Let\u2019s simulate deep-water upwelling in our mesocosms. Easy to say \u2013 but how do you collect 80,000 litres of water from 400 m water depth off-shore and deliver it to the KOSMOS playground?<\/p>\n
Pumping it with a long hose lowered to depth into a huge bag on-board R\/V POSEIDON and ship it to shore? Considering POSEIDON\u2019s payload of 24 tons, this does not sound like such a good idea. But if the bag stays in the water, maybe POSEIDON could tug it to shore? That might work.<\/p>\n
Pumping 80,000 litres from 400 metres depth in reasonable time needs a strong underwater pump and a heavy-duty hose with a large diameter. In principle this seems possible, but the hose drum for this would have to be big.\u00a0Well then, how about lowering a large bag to depth, filling it down there and sending it back to the surface? Sounds crazy, but why not give it a try?<\/p>\n
This was the state of discussion last spring. What followed was a year of intense work by Jan Czerny, Mario Deckelnick, Ralf Doose, Ralf Schwarz and Uwe Lentz , designing and constructing a system no one has ever built before. Needless to say, the first operation of this large-volume deep-water collector under realistic conditions yesterday was anticipated with great excitement and a good deal of tension.<\/p>\n\n\n\t