Wednesday, March 7, 2012

What A Difference A Day Makes...

While marine biology is still hypothetically biology based, it acts more like the wild crazy ADHD sibling of traditional biology. When the ocean is your lab, nothing is ever predictable or boring. We tend to be slaves to Murphy's law. Equipment is dropped off boats, plots are ripped up, and as always, conditions for diving can be incredibly tricky. It makes sitting at a lab bench look like child's play. This week in Ocean and Coastal Processes, we're studying how currents move, what conditions cause what wave patterns, and so on. To measure water velocity, we set up a meter long pipe and squirted harmless pink dye at one end, and timed how long it took to reach the other end of the pipe. It goes to show how different conditions can give beautiful results one day and "special" results the next. Check it out in the video below :)



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