03 June 2004 & 04 June 2004

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 84

June 3 and 4

Yesterday and today were mostly spent sampling and preparing to go on the boat. We thought we might be able to go on the boat today, but then the ice had not cleared out enough for it to be safe. It was lucky that we didn’t have a ton to do, because Max and I spent a good part of the afternoon answering all the great questions that were posted to the website. Thanks for keeping us busy. Hopefully we will be able to keep up with them all.

Max and I did some temperature testing today and we collected some interesting data. Let’s see if you can figure out some of the mystery. First, before we headed out to the water, we checked the thermometer at the lodge. It read 13 C and then when we were at the water, we measured the water temperature which was 1.8 C and then the air which was 8 C. The wind was blowing slightly from the south, and it was sunny from the time we left the lodge to when we got to the water. Any ideas as to why there was such a change in air temperature?

The weather has gotten considerably better. Today, after sampling, some of us went on a hike into the forest. I only had to wear a short sleeved shirt. However, with the warmer temperatures also come the bugs, and I saw some huge mosquitoes on the way and even got almost bit by one.

So after we collect samples, some of the water we collect needs to be refrigerated and some of it needs to be frozen and stay frozen until it gets to the lab where it is going to be analyzed. How the water gets to where it is going in the States is an interesting story. First, the samples that need to be frozen are frozen as quickly as possible after we collect them. Then when we leave Zhigansk, we’ll pack all of the frozen samples together in a fancy blue cooler with several ice packs, and bring them with us to Yakutsk. We’ll stay in Yakutsk for one night, so when we get there we’ll put the samples and the ice packs into a freezer. Then the next day when we leave for Moscow, we’ll repack the cooler and take it with us. In Moscow we’ll be met by a man named Sergei Karzan. He’ll take our Lena River samples, store them in a freezer, and after he completes all the necessary paperwork for them to be exported from Russia. Once that is done, he’ll ship them to New York along with other samples of ours from the Ob’, Yenisey, and Kolyma rivers. Finally, Tom Quinn (who works for a company called VECO and lives in Denver, Colorado) will meet the samples in New York, get them through U.S. customs, and then drive them to Woods Hole, Massachusetts to deliver them to Max who will put them in a freezer at the Marine Biological Laboratory until they are analyzed. So by the time the Lena River samples reach Woods Hole, they’ll have been in 4 or 5 different freezers on 3 continents!

With luck, tomorrow we’ll be on the river!!!