The last of the water has been collected and we are now steaming south to land. It has been a great last week filled with fun and lots of hard work. Things are getting packed up and cleaned for the next group of scientists who will board in Phuket. We did have a break in the work in order to have a quick talent show. This was part of the initiation procedures for all of us Wogs (those who have never crossed the equator) to earn our Shellback statuses. My group put on a great performance portraying some of the famous Rogers (as we are traveling aboard the great R/V Roger Revelle)- many thanks to the UOWWP ladies for helping me brainstorm such a wonderful idea. My choice as Roger Rabbit and luckily I packed my foul weather gear for this trip and had red overalls for the occasion!
Here’s a quick excerpt from the final report that my chief scientist wrote and I think it sums up our work well:
"Over the last 5 weeks we have done a total of 113 stations, plus trace metals casts, optics casts and continuous underway sampling (while on station and in between stations). Even leftover water from the niskins was used for unplanned measurements to be run back in our labs. We have an excellent quality dataset to work with when we get back to land. As we moved northwards we observed a freshening of surface waters, a drop in subsurface oxygen levels, high carbon concentrations in the western region, and I’m sure we have a lot of interesting biogeochemical information that will come from all the samples to be ran back in our home labs."
Rather than drone on and on about all the wonderful things we have learned from our science, let me leave you with some photos from the last week.
Here’s a quick excerpt from the final report that my chief scientist wrote and I think it sums up our work well:
"Over the last 5 weeks we have done a total of 113 stations, plus trace metals casts, optics casts and continuous underway sampling (while on station and in between stations). Even leftover water from the niskins was used for unplanned measurements to be run back in our labs. We have an excellent quality dataset to work with when we get back to land. As we moved northwards we observed a freshening of surface waters, a drop in subsurface oxygen levels, high carbon concentrations in the western region, and I’m sure we have a lot of interesting biogeochemical information that will come from all the samples to be ran back in our home labs."
Rather than drone on and on about all the wonderful things we have learned from our science, let me leave you with some photos from the last week.
We arrive on land tomorrow. After 2 days helping to clean up the ship and prepare for a big Coast Guard inspection they are having, I will travel with some fellow scientists north to a national park (Khao Sok) where we will do some hiking and camping. Afterwards I will return to Phuket, meeting up with Matt, and spend the last few days in Thailand scuba diving in the beautiful waters of the Andaman Sea! Thanks for following along on my adventures...until next time!