Thursday, November 11, 2004 Matthew A. Russell has been an archeologist with the National Park Service Submerged Resources Center since 1993. He serves as Project Director for the USS Arizona Preservation Project.

Veteran’s Day at the Memorial

Veteran’s Day at the USS Arizona Memorial is much like any other day for the SRC team – we spend most of our time underwater, or planning our time underwater or cleaning up from our time underwater. But we never forget where we’re working, and it’s a little more poignant on a day like Veteran’s Day. The harbor is all dressed up – World War II naval vessels Missouri and Bowfin are flying brightly colored flags and the Visitor Center has an impressive display of historic flags surrounding the central fountain. A variety of groups brought wreaths to lay in the Memorial’s shrine room, and we even had a visit from a USS West Virginia survivor, whose arrival called for the tour boat to detour past the Memorial to the West Virginia’s mooring quay, just off Arizona’s bow.

A memorial wreath in the shrine room from Thursday's Veteran's day observance. Photo by Brett Seymour, NPS.

Our day began early – Kelly Gleason and I used our freshly calibrated YSI multiparameter instrument to collect water chemistry data in a vertical transect off the dock. We lowered the instrument to the bottom and back in one-foot increments every 30 seconds. Our plan is to repeat this each morning and evening for three consecutive days to record any potential variation. This data – pH, temperature, oxygen reduction potential, salinity, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen – will help use isolate variables that affect corrosion variation with depth. Dr. Curt Storlazzi from the US Geological Survey is helping us analyze this information.
 

Later, Jenni Burbank joined Kelly and me, and we spent two dives sampling oil from various locations, including our second 24-hour collection with the USIA oil collection device. So far, oil leaking from hatches aft of the Memorial is escaping at about the same rate as last year. We also sampled oil from second deck ceilings through open portholes in the side of the ship. Apparently, this oil either pooled there shortly after Arizona sank or is leaking there from ruptured oil tanks. We’re working with Dr. Pam Morris at the Medical University of South Carolina to study how this oil degrades and the microorganisms that are helping to degrade it.

The underwater digital camera with HMI lights configured for the photo mosaic. Photo by Brett Seymour, NPS.

Dave Conlin, Brett Seymour and Art Ireland spent the morning putting the final touches on the underwater camera and light mount they’re going to use for the photomosaic, and it’s a masterpiece. The Hydroflex SeaPar lights are amazing – in fact, they were a little too amazing until Brett baffled and dampened and set them to their lowest power setting to keep them from blowing out the image. Now they look great. The photo work on the bow is made much more difficult by the shallow water (about 4 feet) and a wicked halocline (where fresh water run-off into the harbor mixes with the salt water – also at about 4 feet), which causes the water to shimmer in and out of focus. Nonetheless, work on the mosaic continues and it’s beginning to look promising.

A small section of images stitched together on Arizona's bow. Photo by Brett Seymour, NPS.