Recently the high temperature in Houghton has been 20°F. While most students have been hiding inside their warm dorm room drinking hot chocolate, the science honors students are always up for an adventure. During Monday's lab we (minus Andrew and Sarah who were sick) drove to Cuba Lake to take some water samples. First Dr. Wolfe showed us how to drill the hole through the 12 inch thick ice using the ice drill.
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| Fun fact of the day: You need around 4 inches of ice for walking, 8 inches to support a small car, and 12 for a larger truck. |
A thermometer was lowered meter by meter to find the temperature of the water with depth. We used a capsule with a weight attached (called a Kemmerer water sampler) to collect water samples at various depths. With frozen hands we managed to take the pH of each sample and bag it for concentration readings on Thursday.
This data will help us to determine if it is a eutrophic or oligotrophic lake. Eutrophic lakes contain a large amount of nutrients that support plant and algae growth while oligotrophic have little to almost no nutrients. The clearer the water, the more oligotrophic. The oxygen meter was not working properly but after being there for an almost an hour we decided to leave before we got frost bite. At the end of the day we were all very thankful for wool socks and warm mittens.
Thanks to Michael's backpacking GPS we were able to track our exact location:
-Kayla
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