A Superior Cruise

We are back! For the last week and a half Anthony and I have been participating in a UNOLS Chief Scientist Training Cruise on Lake Superior. On a research cruise, one person is designated as the chief scientist. This person has responsibility for balancing the research needs of various groups against the time available at sea. Sometimes this is called herding cats. The chief scientist also interfaces between the science party and the ship's crew. Our training cruise took place aboard the R/V Blue Heron, which is owned by the Large Lakes Observatory (LLO) at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The Blue Heron is the smallest research vessel that I have been aboard, at 86 feet long. Nonetheless, the ship got the job done and the crew lived up to its reputation for being incredibly helpful and accommodating in getting the scientists' work done.

The Blue Heron in port.

The scientific party included Doug Ricketts, the marine superintendent at the LLO; a geomicrobiologist from Michigan State University; a geophysicist from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; a biological limnologist from Michigan Technological University; and Anthony and me. (Note: limnology is the study of inland waters, including lakes.) I truly enjoyed meeting all these new people and getting a peek at their research. Without a doubt, this was a great group of people.

We set sail last Friday, passing under Duluth's lift bridge as we exited the harbor.

So long, Duluth!

The lift bridge

Under the bridge

We spent the next five days collecting water and sediment samples, and conducting experiments aboard ship.The story is probably easier told through pictures. We had fantastic weather throughout the cruise. The lake was almost perfectly calm the entire time. This is very helpful for getting good samples.

Some pictures of the ship:

The "clean room tent" we made in the dry lab.

Inside the tent--ready to process samples

The wet lab

Dining area

Galley

Science in action:

Collecting water samples from the rosette

Foad being all science-y

Jason, the marine tech, next to the CTD. CTD stands for conductivity, temperature, and depth. There are electronics underneath the bottles that measure these characteristics as the CTD is lowered to the bottom of the lake or ocean. There are also other sensors that measure things like oxygen, pH, and fluorescence.

CTD going down

Jason hard at work (or hardly working?)

Hauling the CTD on board after it has returned to the surface

Having fun while at sea is an absolute requirement! We took some time to enjoy the sights on this beautiful lake, and we sent some poor styrofoam cups down to the bottom of the lake. Pressure increases in any body of water as you go deeper, so the cups returned to the surface a bit shorter than they started.

Bald eagle!

Cups tied to the CTD inside a pillowcase, ready for their journey to the bottom.

Two squashed cups on the left, and a new cup on the right for comparison.

Getting silly with the cameras

We returned to port on Wednesday and made the long drive home on Thursday. Now the real work begins as we analyze our samples, and share our data and learning with one another in the months to come.

After our cruise I also have a new found appreciation for Lake Superior and a few outstanding questions about it. I will try to look into this in the coming week and post about some of the local geology next time. There are some very old rocks in the area so it should be quite fascinating.