I05 Log: Cups Under Pressure
One fun activity for deep CTD casts is to shrink styrofoam cups. The cups have air in them, which is forced out as the cups are taken to higher and higher pressures. Our deepest cast was 6000 m, or about 6000 dbar pressure. This means that the cups shrink, and when they return to the surface, they are much smaller than they were before. Scientists and crew decorated cups ahead of our deepest station. Some of these cups were gifts for people back at home, some were souvenirs, and some were used for outreach purposes.
Kay attaching cups to the rosette using a laundry bag and zip ties. Photo by Jim Lamoonkit
A closer view of the cups before being sent down to 6000 m.
Some scientists even decorated styrofoam eggs! These shrunk an impressive amountso much that it became difficult to read anything that had been written on them.
Some of the cups and eggs after being sent down to 6000 m.
Three cups decorated with identical designs. The cup on the left was not shrunk, the middle cup was submerged to 800 m, and the right cup was submerged to 6000 m. Photo by Steven Akin