Posts by sackerman
Mountains Beneath the Waves
For the past several days, we have been making our way over an underwater mountain chain called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, or MAR for short. This ridge, which snakes its way…
Read MoreAccess to research vessels for people with disabilities
I’m well aware that there is tremendous variation in the civil rights of people with disabilities from country to country. But I was very surprised to learn yesterday that there…
Read MoreMeals on board the R/V Knorr, or Why Blind People Hate Buffets!
This is our fifth day at sea. The weather is still cool and foggy, but the winds have dropped to almost nothing. Because high winds lead to high seas, we…
Read MoreFirst Sound Source Mooring
This morning we woke up early to get ready for the first sound source mooring deployment on this cruise leg. As described in earlier posts, the sound sources will be…
Read MoreOceanography and Sound
Sound is used by humans and marine life to communicate underwater. This is partly because electro-magnetic waves (including light) do not penetrate very far through water. Sunlight is more or…
Read MorePhysical versus Intellectual ability
Today I was recalling a topic that I discussed years ago with a professional personal coach. At the time, I was preparing to go on another research cruise, this time…
Read MoreGood News for Floats, Part 3
Picking up from Part 2 (because I forgot to paste in the text for the whole story).. The monitoring float heard very clear signals from two of the three sound…
Read MoreRemember Gumby?
Right after leaving port this morning, we had a routine safety meeting and drill. As part of this, we were shown how to use short-term oxygen systems (with just enough…
Read MoreGood News for Floats, Part 2
This brings me to the first good news for the OSNAP float program. The first three of the 10 OSNAP sound sources were deployed from the Knorr as it made…
Read MoreDeparture Day
We finally left Reykjavik today at 0900 as scheduled, under sunny skies. Temps are still chilly – around 50F. But we are steaming downwind so the ship has a rather…
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