Under Pressure

Since leaving Rothera Station we scientists have been busy in our laboratories. Our ship is zig-zagging on and off shore to the west of the Antarctica Peninsula, stopping at pre-determined locations to collect water and plankton samples. Some of these stations are located above the continental shelf – a stretch of underwater land that is about 300 meters (~ 950 feet) deep. This shelf has numerous features where it gets deeper (troughs and canyons) which influence how the water moves, where plankton live, and bigger picture things like where whales go to eat. When we continue to move off-shore the shelf drops off and the seafloor is ~ 3,000 meters (~ 2 miles). That’s ten times deeper!

Imagine diving down to the bottom of the deep end in a swimming pool. One of the most noticeable feelings is that your ears begin to hurt. This is due to the pressure of ~ 5 meters of water above you. The scientific equipment we send down to collect data about the water (temperature, salinity, oxygen content, etc.) has to be specially built to withstand extremely high pressures – way more than what you could withstand. One way to visualize the pressure is to send down a piece of Styrofoam. Those of us on the ship who feel artistically inclined (… and some of us who don’t) have been decorating cups to attach to our equipment and send down 3,000 meters. Below are two photos of my cups: before and after. As you can see, the pressure compacts the Styrofoam quite a bit

Before

After