And We're Off!

The first day we all got together was terrific! Introductions were made in class with Dr. Greely, along with many jokes. I could already see us getting really close after only a few hours of knowing each other. Kayaking in the rain was probably the highlight of the entire day. For the next two days everyone kept asking about going out on the kayaks again.

Day two started with an early rise, and breakfast courtesy of Brock (thank you by the way :) ). Dr. G went gave us a brief overview of all that we would be learning for the next 5 weeks. By this time we had all gotten pretty close and were picking fun at each other and having a great time!

Notes from class.

Watching the wax model demonstrating ocean rifts and sea floor spreading was AMAZING! This lab was so cool, and everyone was vying for a position to watch the show. We then went to learn about forams and we saw a core sample pulled from an anoxic environment (these are really good at preserving layers). Some formas can get large enough to see without a microscope! But most were still extremely small. There was also mass spectrometers, one of them was an "antique" that was originally used. It was all glass pipes and looked like a mad scientist chemistry set! We met up with Dr. G again for a density lab, which would show us the different stratification levels in the ocean. We died hot freshwater, cold freshwater, low salt concentrated water (14 ppt), and high salt concentrated water (25 ppt) different colors to observe how they behaved when mixed together. The result was spectacular!

Wax ocean floor.

"Mountain ranges" forming!

Blue: cold freshwater, Red: low salt concentration, Green: high salt concentration, Yellow: hot freshwater
The top layer of blue and yellow began mixing together (forming another lighter green layer) the yellow slipped under the blue and began pushing upwards!

On day three, was learned about the different types of organisms the lived in the ocean, how they are classified, and the adaptations they each posses! We then moved on to learn about satellite imaging and how they can measure chlorophyll concentrations and the temperature of the surface water in the ocean. The next stop we saw highly detailed images of microscopic bacteria and viruses. Some were even in 3-D! Everyone got a kick out of looking at dinoflagellates, cyanobacteria, and coccolithophores, among others (which are around 500 to 20 micrometers across). After a coffee break, we returned to Dr. G's lab and looked at preserved fish specimens. Although the smell made me nauseous, it was still pretty cool to look at a bonnethead (shovelhead) shark up close and personal!

Bonnethead (shovelhead) shark
Sphyrna tiburo

I am really excited to spend another 5 weeks with this diverse and fantastic group of people! Having already gotten to know each other better, and still laughing and learning everyday, I can see us making last friendships. I also know that these next weeks are not going to be boring at all, especially traveling across the state with 12 other people!