TEACHERS: Email your students’ questions to Trish Mace, tmace@uoregon.edu Include school, grade, and if wanted, student’s first name.  A limited number of questions will be sent to the ship each day.  Questions with answers will be posted here.  Scroll down for various sets of questions.

This top group combines recent questions from various schools, questions that have  not been answered in earlier sets.  If you do not see your question in this first group, keep scrolling down and you will likely find your question answered in an earlier set.  This group of questions answered by GK12 fellow, Myndee McNeill:

What has surprised you most? What has surprised me most is how much we don’t know about the bottom of the ocean. You hear people say that it is undiscovered, and that we know less about the bottom of the ocean than we do about the surface of the moon, but it is amazing how really little we do know. These are fascinating, amazing, beautiful, and REALLY strange creatures that we know almost nothing about. Every dive brought up dozens of questions and new discoveries, and we were just scratching the surface! Everyone was able to see something new on each dive. There is just so much down there that we know nothing about, so this experience really drove that point home for me.

How cold is it at the bottom of the ocean? How cold is it in the sub? It’s really cold at the bottom of the ocean! The first time I went down, the water was about 44 degrees, and the second time, it was 48. We have to keep the animals that we are working with in a cold room, which is like a giant fridge, so that they can stay cold. The sub doesn’t get that cold; in the front, they actually have air conditioning so that it doesn’t get too warm! The back gets pretty cold, but if you wear a few layers, it’s fine.

What’s the weather like up top? We have had really great weather! The neat thing about being surrounded by water in all directions is that you can see storms coming from miles away, and you can watch storms that are happening miles away. We watched a really amazing lightning storm a few nights ago. We’ve only had a couple of days when it’s rained, and only for a little while. The rest of the time, it’s been mostly sunny, but with some clouds so it’s not too hot. It’s really humid, so the air feels a little sticky, too. Nights are the best; warm, with a cool breeze. The water is fairly calm as well, so there have been no major bouts of sea-sickness.

Have you had any hurricanes? Nope.

Have you seen a whirlpool underwater? No whirlpools, but when the thrusters were holding us down on the bottom when we were getting core samples, it made a little “tornado” in the water. You could see the sediment spinning around in a long column. It looked really cool. There have been a lot of methane seeps as well, where we see methane bubbling out of the ground.

What do you feel like in the sub? Do you feel the pressure? The sub doors are sealed and the pressure is kept at 1 atmosphere, which is the same pressure that we feel at sea-level, so it just feels normal in the sub. However, when they undo the seal when we get out, the pressure changes a little and our ears pop. Being in the sub is basically just like sitting in a small room in your house, BUT with super cool things to see out the window! It’s actually very comfortable!

How is your research project going? Everyone’s research is going very well. Every time something new is brought up, we find all sorts of new things to look at and study. We have found some new species that have never been described, and have seen some really spectacular larvae. The cold room is literally crammed with all sorts of strange and amazing animals that at least one person is studying. One person might be studying a crab, and will do what they need to do, and then pass the crab to someone who takes the barnacles off of it to study, and another person will look at worms in it. Everyone is working on a lot of different things at the same time. There are a lot of interesting questions that have come up as well, so we are also working on answering them. It’s all very exciting and busy!

Do you know what the larvae are eating? Some of the larvae are eating plankton, some are eating bacteria, some don’t eat at all; but for a lot of them, we don’t know!

Combined questions from Mrs. Elle’s, Mrs. Jones’ and Mrs. Pierce’s 3rd grade classes, and Ms. Holland’s 4th grade class, Bunker Hill Elementary, Coos Bay, OR. Answered by GK12 Fellow Laurel Hiebert:

Are you having fun? Are you excited about what you are doing? Of course! Exciting science is happening all around me at all times of day. We are seeing animals that few people have ever seen and exploring places that few have ever visited. It is definitely fun and exciting!

Have you seen any of the following: fish, jellyfish, sharks, octopuses, whales, squids, angler fish, lantern fish, viperfish, stingrays, ribbon worms, stingrays, seahorses? So far I have seen lots of fish including red Frogfish, Mako sharks, octopi, squid, ribbon worms and (no skates, but) a skate egg case.

Have you put the cups in the water yet? The cups are in the water this very minute, being taken down over 1800 feet!

Is it muddy at the bottom of the ocean? Sandy? The bottom seems rather muddy, but there are lots of mounds, ridges, and even mud volcanoes that bubble with methane gas!

