The Extreme Difficulty of Leaving an Underwater Base [Video]
It was just another day for the Aquanauts exploring the warm, crystal waters of Conch Reef when a storm hit. The divers registered the 10-degree temperature drop on their skin a moment after the visibility went from 60 feet down to a dozen. But everything was calm topside—this was an underwater storm. The bad weather was driven by a wave pushed up from the depths. This phenomenon is called an internal wave and it was here, at Aquarius, a few years ago, that Aquanaut Dale Stokes and Jim Leichter discovered that they were critical for reef life. The waves reach 20-40 meters tall without breaking the surface. And they are filled with important nutrients vital to the sea life. Their three-dimensional movement was understood using a mesh network of hundreds of little thermal loggers. When waves like this passed over the sensors, they lit up the electronics like rolling traffic lights. The resulting data visualization discovered that they moved just like a breaking wave on a beach. Only bi...