When I left for the cruise I had strong mixed feelings about leaving. My 1 year old had had high fever (40!) for 3 days and I was leaving him there feeling miserable…Luckily that same day the fever had started to drop. But the image of a thermometer and high temperatures has not left me.
We have put the thermometer at least 50 times to measure Vestnesa’s temperature. My son had a 12% increase in his average body temperature. Vestnesa has 14-17% increase of the average temperature at passive continental margins. So Vestnesa also has high fever. It is not so concerning though, the reason of the high fever is the proximity to the Molloy and the Knipovich mid-ocean ridges. There is a lot of heat released at the axis of drifting plates because hot, sometimes melted, material from the mantel is reaching the Earth surface and getting in contact with the ocean. Interestingly, there are places close to the mid ocean ridges where the temperatures are actually lower than expected. Here, a thicker sedimentary cover seems to be working as cold compresses.
I really hope that after this cruise I wont be seeing a thermometer for quite a while…
Photo 1: The big thermometer ready to take the temperature of the Earth
Photo 2: Sunil connecting the cable for data transfer after recovery of the big thermometer
Text Andreia Plaza-Faverola
Photos Sunil Vadakkepuliyambatta and Andreia Plaza-Faverola