How much pressure is at the bottom? 1000 pounds per square inch – that’s a lot of pressure!

What’s the weirdest creature you’ve seen? Your favorite? I saw Venus Fly Trap Anemones, which hold their tentacles out like a pie plate folded in half.   My favorite animal, however, is probably the larva of a sea star that I found to be budding a clone. The larva has many long tentacle-like arms and one of them is not an arm any more – it is a miniature larva that will break off and grow into another sea star.

What are the colors of the creatures you are seeing? Some of the animals are clear, like jellies and squid. Others are red, like tube worms, pencil urchins, and some fish. I have also seen some peach colored sea stars, some white sponges, and some black mussels.

What does it look like under the sea? As you get far down, beyond 1000 feet, it gets very dark. At the bottom, the only light comes from animals who make their own light, called bioluminescence.

What do you do when you aren’t in the sub? We work on science research projects. Some students are raising larvae, some are sorting through water samples to look for microscopic planktonic animals, and some are making careful observations about the animals that we collect from the bottom.

What is it like in the sub? The sub has two chambers, each for 2 people. The front chamber is made out of a glass sphere. Inside, there are all sorts of buttons, switches and knobs to control the movement of the sub, help it go up and down, and keep the air breathable. Also, there are controllers to move robotic arms on the outside that can pick up animals for collection. (See submersible section for pictures.)

What are you collecting and what are you doing with them? We are mostly collecting invertebrates (sea stars, urchins, mussels, snails, sponges, and worms). We are trying to spawn many of them to raise their larvae. We are also collecting plankton (animals drifting in the water) with large, fine-meshed nets. We are recording the types of larvae that we see at different depths in the water. This will help us find out where the larvae of deep sea animals live.

Questions from Ms. Samuel’s 1st grade class , Sage Canyon Elementary School, San Diego, CA; Answered by GK12 Fellow Kristina Sawyer and Scientist Kelly Goodwin:

Colin: How deep does the sub go and when it was down deep did anyone see the Titanic? The submersible we are diving in can go down to 3000ft but most of our dives have been between 1500-2200ft.  The Titanic was found at a depth of 12,450ft or about 2.5 miles underwater!  Subs like ours can’t go that deep because the pressure would burst the glass bubble on the front, but others, like Alvin, can go much deeper.  The Alvin sub is the one that actually explored the Titanic wreck 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

Cameron: What are you going to do with a nine foot worm? Catch a giant 30-foot fish!  Just kidding, we have been doing multiple experiments with the long tubeworms we have brought up.  We have been trying to find females that have eggs inside them so we can try to spawn larvae (babies) in the lab.  We have been measuring and comparing the size of the tubes to the size of the worms inside.  And we have been looking at the various animals that grow on these tubeworms, like clams and sponges, and even the animals that live on those clams and sponges!

Judd: Is there a trench and does the submarine go in it? Here in the Gulf of Mexico we have not been diving in any trenches.  We are on more of a shelf and a slope, and the bottom has usually been fairly flat as we drive around in the sub.   But there are many ocean trenches, the deepest being the Mariana Trench near the Philippines and Japan and Papua New Guinea—it is almost 7 miles deep (36,201ft)!

Shayan: How big is the anchor that holds down the boat? We have a 1500 pound Danforth anchor with flukes.  The anchor itself is six and a half feet tall! The anchor chain has 11 “shots” (each shot is 90 feet long).  Most people don’t actually anchor the ship if the water below is deeper than 200 feet.  To try to keep the ship from drifting too much in deep water, the ship captain will “hove to” moving slowly ahead into the wind, or let the ship computer use the bow thrusters to stay in the same area.

Eric: Have you seen any marine mammals? We saw some dolphins a few nights ago.  There was a pod of about 11 dolphins, including one baby, catching flying fish just behind our ship.  It was really cool to watch!

Kai: Are there any catfish at the bottom of the ocean? Although there are some species of catfish that can live in the ocean, they stay in shallow waters near estuaries (where rivers meet the ocean).  We have seen several kinds of fish on the bottom of the ocean that look like catfish, though.  Sea robins, hagfish, hake, and tripod fish all have long extensions that make them look a bit like a catfish.

