Saturday, February 12, 2005...

Alvin dives continue. Today, Steve Hurst and Meagen Pollock are the science observers, and the pilot is Bruce Strickrott. It is a tradition to throw ice water on a scientist after their first Alvin dive (see soaked Meagen Pollock, with gleeful advisor Emily Klein holding empty bucket). The second and third photos below were taken by Mark Spear, a diver in the water who assists in the deployment and recovery of Alvin. After the Alvin dive, we did our first night-time dredge of the ocean floor, in an effort to recovered the deepest rocks of the oceanic crust (gabbros); the dredge, however, recovered about 800 lbs of upper crustal basalt.