We just completed a CTD station in 1500 m of water. It took about an hour to go down and back. The maximum speed of descent/ascent is 60 m per minute. Later tonight (or this morning) we will do a 2200 m station which will be a record for me. I am a continental shelf guy. It is hard to imagine doing 6000 m stations.
As a school project event we are doing every ones favourite ocean activity - compressing styrofoam cups. My colleagues brought a large number of cups that have been decorated by elementary school kids. We put them in a mesh bag, tie them to the CTD, and send them down into the depths. The compressed cups are the taken back to the kids. Very educational I am sure.
The 2 cups in the back are the regular size, the two in the middle went down to 1000 m and the two in the front went down to 1575 m (just a few minutes ago).
When I first read about the styrofoam cups I thought you guys were crushing them yourselves :P I wasn't sure how that was going to be educational for the kids. It looks like a very cool school project though, they shrink so much!
ReplyDeleteI have now revised the text to explain what we do.
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