Whether by fate, restless spirits, or a need to use the bathroom, I awoke at the desperately unholy hour of 3 o’clock. Curiosity kept me so, as I dressed and went out to the deck to see incredible numbers of stars. The majesty and simultaneous fragility of the earth really hits you when you’re swaying back and forth watching the waves crash off the ship.
Eventually I went back to bed and woke up late to breakfast. Some hibiscus tea and heavily fruited oatmeal (pineapple and blueberries!) later, one of the engineers showed us around the incredible engine rooms. It was amazing to see all the different machinery and the upkeep they required to keep such a massive vessel running. In our first class of the morning, we learned about some of the methods that geoscientist use to hypothesize about the way the world used to look and how it could look moving forward.
After lunch (oversized burritos!), the captain showed us around the bridge and the controls for the ship. I had no idea they still used drafting tools and plotted by hand where we where, in conjunction with the computer’s navigation system. So cool. Anyway, afterwards we had an activity looking at cores to study the Paleocene-Eucene Thermal Maximum. I definitely felt out of my depth (pun intended), but my group was eventually able to figure out the carbonate compensation depth. It was really fun, because no one in our group had any applicable background knowledge on the topic, so we really had to analyze the graphs and readings to have any idea what was going on. It definitely gave me a better appreciation for the work geoscientists go through to reconstruct these ancient worlds.
Something I’ve learned throughout this experience is just how interdisciplinary geoscience is. Geoscience is so far reaching and encompassing that all backgrounds and disciplines have something meaningful to contribute to the field. Every problem we face is interconnected with other problems, so in order to solve them and make the world a better place, we need to work together with all different viewpoints to figure out a solution that does more than just delay the problem further. I’ll conclude with the words of Masefield:
I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.
– Cyrus Secrest