March 7, 2008

Or at least granite and metamorphosed sedimentary rocks, we hope. There
are exactly two people on board who have any geologic experience: Dave and
Kim. We also have a rough map from the folks in SC indicating where they
would like us to sample. With map in hand, we cruise around a location
looking for landing sites with binoculars. Then the zodiac launches with
the collectors, a few rock hammers and a maul.


This sure looks like basalt to me?

At the first site, Dave and Kim were a bit concerned. All the rocks
appeared to be basalt. They finally located some granite, sampled it and
also brought back some basalt-looking rocks, just in case. At the second
site, we hit the jackpot finding the sedimentary material our colleagues
in SC are wanting.


Rock hounds on the hunt.

While some of the gang were honing their rock hounding skills, Rebecca set
out with the electronics techs and the remotely operated vehicle (ROV).
We are trying to determine if we can use the ROV to collect animals for
feeding experiments. We’ll update you on that venture tomorrow.


Fabio got this fun shot of the Gould from shore.

Position: 68 degrees 09.214 minutes South; 67 degrees 06.942 minutes West
Heading: 265.3 degrees
Speed over ground: 0.0 knots
Air temp. 4.1 degrees C; Water temp. 0.851 degrees C