Questions from  Ms. James’ 5th grade class and Ms. Homann’s 3rd grade class, Lighthouse Charter School, North Bend, OR.  Answered by GK12 Fellow Kira Triebergs:

Does the sub go as deep as a whale? Are you going that deep? What a wonderful question! I was wondering this too, and I had to look up how deep sperm whales can dive. It turns out that sperm whales are the deepest diving mammal in the world, and can dive even deeper than our submarine! I couldn’t believe it!!  Sperm whales can dive up to 9,800 feet, and the Johnson Sea Link II submersible can dive up to 3,000 feet. There are sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico, and I’ve been keeping an eye out for them, although I haven’t seen any yet.

What color is the water (surface and deep- when the lights are on)? I’m so glad you asked this, because I have been trying to put into words the color of the water. From the deck of the ship looking down, the water is a brilliant blue color, but as soon as you descend even a foot past the surface, sunlight and bubbles change the hue to have a slightly more green color, cerulean. This part is so beautiful that I took a movie of it with my camera. The deeper you descend, the darker the green gets until it is pitch black. When the lights of the sub are turned on, the surrounding water is light blue, but beyond the scope of the submarine light there are dark murky blue-green shapes and then there is just darkness.

What kind of algae and seaweed have you seen? We have been seeing some algae in our MOCNESS plankton tows. Under the microscope it looks like a shiny, lime-green sphere. As far as seaweed we have seen tiny pieces of sargassum seaweed float by the boat at the surface, but that has been about it! We haven’t investigated it yet, but I would imagine that each clump of seaweed is hosting a small community of shrimp, small fish and other organisms— this is a good example of how islands can get colonized. Since the water is so deep here, seaweeds aren’t able to grow on the bottom.

Have you seen any sea monkeys? Sea monkeys are actually brine shrimp, and they don’t live here in the open ocean.  We have been pulling up some tiny shrimp in the plankton tows.

What happened to our cup? As I type this, the cups are all contained in a bag and being attached to the outside of the sub. This afternoon they will be descending deep into the ocean, and then brought back to the surface. I’ll bring them into class the next time I see you, so try to remember what your prediction was and see if you were right!

Are you eating the fish you catch? We have been eating some delicious fish (GB is an excellent cook), but they are not the fish we have caught for research. The deep-sea fish we have found are quite small, and I don’t think they would taste very good—they don’t swim very much, and as a result are kind of flabby. Two nights ago, however, some of the crew were fishing for blackfin tuna at the surface, using flying fish as bait. Maybe some night we’ll have fresh tuna for dinner!

Has anyone been seasick? So far so good!  To my knowledge, not a single person has gotten seasick; however, we have had extraordinarily calm seas.  Today is a different story. In the morning when I woke up the ship was rocking and rolling because a small squall passed through with rain and high winds.  They had to delay the sub launch because the seas were so rough!

Are there sharks around the boats? The first shark I saw was at night when the sub was surfacing—it was only about 3 feet long, but I didn’t envy the diver whose job it was to jump in the water with that shark and attach a rope to the submersible!  Other shark sightings have occurred while diving at the bottom, and an exciting incident happened when some of the crew members were fishing.  They had caught a tuna using flying fish as bait, and when it was reeled in there was a huge bite taken out of it!  Someone noticed the culprit—a 5ft shark swimming away.  A cool fact I just learned is that this ship was used to film Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.

Are there dead zones? This is a really good question!  Dead zones are areas of water where there are low oxygen levels and the water cannot support life.  There is a large dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana where the Mississippi river empties into the ocean.  Its size and shape changes every year, but at its biggest, it has been mapped to be 7,728 square miles.  We avoided this area on purpose, and (luckily) are offshore far enough to be out of it.

How many subs are on board? We have one submersible on board (the Johnson Sea Link II), one of (I think) 6 deep-sea submarines owned by the US and about 12 manned deep-sea subs in the whole world!

What are some interesting things you have seen so far? I have seen so many interesting things!  Squid, flying fish, dolphins, a gigantic sea urchin with 9-inch spines, a huge deep-sea black coral that is over 2,000 years old, tube worms and all sorts of baby sea creatures (larvae) that we found in our plankton tows–baby sea stars, sea cucumbers, clams, snails, and worms.

Do you like the cruise and going in the submersible? Yes, Yes, YES!!!!  I love the cruise!  It has been a wonderful learning experience for me to be surrounded by science.  I have gotten up early to see beautiful sunrises, and stayed up late to count plankton and watch dolphins.  The organisms that we have brought up from the deep are amazing and unusual, and I am so excited to learn more about them!

