Posts by cswauthor

I’ve got microbes on my mind…

Published on: Author: cswauthor

I’m on this research cruise to investigate controls on surface water chemistry that influence sea spray composition. Sea spray is generated at the ocean’s surface, from waves breaking at the beach, and also from howling winds creating choppy water with whitecaps and many, many bubbles. Sea spray is one of two major natural sources of… Continue reading

Ocean pH

Published on: Author: cswauthor

The oceans play a major role in the carbon cycle, storing about 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere. The rise in atmospheric CO2 as a result of human activities (burning fossil fuels, cement production, etc.) has been significantly slowed by the uptake and storage of about a third of this carbon by the oceans.… Continue reading

Nitrogen!

Published on: Author: cswauthor

Nitrogen! This simple element controls so much about life in the ocean and therefore Earth’s climate as a whole. Much of the ocean’s fertility is limited by nitrogen – an essential ingredient for making DNA and proteins – so in in many ways, the availability of this nutrient sets the concentration of greenhouse gases like… Continue reading

Off Catalina Island

Published on: Author: cswauthor
Catalina Island

We’ve headed back a bit more inshore from our deep water station, and are collecting samples to the southwest of Catalina Island (pictured above, illuminated by the light pollution on its other side). The weather has turned cool and rainy, almost like it suddenly remembered it was February, and shouldn’t be warm and sunny all… Continue reading

A (Slightly Late) Valentine’s Day Love Story: Rusalka and MIMSy

Published on: Author: cswauthor

  Prior to the departure of this oceanographic expedition, two (overly-personified) scientific instruments met in the back of a snugly packed minivan as it made the long rush hour trek from L.A. to San Diego to catch the ship. Packed snugly between toolboxes, backpacks, and a (soaking wet) stinky wetsuit, these two beloved pieces of… Continue reading

Sunset

Published on: Author: cswauthor
sunset 1

Tonight’s sunset. Not a bad one. I give it a 9/10. No green “flash,” but definitely lots of green as it dipped under the horizon.       Posted by Chris

Coring in the Deep

Published on: Author: cswauthor

Tonight we cored in deep water off the California shelf. The unique bathymetry of the California Borderlands means you don’t get a standard shelf-slope profile as you head offshore, but if you go west far enough, you finally get past all the Borderland basins and find a true shelf break, past which the water is… Continue reading

Categories: Mud