Today was another early start, we arrived at Andros just after sunrise. The crossing was very rough last night and few people got much sleep. Nonetheless, we were up and at ‘em early so we could get to the airfield to meet the helicopters that were waiting for us. The helicopters had to fly the crew and all our gear to a remote part of the island. The target was a small circular lake that was discovered only a decade ago. Since then, it has only been dived in once by a scientist who has been there only twice and yet it offers a wealth of scientific knowledge to be explored, and that was why we were visiting. Part of the reason it is so unexplored is it’s remote location. The only way to get to the site is by helicopter or seaplane and then the cost is so expensive that few people or expeditions can make it happen.

I love helicopters so science aside, I was just thrilled to be up in the air, I spend too much time in airplanes so I am never very impressed by them, but helicopters are awesome, the Bell Jet Ranger we were in (if you sit in the font with the bubble underneath you) truly feels like you are flying.

This was one of the most remote trips yet and we all definitely had a feeling of an Indiana Jones adventure; Oceans and the Search for the Black Hole or something like that. Lucy and I were on topside this morning for this adventure and it was Paul and Tooni that got a chance to get in the water and explore. I must admit, I was a bit disappointed but we didn’t have a choice and the show must go on, so there wasn’t too much grumbling as Lucy and I accepted our fate.

Essentially, scientists think that this black hole is what the oceans might have looked like several billion years ago when the world was a much less hospitable place. The oceans had very little life in them, mostly just bacteria and there was very little oxygen in the environment. This lake resembles that environment and it was our job to do several dives to take scientific readings to catch a glimpse of what was happening. This time Lucy and I were on the surface and Paul and Tooni were diving. The lake has about 60 feet of relatively fresh water and then there is a 3-foot thick layer of reddish bacteria that absorb all the remaining sunlight and heat the water up as a byproduct of their activity. Another byproduct is high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, a chemical more toxic than cyanide, so you can imagine we were all a little concerned about the effects this chemical on the divers.

Underneath the layer of bacteria is a salty layer of water that has very little, if any, oxygen in it and only contains bacteria that can feed off the sulfur created by the bacteria in the middle layer. On top of that, it is totally dark since the bacteria absorb all of the light. All in all, a very forbidding place and rather dangerous. Only one other person has ever been diving in the hole, so this was a truly pioneering dive.

By late afternoon, everyone was exhausted and we packed up the gear to head back to the boat and get some rest before another trip out to the site tomorrow for additional exploration.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm and is filed under BBC/Discovery OCEANS, Expeditions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.