park,
a green and lovely enclave of old Victorian
houses and 1920s bungalows, old old trees
and flower-filled gardens, a refuge for
aging hippies and new generations of those
with a decided political lean to the left.
Takoma is a kind of Berkeley-on-the-Potomac,
dubbed "The People's Republic of
Takoma Park", and one of the few
municipalities in which an alien being
pursued under the provisions of the Patriot
Act can claim sanctuary (not sure how
well that would work in reality). Unknowingly,
Catalina and I found houses to rent only
5 short blocks from each other, and many
festive evenings were spent around a blazing
chiminea in Catalina's garden.
But I didn't have time to worry, as I
had work of a most important kind to do...First-time
Alvin divers are always "greeted"
by a volley of ice-water when they clamber
out of the sub. Additional embellishments
to the traditional reception ceremony
include the theft of the diver's underwear
and shoes, usually followed by deep-freezing,
or sometimes attachment to some high-flying
and visible appendage of the ship. The
wily Catalina had stashed her underwear
in some secret location, leaving only
one skimpy lacy piece in her drawer, with
a note saying "Freeze this, buddy!"
In the case of Alvin pilots on their first
dive, the water is replaced by a truly
revolting and pungent concoction of kitchen
slops. I sought inspiration from others
while sitting in the mess, and we gradually
formulated a plan...
Catalina, healthy creature that she is,
had brought her own breakfast cereal.
So we decided to add a "Dr Scholl"-type
massage to the insoles of her sneakers,
with the exfoliating agent of choice being
Shredded Spoonfuls. We also figured that
mere buckets of ice-water were insufficient
treatment for an Atlantis veteran of Catalina's
stature, so in the main lab we prepared
armaments - a whole milk crate full of
water balloons, to be deployed prior to
the buckets. The final coup-de-grace was
securing an Atlantis T-shirt and getting
everyone on board to sign their name.
The finished work was hung on her desk,
which we also festooned with streamers
and balloons. The crew prepared a "Sweet
Catalina" welcome mat.
As the sub was hoisted on deck, we prepared
our troops by distributing the water balloons.
Some of the infantry were positioned on
main deck level, while others were stationed
on the battlements and parapets of 01
and 02 deck. On command, we bombarded
the lovely Catalina until she was suitably
soaked, but an unforeseen occurrence was
undetonated ammunition that landed on
deck and was returned with gusto by the
victim. When all the fun and games was
over, we let her go get dried off, and
turned to the Alvin basket. It was another
good haul this time, lots of rocks due
to the principally geological focus of
this dive. One of the "rock-people",
Rachel, carried one of the larger specimens
away after inquiring "is it heavy?".
In my ignorance, I had thought that all
rocks are heavy, but apparently the "good"
rocks are heavier than the "bad"
rocks.
On the biological side, it was also a
fascinating haul - several corals, but
also a giant bristly glass sponge, with
a big tuft of attachment bristles at the
base that, if you turned the sponge upside
down, looked for all the world like Bill
Clinton's hair. Also a translucent holothurian
(sea cucumber) with protruding tentacles
that allow it to "walk" along
the bottom (or so I heard). Other finds
were a little brown jellyfish, and more
of the sea spiders I described yesterday.
Meanwhile, in the bio lab, Kevin and I
were spreading coral mucus on glass slides
(yum), and looking for associated microbes.
We found that the mucus was dominated
by big eggplant-shaped cells that were
probably zooplankton, and lots of oval
and rod-shaped bacteria buzzing around.
Catalina's dive day was capped off to
perfection by a gorgeous sunset at around
10pm, and a double rainbow against grey
clouds to our port side. The weather so
far has been much better than our 2002
cruise, but according to Patrick, our
Chief Mate, there are two low-pressure
systems brewing to the north and east
of us. Add that to the fairly stationary
high-pressure system to our west, and
we may have a situation. Oh goody, it's
The Perfect Storm. It's too early to tell
whether we will have problems, but as
we are due to stay here at Dickens for
the next three days so we kind of have
to wait for it to come get us.
Signing off from Dickens Seamount,
Best wishes to all,
Naomi
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