[Peetwo]

Tethered or snagged? Big difference in definition & implication, especially when you read this bit:

Duration of immersion


Up until now, it has been assumed that the flaperon was deposited somewhere along the 7th arc soon when MH370 impacted the southern Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014. If it was actively tethered to the seabed, obviously, this timeline is no longer relevant. Instead, we can turn to the barnacles to provide some indication of the likely duration of the flaperon’s immersion.

“Assuming they have enough food, and the temperature is good, barnacles will follow a steady growth progression,” Venn says.

The clock starts running the moment the flaperon hits the water: So long as the water is warm enough, Lepas will begin to colonize an object almost immediately. (Yachtsman who make long oceanic passages report that after spending a few weeks heeled over on a single tack a section of hull that is normally high and dry can pick up a colony of Lepas; Venn says she has seen cyprids attach to material as ephemeral as floating paper bags.) While the precise growth rate depends on water temperature and food availability, a rough notion of these parameters is enough to yield a ball-park figure for how long immersion has continued. Earlier this year, Venn co-authored a paper in which she and her colleagues ascertained that a human body found floating off the cost of Italy must have been in the water at least 65 to 90 days, based on the size of the Lepas barnacles growing on its clothes.6

We can do something similar for the barnacles on the flaperon, using the Mayotte boat as a reference. Since both traveled through a similar stretch of the southern Indian Ocean, their growth rates should be in the same ball park.

By comparing features on the flaperon to reference objects of a known size (e.g., the rear door of a Gendarmerie Land Rover Defender in Figure 16) we can estimate the capitulum lengths of the largest barnicles on the flaperon. They turn out to be approximately 2.3 cm.

Applying the same technique to the Mayotte barnacles yields capitulum lengths of about 3.5 cm.

Yusa’s paper on Lepas growth rates states that “Individuals <5 mm long (mean ± SE = 3.09 ± 0.19 mm) grew rapidly, reaching 12.45 ± 0.54 mm on day 15 (Fig. 2). After that, their growth slowed and finally reached 16.26 ± 0.49 mm on day 42.”

The Lepas anserifera that Yusa studied are somewhat smaller than the Lepas anatifera that predominate on the flaperon, but if we use Yusa’s growth rate as a conservative lower bound, and suppose that the largest flaperon barnacles were 16.3 mm at day 42 and grew at 0.1 mm/day thereafter, that means it would take them another 67 days to reach 2.3 cm, for a total growth time of 109 days, or about four months.

If they proceeded to grow at 0.1 mm for the following four months, that would take them to 3.5 cm, which is what the Mayotte barnacles achieved.

Interestingly, when I asked Yusa via email how long it seemed to him that the colony had been growing on the Reunion Island flaperon, based on photographs I sent, Yusa answered: “I would guess that they had been there for a short time (between 2 weeks and a few months).”


Venn’s seat-of-the-pants estimate was “less than six months.”

 
As always some of the best parts of the Wise blog piece is in the comments from some of the usual suspects & regular MH370 followers, worth the time the read & digest.
This comment from Ed is a still developing story...

Ed
Posted October 10, 2015 at 2:33 PM
This just appeared about possible wreckage, thought you might find it of interest.
http://english.astroawani.com/malaysia-n...ines-76029

  

Police receive report on wreckage believed to be MH370 found in southern Philippines

Astro Awani | October 11, 2015 00:59 MYT


Datuk Jalaludin Abdul Rahman confirmed receiving a report and said investigations will be carried out. - File Photo

KUALA LUMPUR: Sabah police have confirmed they received a report on Saturday of an aircraft wreckage that was found on a southern Philippine island.

Sabah police chief, Datuk Jalaludin Abdul Rahman in a statement released late Saturday, confirmed receiving the report and said investigations will be carried out.

The report was lodged at the Sandakan police station by Jamil Omar on Friday.

According to Jalaludin, Jamil claimed his aunt Siti Kayam had stumbled upon the aircraft wreckage on Sugbay Island, Tawi-Tawi.

“Jamil claimed his aunt had entered the aircraft wreckage which had many human skeletons and bones. She also found a Malaysian flag measuring 70 inches long and 35 inches wide,” he said.

He said, the Special Branch will record a statement from Jamil to obtain more information regarding the find.

Jalaludin however stressed, the information received has yet to be verified.

 

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the French-led investigation team previously have confirmed that an aircraft wreckage known as ‘flaperon’ which was found on Reunion Island belonged to MH370 which went missing on March 8, 2014.

The aircraft, carrying 239 passengers and crew members, was on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.

..&

Man claims MH370 wreckage on south Philippines island

by ruben sario



KOTA KINABALU: Sabah police have received a report claiming that an aircraft wreckage with the Malaysian flag painted on it was found on a southern Philippines island.

The report was made by a man who said the wreckage with human remains inside was spotted by his nephew, from the southern Philippine island of Tawi Tawi,  at Ubian Island in southern Phillippines several days ago.

State Commissioner Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said the man made the report at the Sandakan police station on Saturday.

“This matter is being investigated,” he told The Star in a text message.

In the report the man, an audio visual technician in his 40s, said his nephew and a few others were hunting for birds when they spotted the wreckage on the island. 

They managed to get near the wreckage where they found human bones. They also found skeletal remains in the pilot's chair with the seat belt fastened.

Before leaving the area, they took a flag they found in the wreckage.

The man said he informed police as the wreckage could be that of an airplane that disappeared last year.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in March last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them China nationals.
The incident triggered one of the largest search for an aircraft focusing in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Last month, French authorities confirmed a  piece of wing found on the shore of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean has been identified as part of the MH370 wreckage.

The flaperon was found on the shore of the French-governed island on July 29 and Malaysian authorities have said paint colour and maintenance-record matches proved it came from the missing Boeing 777 aircraft.

Hmm...so a something? or a nothing?

MTF..P2