Eighteen Stellenbosch University (engineers and earth science postgraduate students will leave Cape Town this week aboard the SA Agulhas II.
The Sound and Vibration Research Group of the SU Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, under leadership of director Prof Annie Bekker, has been involved in research about the SA Agulhas II itself since its first ice cruise in 2012.
During the current cruise, four SU engineering students will study how the ship’s steel structure responds to the slamming of waves as it navigates rough seas, and how passengers experience the subsequent vibrations and movements caused by the wave action and ship engines.
One student’s grandfather regularly travelled aboard SAA II’s predecessor to do maintenance work on South African research islands and in Antarctica. Another student is a member of the Maties Women Cricket Team.
The earth science postgraduates are taking six container laboratories aboard. Dr Susanne Fietz, an environmental geochemist in the SU Department of Earth Sciences, leads the group of SU earth science students on board. She says they will research the link between ocean geochemistry and microorganisms such as phytoplankton and bacteria in the sea. This is done to understand natural and man-made impacts on the marine ecosystem better.
Our new @geotraces clean container has arrived at the CapeTown East pier & is being loaded onto the SA Agulhas II for @SCALExperiment #WinterCruise2019 to the #SouthernOcean. @Antarcticlegacy https://t.co/lBXaNqVzVe
— TracEx Stellenbosch (@TracexS) July 15, 2019
