Daily Report 39 -- Sunday 28 November 2010 -- Mt. Erebus Caves – A Window into the Subsurface
Below the surface of the Earth, deep within her crust, there is an abundance of microorganisms. Some scientists estimate that the biomass of these microbes living in the subsurface is equal to or greater than the biomass on the surface of the planet. However, at this stage we know very little about the microbes which define the subterranean biosphere, how they get enough energy to survive, how they influence geochemical fluxes promoted by ground water circulation, and how this biosphere...
178
Daily Report 36 -- Thursday 25 November 2010 -- Working On Erebus: LEH and Skidoos
Life and work on top of Mt Erebus revolves around three issues: the weather, Lower Erebus Hut (LEH) and travel by snowmobile. Let me explain.
Erebus is a very tall mountain in the harsh Antarctic climate: Winds can reach 50-80 miles per hour and temperatures can drop to -40 F/-40°C even in the peak of summer. White-outs can reduce visibility to a point that you have no sense of direction, horizontally or vertically. There is nothing you can do under those conditions, just hunker down in the hut...
166
Daily Report 27 -- Friday 26 November 2010 -- Working at Erebus Volcano: Dealing with High Altitude Sickness
Erebus Volcano is an extremely photogenic volcano with beautiful and often serene scenery, but it is also a very challenging environment for scientific research. While the weather conditions might come to mind first for those challenges, it is only second to its altitude which is of most concern.
Our working area is in the summit region of Erebus volcano, between Lower Erebus Hut (“LEH”; 3402 m/11,161 feet) and Erebus summit at 3,794 m (12,448 ft), well above the elevation above which high...
156
Daily Report 26 -- Monday 15 November 2010 -- Working in the Fryxell Ice Maze
We just returned from our first trip out to the Dry Valleys to retrieve our moorings at Lake Fryxell. We did the job we came to do, not entirely without hick-ups but it all worked out and we had a great adventure, learning lots.
You might know that the Dry Valleys represent the largest ice-free areas of Antarctica and are amongst the driest places on earth. Glaciers converge on these valleys from many directions, but they melt and “dry up” way upslope, well before they can meet up and...
150
Daily Report 22 -- Thursday 11 November 2010 -- Diving Under The Ice II
Diving at McMurdo is an incredible experience. There is so much to learn about diving under the ice, even if you trained hard in San Diego. There is so much to see and study, and it is an amazing amount of fun to hang out with the McMurdo dive team, Rob Robbins, Steve Rupp, Brenda Konar and Adam Marsh. They were the best diving buddies one can imagine. As a novice diver I did not take any photographs or video footage at all. Steve and Rob did it for me - all the images in this report are theirs...
190
Daily Report 14 -- Thursday 04 November 2010 -- Diving Under The Ice
Sorry about the sluggish reporting, but somehow we are still managing to fill our entire days and most of the nights with training and field preparation. Some of this training, however, is very exciting, in particular when it involves diving under the Antarctic Sea Ice! Hotel Sierra is going through this dive training to be able to retrieve some of the Golf 439 experiments that were placed on the seafloor at Cape Evans. So far he completed two training dives at Arrivals Height, just offshore...
138
Daily Report 13 -- Tuesday 02 November 2010 -- Happy Camper Snow School (aka Snowcraft I)
More commonly known as “Happy Camper” school, this is a 2-day on-ice course for all newcomers to McMurdo. For many, including Brad and Roberto, this is the first experience of the ‘real’ Antarctica – the endless white landscape, the smooth sea-ice, the big blue sky, and the strong, unceasing wind (more on that later!). We started with a one-hour classroom briefing about survival strategies, then all 14 ‘students’ hopped onto a Hagglund (a tough Scandinavian vehicle with tracks like a tank) for...
152
Daily Report 12 -- Monday 01 November 2010 -- Staying Home at the Office
While Bravo Tango and Romeo Alpha are taking "Happy Camper" I am staying home holding down the fort in McMurdo. Lots of boring organizational stuff to do for our first trip to Taylor Valley in a few days. The weather has been fantastic while we are doing our training and organization inside the station. I just hope the weather stays nice when we go out into the field!
I just came back from dinner and noticed that there is a brisk wind, kicking up a good amount of snow. That can make you pretty...
135
Daily Report 10 -- Saturday 30 October 2010 -- We Finally Made It
After another two days of delay in Christchurch, we finally made it to the ice! We were only the sixth group of scientists traveling this year to McMurdo Station on the Airbus A319. Operated by the Australian Antarctic Research Program, the A319 is a luxurious form of transportation compared to traveling on military transport planes which has been more typical in the past.
Being “on the ice” is quite the transition from the brisk spring time weather and lackadaisical days in New Zealand to 24...
131
Daily Report 7 -- Wednesday 27 October 2010 -- They Say It Is A Virtue
Patience is today’s word of the day. This time we made it all the way to the Antarctic Departure Terminal, checked in our luggage, and went through the short briefing film. We then stood up to go through X-ray with our hand carry bags, and within a minute the Kiwi running the show asked us to hold on as she was waiting for news on a “Possible no-go”. Not long after it was official – another 24 hour weather delay! Keep repeating after us – patience, patience, patience…
Roberto Anitori (Romeo...
121
Daily Report 6 -- Tuesday 26 October 2010 -- Weather and Christchurch Events
Well, instead of being on an Airbus A319 on our way to Antarctica, Hubert, Brad and Roberto are still in Christchurch. Our first flight delay moved us from the 25th to the 26th. Our second reschedule, due to foggy conditions at McMurdo, moved us to the 27th. Whilst the fog may not be an issue at your typical airport, it definitely is in Antarctica, where they don’t have sophisticated equipment on the ground to help planes land in difficult conditions. Fog can also simulate a “whiteout”, a...
120
Daily Report 1 -- Thursday 21 October 2010 -- On Our Way
Our adventure is just about to start: The G-439 team will meet today around 10 pm in Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for their Quantas flight to Auckland, NZ. There will be another 45 USAP travelers on this first major “Ice Flight” to McMurdo for the 2010/11 field season. Our actual final flight to the ice is planned for October 25, but that is never certain. You believe it when you actually land on the ice. In some cases planes make it all the way to McMurdo to find out that they...
107