At around 9 AM, we noticed a field vehicle come over the eastern rim of the crater
and head down the dirt road toward us. The vehicle was not from the USGS, but was
a slick, late model of some sort outfitted with two blue flashing lights upon its roof,
and it was towing a new rubber Zodiac fitted with big twin Evinrude outboard
engines on its stern. It was a Navy EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team doing
their monthly required practice SCUBA dives, this time to visit the submerged
pumping station at about 20 m depth. As a former navy salvage diver, this exercise
seemed somewhat recognizable to me. Fallon also hosts a Naval Air Station, and the
presence of the EOD team led me to fret that sometimes maybe live ordnance
accidentally falls off aircraft and into the lake, an unsettling thought for us at the
time. About an hour later over that same rim came something more familiar, a beatup USGS field vehicle with a small aluminum boat attached by rope atop its roof. It
was Pat Glancy coming to lend us a hand. So, after the navy divers egressed, we
launched our pathetic little boat and, with its 5 h.p. engine put-putted out to the lake’s
center and proceeded to hand-draw up water samples from depth with a van Dorn
sampler, as well as to haul up some of the bottom sediments. Upon return to shore we
processed the samples, thanked Patrick, and returned to the Lariat, planning to head
back home the next morning. When I got back to my room to shower, upon disrobing
I noted my body had acquired a distinct clinging ammoniacal odor, owing to the
efflux/volatilization of NH 3 from the alkaline surface waters (pH ¼ 9.8). Moreover,
the shower’s waters were “soft” in the sense that once you soaped up and showered
off, it still felt as if the soap was always clinging to you, an odd oily sensation. The
shower stall itself had an odd quirk, in that the fixtures seemed to have been designed
for someone well under 5 feet tall, with the shower head aimed for below one’s chest
and the hot and cold valves situated below one’s knees, requiring one to bend and
contort in order to get clean. It was just one more uniquely weird, memorable aspect
of sojourning at the Lariat Motel.
Early operaons at BSL during
summer, 1 981 . Note the small
aluminum boat we (the author and
Chuck Culbertson) used for all our
inial sampling, including of the
water column and taking gravity
cores and sediment grabs of the
deep sediments at 62 m.
Early operations at BSL during summer, 1981. Note the small aluminum boat we (the author and
Chuck Culbertson) used for all our initial sampling, including of the water column and taking
gravity cores and sediment grabs of the deep sediments at 62 m
658
R. S. Oremland
and head down the dirt road toward us. The vehicle was not from the USGS, but was
a slick, late model of some sort outfitted with two blue flashing lights upon its roof,
and it was towing a new rubber Zodiac fitted with big twin Evinrude outboard
engines on its stern. It was a Navy EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team doing
their monthly required practice SCUBA dives, this time to visit the submerged
pumping station at about 20 m depth. As a former navy salvage diver, this exercise
seemed somewhat recognizable to me. Fallon also hosts a Naval Air Station, and the
presence of the EOD team led me to fret that sometimes maybe live ordnance
accidentally falls off aircraft and into the lake, an unsettling thought for us at the
time. About an hour later over that same rim came something more familiar, a beatup USGS field vehicle with a small aluminum boat attached by rope atop its roof. It
was Pat Glancy coming to lend us a hand. So, after the navy divers egressed, we
launched our pathetic little boat and, with its 5 h.p. engine put-putted out to the lake’s
center and proceeded to hand-draw up water samples from depth with a van Dorn
sampler, as well as to haul up some of the bottom sediments. Upon return to shore we
processed the samples, thanked Patrick, and returned to the Lariat, planning to head
back home the next morning. When I got back to my room to shower, upon disrobing
I noted my body had acquired a distinct clinging ammoniacal odor, owing to the
efflux/volatilization of NH 3 from the alkaline surface waters (pH ¼ 9.8). Moreover,
the shower’s waters were “soft” in the sense that once you soaped up and showered
off, it still felt as if the soap was always clinging to you, an odd oily sensation. The
shower stall itself had an odd quirk, in that the fixtures seemed to have been designed
for someone well under 5 feet tall, with the shower head aimed for below one’s chest
and the hot and cold valves situated below one’s knees, requiring one to bend and
contort in order to get clean. It was just one more uniquely weird, memorable aspect
of sojourning at the Lariat Motel.
Early operaons at BSL during
summer, 1 981 . Note the small
aluminum boat we (the author and
Chuck Culbertson) used for all our
inial sampling, including of the
water column and taking gravity
cores and sediment grabs of the
deep sediments at 62 m.
Early operations at BSL during summer, 1981. Note the small aluminum boat we (the author and
Chuck Culbertson) used for all our initial sampling, including of the water column and taking
gravity cores and sediment grabs of the deep sediments at 62 m
658
R. S. Oremland