Ship-to-Shore

We have been transiting for last several days and we are about to reach our next station. Things are going to be busy real fast. We encountered a little choppy weather here and there, so at times we had to slow down. Many of us saw our first iceberg, which was extremely exciting.
​
During this long transit, we have been talking to a lot of students from a range of classrooms on shore. So far we have connected with thousands of students - elementary, middle-school and high-school - in the USA and Switzerland (find resources for educators here). It has been super fun to see people interested in the work we are doing and we are equally happy to show them around the ship and explain what we are doing. 

Students submitted a range of questions that our scientists have answered - see the FAQ below!

How does your research help with climate change?

One of the ways we understand how our climate is changing is by looking at changes in climate throughout Earth's history. We do this by using something called "proxies" - a chemical measurement we can make in the modern day that reflects some geologic process in the past! Neodymium (Nd) is one of the key focuses of this research cruise and is often used as a proxy for water masses and ocean circulation throughout Earth's history. But we can only use proxies like Nd to reconstruct that past if we understand how these elements behave in the ocean: where do they come from, are they removed, and what other processes might impact them?
​
We use our understanding of how different Earth processes relate to each other to inform the models we use to project changes in our climate. By studying the past, we can better understand our present and what we think might happen in the future.

How do you collect and analyze water samples from thousands of meters deep?

Some of the deepest water we're collecting on this cruise is 3600 m deep (that's about the length of 33 American Football fields)! At that depth, we can't swim down and simply collect the seawater in a bottle.
​
We use a special instrument called a CTD (which stands for Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth) that measures the salinity and temperature of the water. We lower it on a wire and get readings sent back to the ship. Attached to this instrument are 24 special bottles called Niskin Bottles, which are open as we send the CTD down. Sending the CTD to 3600 m can take over an hour!
​
Once we have a profile of what the salinity and temperature is like, we decide which depths we want to sample seawater from. Then, we bring the CTD back up to each of those depths and "fire" the bottle to close it. Once all the bottles have been closed, we bring the CTD onto the deck of the ship and the scientists collect samples of the water depths they want to study.

How do you use sediment to learn about what the ocean was like thousands of years ago?

There are multiple ways we can look at sediment to learn about what the ocean was like thousands of years ago, but on this cruise, we have people looking at microfossils within the sediment. These are super tiny creatures the size of a grain of sand called foraminifera that either live in the sediment (called benthic foraminifera) or live in the water column (planktonic foraminifera). These creatures build a shell out of a material called calcium carbonate, which is the same material seashells and coral are made of. They build these shells by taking calcium and carbonate dissolved in seawater and combine them into a hard shell. But while they build these shells, other elements dissolved in seawater (like magnesium or lithium) can enter the shell structure. Changes in the seawater can affect how much of these other elements enter the shell.
​
When these creatures die, they get buried in the sediment. Then, scientists can look at the chemistry of the foraminifera shells across thousands-of-years’ worth of sediment layers to learn about those changes the seawater chemistry.

How do you make sure your samples aren't contaminated?

We are studying trace amounts of metals (like iron) in a big metal ship! Fortunately, there are ways to make sure our samples don't get contaminated. One of the ways we do this is by making something called a "clean bubble" on the ship. We put up plastic sheets to make a tent like room and filter the air that is pumped into the space. We affectionately call it "The Bubble" because it looks like a bubble in the middle of the main lab.
​
Anyone who works in The Bubble must change their shoes to special clean Crocs and wear clean clothes that won't shed fibers into the samples. We make sure to clean our sampling equipment with super clean water before using it and we store all our samples in pre-cleaned containers to ship back to our labs on land for analysis.

Have you ever encountered any dangerous situations at sea?

One of the challenges of doing research at sea is making sure the ship, crew, and scientists are all safe. The Captain has been working with the crew and scientists to make sure we avoid situations that could be dangerous (such as extreme weather or sea ice). Things like sea ice can sometime interfere with our ability to collect samples, so we must stay flexible as the expedition progresses. But safety is a top priority!
​
To make sure we're ready for any possible situation, we do safety drills about once a week, so we know what to do and where to go in case of an emergency. Since we're in the North Atlantic, we're keeping a close eye on both stormy weather and sea ice, and making sure everyone on the ship feels prepared for any possible situation.

Thanks to all the scientists who helped organize and run these ship-to-shore sessions. We had fun during those sessions and I hope everybody who joined had fun too. We are about to reach our next station, so have to keep this short today.

​More to come, so stay tuned.

Author

Chandranath Basak