maarten@WHARTON-10.ARPA ("Maarten Nederlof") (03/16/86)
On the off chance that this was a serious question, when you have "seas of 200 feet and swells of 30 feet", the actual depth if there were no waves or swells, could be measured to be 200 feet, from surface to ocean floor. The swells are the actual plus-or-minus deviation from that 200 ft point due to waves, thus the actual depth varied (over the period of 10-15 seconds from 170 feet to 230 feet. As a wreck diver, I can only tell you that when you are working at the depths they are probably working at, (the above are only hypothetical) much heavy equipment is necessary. Bathyspheres, or whatever version of submersible the Navy is using, are universally tethered to the recovery ship. They often even dangle from a line from such a ship, and if that ship is bobbing around, that submersible will not be much good for anything. They are not always tethered, depending upon depth....I'm not familiar with the location of the Challenger's crew compartment, so I'm not sure what types of depths they are talking about. Either way, it's very difficult to work at all in waters where there are significant swells. Maarten Nederlof University of Pennsylvania ARPA: Maarten@Wharton-10.Arpa CSNET: Maarten%Wharton-10@CSNET-RELAY.CSNET ------