29 January Daily Log

Last night Chuck and Andrea´s group worked from 18:00 to 08:00. They continue to take box core samples, CTD and BLISP sampling. They saw large schools of dolphin and also experienced a short-lived but loud thunderstorm and hard rain. In the distance this morning you could see the outline of mountains on Papua New Guinea. We were at 68� 05´ S latitude and 144� 21´ E longitude, near the mouth of the Fly River.

Jenna, J.P., Louisa, Saro, and Ramsey put the chirp (also call the "fish") in the water around 08:30 to begin taking more seismic data. They are working in conjunction with Andrea and Chuck in order to take seismic lines over the same areas where coring and water sampling is taking place. This allows a more complete view of what is happening when reviewing the data together. They were set to put the chirp in earlier, but were delayed as a fishing boat was near our position and the 2nd Mate, Anthony, in the bridge wanted to move further away from this ship before we stopped the ship to deploy the chirp.

Once the chirp was deployed it was back to the AC-cooled lab to monitor progress and observe the incoming data. There were some very interesting, deep channels today as well as some rises in the sea floor that may be old, submerged, islands like those apparent near the mouth of the Fly River today. With the students, knots (learned yesterday) were reviewed. Also, we discussed and heard some of the common language (Pidgin) used on Papua New Guinea. Pidgin (or "tok pisin") which sounds a little like English is spoken by many. This common language is necessary as there are over 800 different languages on the island of New Guinea alone! This makes up approximately 1/3 of the world´s languages! This variety of languages has resulted from the dramatic landscape found on Papua New Guinea. Because of the high mountain peaks, deep valleys, and fast running rivers, tribes live largely in isolation. There are five geology students from the university of Papua New Guinea on this cruise and it has been interesting to learn more about their experiences growing up on New Guinea. Each of these students speaks their local language, Pidgin, and English.

Tonight we had a pretty sunset. The water is glassy and calm; it is truly beautiful.