Uh, can I just say that I love submersibles!

Today's blog brought to you by:
Rebekah Shepard, Geobiologist, Astrobiologist
http://www.pavilionlake.com/information/contributors/shepard.htm

I wish that I could sound more profound and mature, but I can’t make myself beat around the bush. I piloted a submersible around Pavilion Lake for the first time yesterday and it is so splendiferously cool! Not only is it exciting, challenging, and fun to pilot the sub, but the explorer and scientist in me jumps for joy at the opportunity to see so much of the lake in a single dive! I flew the submersible around the entire north basin of the lake at a depth of approximately 100 feet. Usually when we dive the lake on SCUBA we only cover a small transect within the lake, so to fly around the whole thing was mind-blowing!

Much of my dive covered the plains near the very bottom of the north basin, and so much of the ground that I flew over was mud. Now, you might think that mud is not very exciting, but mud is often misunderstood and under-appreciated. While our study of Pavilion Lake often focuses on the beautiful microbialite mounds that cover much of the lake, it is very important to understand the entire ecosystem of the lake. Learning where the microbialites are is very valuable, but learning where the microbialites aren’t is just as vital to our study. Plus, it is important to remember that the formation of the microbialites is the result of a complicated mix of biological processes, chemical processes, and physical processes. These processes are just as active in the muds of the lake, although they may have a different balance. If we can understand this different balance, we will know a lot more about what is influencing microbialite formation.

All those fantastic scientific details aside, I was thrilled to see a few microbialite mounds along my dive. I took some good video of them that will get our catalogue of morphologies off to a good start. It is so wonderful to see all of our hard work and planning come together into a successful first submersible dive! I am so proud to have gotten us off to a great start, and I can’t wait to go back down. In the meantime…lots of data to analyze!