Plongez dans le noir au coeur de l’océan Austral avec l’installation prévue pour la fête de la science 2016.
Musique des abysses enregistrée sur le dos des éléphants de mer, dessins et lumières.
15/16 Octobre 2016
11 h /18 h
LOCEAN tour 44-45, 5ème étage
Campus UPMC, 4 place Jussieu
75005 Paris
Retrouver toutes les informations utiles en ligne sur le site de l’IPSL :
https://www.ipsl.fr/Actualites/Evenements/La-Fete-de-la-science-a-l-IPSL2#site1
In 2011, not far from the Antarctic base of Dumont d’Urville, the Astrolabe Icebreaker deployed at the bottom of the ocean a mooring aimed to measure the deep circulation as part of the ALBION oceanographic campaign.
One year later, the mooring was retrieved and an aluminium tube containing a gyroscope had to be substitute because of strong corrosion marks. But when the scientist in charge of the maintenance operation, Denis Dausse (LOCEAN-IPSL) saw it, he decided to keep the tube, fascinated by the patterns drawn on it by the salty water of the Southern Ocean.
Transforming an oceanographic instrument into an art tool, Léa Sorli has developed a hand drawing technique for capturing the corrosion processes occurring in the abysses of the Southern Ocean and mixing it with figures of the subconscious.
During the monsoon, heavy rain provides a strong metamorphic effect, transforming the land and the ocean through both physical and biological processes. On land, man-made objects become matter which is cracked, sculpted, and colored by humidity and plants’ growth. In the sea, freshwater runoff brings large amount of sediments to the coastal waters of the Indian ocean. These sediments contain nutrients which induce massive growth of microscopic algae – the phytoplankton – which in turn feed zooplankton, fish, and predators including human beings. The input of terrestrial sediments occurring during the monsoon is dramatically visible as the coastal waters turn gray – a color also enhanced by reflecting the cloudy sky. In these images, walls exposed to the monsoon are the canvas where landscapes have been drawn by the rain, and the color of the sea rich in sediments has been contrasted with the blue tint of the plastic used to protect goods from the rain at the Dona Paula market (Goa State)
In contrast with terrestrial ecology, life in the open ocean takes place in a landscape – the seascape – which changes on the same timescale of marine organisms. Currents and vortices (invisible to our eyes, but captured by models and satellites) evolve together with the animals they host. If the same happened on land, it would be as mountains and valleys appeared, moved, and disappeared while we walk across them.
Ocean currents from satellite altimetry (Aviso). Computation curtesy of F. d’Ovidio, LOCEAN-IPSL, Paris, France.
For more informations you can visit the home page of Francesco D’Ovidio :
https://skyros.locean-ipsl.upmc.fr/~dovidio/
The ocean is a sink of the carbon dioxide released by human activity, absorbing roughly one third. This process results in less global warming for us, but in increasing difficulties for marine life.
Calcifying organisms like corals, already threatened by human activity like tourism and fishing, have to invest more energy for maintaining their skeleton against the increased dissolving effect of sea water.
Scientists study the beautiful shapes invented by the evolution across millions of years like this coral specimen from the Red Sea conserved at Jerusalem university, finding which regions are more vulnerable to climate change.
Access to the specimen courtesy of the Fredy & Nadine Herrmann institute of earth science.
