While we're waiting......
19.07.2008 We are still on our way and the weather is fine. Most people are sleeping until late, but the microbiologists are impatient, and want to test some equipment. The ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) operators Stein and Frank as well as Stig, have to improvise some extra details, and soon everything is OK. Suddenly the boat stops because we are going to do some mapping of the sea floor, to know where the border of Norway really is!
Hovedinnhold
During the 1970s the coastal states were fighting for their right to manage their own territorial waters. At last the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea said that the true border of a state should be 200 nautic miles from the coast. Now this law is going to change; it's said that the border should be where the continental area stops. That means in the case of Norway, that the whole continental shelf and the deposits from it should belong to the country. Therefore it's important to know what part of the area is or has been part of the shelf. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has asked the G.O.Sars to do this mapping, maybe because they wan to find out if there is any possibility for more oil finds.
You can read about the technology of the mapping in the diary of 13.7, also about the CTD used for measuring the speed of sound, that in turn will be used for measuring the depth.
After dinner we saw a video from the finding of the world's northernmost hydrothermal vent; it was great! We are waiting curiously for the results of the analysis of the material from it.
