So, I thought, why not? We could actually mount a shark tooth hunting expedition to the Chesapeake Bay today and Leena could then do a hula in her Japanese dress on the beach on the first of June.If you are thinking the dress does not look Japanese, I must admit she changed her mind at the last minute from the rainbow tie dyed fleece jumper to the peach terrycloth cover up. What? You don't think a rainbow fleece jumper looks Japanese either? No pleasing some people. She was quite certain both were Japanese. Next you'll be saying her hula looks like "walking like an Egyptian."
At any rate, we had a fabulous time! We found lots of big teeth, probably because of recent storms. I love living in a place where you can go pick up fossils!
These are from the Miocene era - about 30 million years ago when the Chesapeake extended all the way to Washington DC, and the warm shallow sea was a calving ground for whales and a favorite spot for sharks. The shark bones were made of cartilage, of course, so they have long since vanished, but the teeth of sharks and dental plates of rays are in the soil around us. Over time they have been washing into the Bay and can be picked up by anyone!
The storms also had an interesting effect on the water. The near part of the bay was bath tub warm and tea colored. Past the sand bar it was chilly and blue. We took large samples of both areas and plan to do some experiments. I think the water was brown for the same reason tea is brown: decaying leaves giving off tannic acid which was washed into the bay by the storms. I am curious if the "tea" water will have a lower pH. I also want to see if there are any differences in weight and salinity (salty water is denser than fresh water, although I am not sure I can detect the difference with my balance). I had brought containers to get water mostly to look at it with the microscope, so I am most interested to see what things may be living in either water. Any other ideas for experiments, please leave them in the comments. I have a quart of each sample.
Just in case the day was not perfect enough, Angel discovered a boat which a kind man lent us. I think it actually gave the outing a Polynesian flair.
3 comments:
What an awesome day!
What do you mean it doesn't look Japanese? You can clearly see, she is doing the hula in a Japanese inspired dress. (some people)P has been scouring our beaches for sharks teeth for the past 3 years and has yet to find a shark's tooth...it is on her list as a life goal. ;-)
what a fun day!
Shark teeth and Japanese dresses.
I like that you embrace science.
pace, laura
Update: We saw more plankton in the cooler clearer water, in fact, Klenda thought she saw zooplankton actually eating phytoplankton - very cool! My balance wasn't sensitive enough to measure the slight differences in density, but boiling away the water revealed the "tea" water to be siltier and less salty than the cooler water. We also discovered that I have mislaid my pH strips...or there has been someunauthorized research going on!
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