What are you planning on bringing back? We will bring back organisms to raise in the lab back at OIMB.  This will include sea stars, sea urchins, mussels and barnacles.  We will also bring back a whole bunch of samples that we have preserved, so we can further analyze them back at the lab.

How much room is in the sub? The sub was much roomier than I imagined! It is full of pillows and blankets so you stay warm and can get quite comfortable. I was even able to stretch out my legs!  However, since there wasn’t enough space to get up and really move around, my left leg kept falling asleep, and I had to keep wiggling it around to get rid of that pins and needles feeling.  I must have looked pretty silly!

Thank you all for such wonderful questions! Feel free to send me more, and I’ll do my best to answer them. See you soon!

Questions from  Ms. Stockart’s Kindergarten class, Madison Elementary, Coos Bay, OR.  Answered by GK12 Fellow Zair Burris:

How many dives will everyone take? Two technicians and two scientists go on each dive; two sit in the front of the submersible and look out the big glass window, and two sit in the back and look out the portholes.  Most everyone will get to go on two dives. During the entire cruise we will go on 19 dives; two dives a day.

What is the deepest you will go? The submersible can go down to 3000 feet; on my dive I went 2183 feet underwater! That’s almost half a mile straight down! It took us 30 minutes to get all the way to the bottom!

How long do you stay down? We stay down for 3.5 hours each dive because the battery that powers the lights, engine, and robotic arm runs out after 4 hours (the sub gets plugged in for 5 hours to recharge after each dive).  But if we had to, there’s enough air to stay on the bottom for 5 days! The only problem is that there isn’t a real bathroom on the sub!

How much does it cost to rent the submersible? Can we rent it? It costs $12,000 for the submersible EACH DAY and $19,000 for the boat EACH DAY! So if you have $31,000 you can rent the boat and the sub for one day (it would be definitely worth it).  If I get the captain to give you a discount, will you take me with you?

Questions from  Ms. Hollenbeck’s 1st grade class, Bunker Hill Elementary, Coos Bay, OR.  Answered by GK12 Fellow Zair Burris:

What is it like to sleep in a boat? I wish I could always sleep in a boat! You get gently rolled back and forth, back and forth, back and forth (like a baby getting rocked to sleep). Before you know it, you’re asleep! Hopefully we won’t run into any storms or high waves because then I might get rolled right out of my bunk!

Can we see more pictures of the animals? I have TONS of pictures, but the internet on the boat isn’t very good so it takes a LONG time to send pictures.  I’ll show you all my pictures of octopuses, dolphins, squid, crabs, sea stars, tube worms, snails, sharks, jellyfish, fish (even flying fish), and of the boat and submersible when I get back!

Question from Ms. McManus’ 5th grade class, Millicoma Middle School, Coos Bay, OR:

Where do you sleep and eat? Here are pictures of a bunk room and the galley, or kitchen/dining area.  Notice the rails on the table edges to keep plates from sliding off when the ship rocks!

Questions from Mrs. Augsburger’s 6th grade class, Harbor Lights Middle School, Bandon, OR.  Answered by GK12  Fellow Josh Lord:

How big was the sea urchin that you got to see? What color was it? Can you send a picture? The urchin we found was about the size of a fist, with spines about a foot long. The spines were white and the body was red.

What other animals are there that you have never heard of? We’ve seen many animals I’ve never heard of.  We caught some pelagic anemones, which instead of attaching to rocks, float around in the ocean and eat plankton and look kind of like a jelly or a squid.  We saw some cool fish that nobody on the cruise has heard of before and we found some snail eggs that nobody has ever seen before, as well as some cool deep sea octopuses. We found some deep sea worms that live under sponges that grow on the tubes of deep sea tube worms. We can send a few pictures back, but we’ll have lots of pictures to bring to the classrooms.

Why did you guys wait so long to bring up the Lander? A year is a long time! The lander was down for a year to observe long term patterns and changes in the deep sea. A lot of deep sea experiments go for a really long time because things grow slower, live longer and are pretty stable at that depth. Today we’re picking up a seven-year-long experiment.

What is the biggest thing that you’ve seen in the ocean since you’ve been there? As far as the biggest thing we’ve seen, we found some 9 foot long tubeworms, a huge ctenophore (jelly) that was as big as the front capsule of the submersible, and a 5 foot long shark. We have also seen some isopods (like roly-polies) that are around a foot long.

How far away from land are you? We are moving around different distances from land, but we’re over 100 miles off the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana.