Well, I thought that I could get away
with it, but I was wrong. I've been here since the end of March, and
I've avoided writing in the EML blog. Not intentionally, I hasten to
add... well, maybe a bit. Doesn't mean I haven't been reading it
though!
I've been here on a short term
contract, working on the sea surface photogrammetry project. But it's
not the project that I decided to write about. Based on a comment
made by Andy in my presentation yesterday, I wanted to write a bit
more about the size of oceans. Andy (here) and Pete (here) both
recently wrote about sizes, and what they compared to, so I figured
that I'd join in.
I've been lucky enough to travel to
most corners of the world for my work. I started in Bangor (North
Wales, not Maine) where I did my undergrad, and then headed to
Dunedin, New Zealand for my Masters. Total separation: 11889 miles,
or in keeping with weird comparative measurements from previous
posts, 382662 Olympic Swimming Pools (OSPs), 174369 American Football
Fields (AFFs), or my favourite, 1.12415 x 10^7 Smoots, plus or minus
one ear. If you think that is the longest distance travelled by an
oceanographer, keep reading!
After New Zealand, I headed to Bermuda (a mere 9411 miles, 302902
OSPs, 138024 AFFs, or 8.89842 x 10^6 Smoots) where I worked on the
BATS project for several years. That's the Bermuda Atlantic
Time-series Study. Nothing to do with flying, squeaking furry
mammals. That was a multi-disciplinary project that studied the full
ocean depth just off Bermuda. Full ocean depth was 4200m, or 2 and a
bit miles, or half the height of Mt Everest. The project had run for
over 20 years, and in that time the various ships had travelled the
equivalent distance of once round the world at the equator, or about
25,500 miles!
The coolest thing about studying there
was when I found out that water can be given an age depending on its
depth. At 4200m, the water hasn't been on the surface for nearly 1000
years! It just gives you an idea of how much information the deep
ocean can give us. BATS was only one point in the ocean. We actually
know more about the far side of the moon than we know about the deep
ocean.
Anyway, enough digressing to small
distances. Not satisfied with 3 continents, I moved on to my fourth.
I worked for a year in Brazil, which was 4046 miles, 130219 OSPs,
59337 AFFs or 3.82547 x 10^6 Smoots from Bermuda. The work there was
for an oil company, and we used scientific equipment to look at
currents and density changes, helping to plan the locations of
pipelines. Not quite as deep as BATS; we only studied to 2200m.
Staying with oil, but moving to just
the surface, I came to the EMLab at GMRI (4916 miles, 158238 OSPs,
72105 AFFs, or 4.64860 x 10^6 Smoots), which brings us back to the
beginning of the blog post. There's still one more step for me
though. I leave here tomorrow, 11 June, and I'll be heading cross
country to Alaska to start my Ph.D. I've got a 12 day drive to look
forward to, where I'll be covering at least 103072 OSPs, 46967 AFFs,
3.02798 x 10^6 Smoots, or in plain English, about 3202 miles as the
crow flies.
I got in to oceanography for the chance
to travel. In the ten years since I started at University, I've been
to 4 continents and travelled the equivalent distance of 1.1 million
Olympic swimming pools, nearly half a million American Football
Fields, or 31.6 million times the height of poor Oliver Smoot. Hm? In
English? I've gone about 33,500 miles in ten years, which is half as
much again as the BATS ships managed in 20 years.
Become an oceanographer. See the world.
No really, you will.
The Smoot - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot
