The sixth day on Polarstern followed a stormy night with 9 to 10 Beaufort winds. Even though we are still underway to our first station, scientific work is carried out nonetheless.
Last Saturday we started with our continuous chlorophyll measurements to get an overview of phytoplankton productivity in different water masses. Every four hours, be it day or night, water samples are taken through the well hole of the ship and then filtered. The well hole is, as the name suggests, a hole in the ship which can be used to take samples of surface water. There is no danger of the ship sinking, though, because of the great updraft of Polarstern.
For this morning the plan was to measure the chlorophyll content of the samples taken the day before with the help of the fluorometer (fondly named Fluoriane). Besides a few other methodical steps, this involves centrifugation of the samples. After we had christened the centrifuge Lieselotte, we started it.
Aftter six minutes a stinging smell wafted through the lab, suggesting bad news, which undoubtedly originated from the direction of Lieselotte. Soon after that the latter began imitating sounds of a shredding machine, attracting helpful scientists from the lab next door. We were torn between running away and interfering and decided quickly to turn off the centrifuge. One glance at Lieselotte revealed a loosened rubber ring which had worked itself into the space between the fast rotating sample vials. Fortunately, nothing had happened to the samples. In the meantime Lieselotte is running again, and nothing is keeping us from working up the rest of the samples. Now the only thing we are waiting for is Beaufort 6 winds so that we can finish our preparations for the first station.
Sarah Herrmann, Svenja Kruse, Britta Wend, Alfred Wegener Institute