Who would have thought that there are such things as deep-sea corals - up to 4000 metres deep - what are they doing there? Clearly instead of the usual so-existence they have with photosynthesising creatures, they have struck up a friendship with some other non-light-requiring energy source. You can date them by doing various radioisotope studies. There is in fact a phenomenon called the "Bomb spike" which is a peak in radioisotopes occurring, across all organisms, in 1957 which is due to atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. For deep-sea creatures, this "Bomb Spike" occurs later, which means you can get a measure of how long it takes for surface nutrients to get down to the level at which they are living.
The penguin woman also claims there is such a things as a "Homing Limpet" - a small limpet which drills itself very slightly into a rock and then lasts out the dry times between tides by having a perfect seal with the rock. It returns there every day. To exactly the same bit of rock, and just nestles in a bit more each day. They don't have eyes, legs, or even much of a brain. You can move them away from the rock and they still find it. Even up to 4 metres away and they still somehow do it. (They didn't try any further than 4 metres). Even if you scrub the rock clean, or cut a chunk out of the rock so that they can't just be following a surface chemical trail, they still get home each day. Weird. Have to look this one up, as it sounds too weird to be true.
POSITION: 59 37, 145 31
WEATHER CONDITIONS: 8/8 cloud, low fog. 16kts SE wind.
AIR TEMPERATURE: 2.7
SEA TEMPERATURE: 2.6
The water temp in Hobart was 17 degrees, it slowly went down to 10.5 in the first 2 days, and then when we crossed the Antarctic Convergence (where the cold antarctic waters meet the warmer southern ocean waters) it dropped to only 3 degrees in 12 hours. The air temperature was a close match.
Only photo from today is a view out the front of the ship. Foggy, cold but fantastically calm. I have not been seasick at all.
___________________________________________________________________________
Australian Antarctic Division - Commonwealth of Australia
IMPORTANT: This transmission is intended for the addressee only. If you are not the
intended recipient, you are notified that use or dissemination of this communication is
strictly prohibited by Commonwealth law. If you have received this transmission in error,
please notify the sender immediately by e-mail or by telephoning +61 3 6232 3209 and
DELETE the message.
Visit our web site at http://www.antarctica.gov.au/
___________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment