27 April: Green flashes (Scotia Arc Expedition 2013)
Today we went for the deepest and steepest.
© Australian Museum
This meant changing to a rock dredge, which is designed to cover a very hard seafloor, and can cope with a steeper gradient than our usual trawl. We wanted to sample an area between 1000m and 700m. This exercise took nearly the whole day!
And what a day it was! Since the nasty weather a few days ago, it has improved each day. Today was so sunny and gorgeous, and we even saw a pod of long-finned pilot whales.
A few canny souls went outside to see the sunset at the end of the day, and saw the famous green flash. This is an optical event where the last part of the sun dipping below the horizon flashes green. It’s hard to see in many places in the world. But it is helped where conditions are very clear.
