Flying low over the Shackleton Glacier. The dark portions are streams of rocks being carried along by the glacier
Once back at the base camp, we started to try and obtain some Twin Otter air time to take us on a reconnaissance flight over to Shackleton Glacier, John's field location for next season's work. After a day and a half of manipulating flight schedules, we were granted a few hours of air time. We flew over the neighboring mountain range and headed toward the head of the glacier where it comes off the polar plateau. From there, we flew down glacier along the mountains that create the eastern boundary and turned over the toe as the glacier merges with the Ross Ice Shelf to head back up the western edge. After several touch and go landings, the pilots safely landed south of the...
LC-130 Hercules we flew on to the Central Transantarctic Mountain (CTAM) camp. Notice the skis.
Finally, after eleven days in McMurdo, the weather cleared and we were off to CTAM. The flight was aboard a LC-130 Hercules which is quite a bit smaller than the C-17 we arrived on in McMurdo. It is special because it is on skis instead of wheels. After approximately a two hour flight, we landed at CTAM. The first difference I noted when disembarking the plane was that the temperature was much colder than in McMurdo because we were at a significantly higher elevation and were camped on top of a glacier instead of on exposed rock at sea level. While CTAM was a very comfortable camp with very interesting science going on, we were anxious to finally get into the field and begin our research...
When I think back to my time in Antarctica with John Stone's research team, I have very fond memories. This reflection post is very late, I know. There have been many times when I sat down and tried to reflect on my experience. It's been difficult because there is simply so much to think about; how can I possibly put the sights I've seen and this incredible experience into words? Sometimes, I feel almost homesick for Antarctica and I've had to pause because it is bittersweet. I had the most amazing experience, but I know that most of those places I'll never see again.
My initial thoughts about what my time in Antarctica was going to be like were that it would be cold, windy, and dramatic in ways unimaginable. I had some idea of what to expect in McMurdo because when one searches on...
Well, I'm back home with mixed feelings. I had an incredibly amazing experience in Antarctica and yet I am also happy to be home; it feels good to be back with my family. In the four days since I've returned, I've experienced quite a bit of culture and weather shock. It was very strange to drive myself again and to tackle the grocery store. It seems that there are people everywhere; Wyoming once seemed so quiet and often remote, but it doesn't begin to compare to the overwhelming quietness of Antarctica. The weather while I was in Antarctica was unusually nice for such an extended period of time. We rarely had any wind (only three or four days) and the temperatures were mild (high 20's Fahrenheit). I arrived in Denver to find the wind chill in the single digits and a snow storm...
When I was told to be flexible in Antarctica, they meant be FLEXIBLE! There are times when our weather delays have been an exercise in patience. That was certainly the case during our seven day wait on Mt. Hope. The day we had our reconnaissance flight to Shackleton Glacier also had an LC-130 Hercules coming into CTAM and returning the same day to McMurdo. We had been hopeful that we could do both the reconnaissance flight and return to McMurdo the same day. However, because of our delay until 2 p.m. for the Shackleton flight, we were not able to catch the Hercules back that same day (Wednesday 1-12).
Lunch break from fossil hunting in the hills outside of CTAM. My collecting companions are from left to right: Kathy, Ed, Danny.
The next scheduled Hercules was for Friday, 1-14....
Even with all of our weather delays, we were able to get our reconnaissance flight to the Shackleton Glacier in last Wednesday, January 12th. Once again, the weather placed the possibility of the flight in jeopardy. We were originally scheduled to fly out at 10 a.m. However, the weather was overcast with very low clouds, so the flight was postponed until the weather cleared. Around 2 p.m. we received the go ahead.
We flew out to the glacier on a Twin Otter. These planes are the secondary type of support aircraft based at CTAM. Our two pilots were Canadian and fly research teams in the Arctic every summer when they're not in Antarctica.
The Twin Otter on the Shackleton Glacier. The two pilots are passing the time reading while waiting for us; you can see one lying on the left wing...
After multiple weather delays, we've finally made it back to CTAM. We had fantastic weather when we woke up at Mt. Hope, but when John called CTAM, their weather was too bad for flying. For the next several hours, we called on the hour for weather updates. Finally, around 11:00 a.m., they announced that the helicopter pilots were willing to try and come get us. (They were willing to try because we'd already been out there for an extra week and CTAM knew our weather was likely to take a turn for the worse again.)
Our 'rescue' helicopter landing to pick us up from our camp on Mt. Hope. The haze is loose, powdery snow being kicked up by the rotors.
The helicopter flight was rather hairy. Because we are wearing flight helmets that are wired in, we can hear all the discussions going on...
Well, now that we've been stuck here at our Mt. Hope camp because of weather, I'm running out of things to write about. So, this will mainly be a photo journal about patterns in the snow and ice. Amazingly, on sunny days, a common sound in Antarctica is that of running water. While the temperatures may not seem warm enough, with 24-hours of sunlight, the sun's rays on dark-colored rocks can raise their temperatures into the 40s Fahrenheit. If you look out across the landscape, you can actually see the shimmers of heat waves rising above larger rocks. Due to the fact that these rocks are in contact with snow and ice, there is quite a significant amount of melting that goes on around their margins. Here on Mt. Hope, we have not had to melt ice or snow to obtain our water; there are...
There are four runway systems associated with the USAP that operate from late winter (WINFLY - usually sometime in late August) through the austral summer. Three of them are located within driving distance of McMurdo, while the fourth, is located at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. When I flew in on December 6th, 2010, the C-17 landed on the annual Sea Ice Runway. To access the runway, vehicles drive over roughly three miles of sea ice road that extends from land and transitions on to the sea ice. It operates from October into sometime in December, depending on when the sea ice becomes too unstable, beginning to melt and break up. We were one of the last flights to land on the sea ice; one week after we arrived, over the course of two days, they had moved the airfield to the...
While at our remote camps, we've used tents. There are two types of tents in the field with us: Scott tents and an endurance tent. These take quite a while to erect and if there are high winds present, they can be very frustrating to set up as they require staking to the ground and placement of guy lines. The awkward frame structure of the Scott tents make them difficult to raise with strong winds present. Smaller, lighter mountain tents (the type most people think of when imagining a tent) get caught by the wind and are difficult to hold down to attach the poles.
As a result, the United States Antarctic Program's (USAP) field manual suggests building a snow shelter. They describe five possible structures: snow walls, trenches (of which there are two versions: with a snow-block roof...
For four days now, we've been trying to get a helicopter flight back to CTAM from our remote camp here on Mt. Hope. It's not that the weather has been exceptionally nasty, but it has not been good flying weather. I had always thought that for flights to be suspended in Antarctica, it meant that there was a howling blizzard outside. While that may happen, during the summer research season, more often than not, it is low clouds and fog that make flying hazardous.
We did have two days where it snowed off and on, but we never saw much accumulation - maybe about a quarter of an inch. During this snow storm, the wind even hardly blew; I don't think we've had winds here over 15 mph. The weather factor that has held us pinned in camp is fog and overcast skies. Most of the time we have not...
McMurdo has many interesting people. The majority of them are employees of Raytheon, the current logistics provider for the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). Without these support people, science down here couldn't happen. Raytheon employees keep McMurdo running. They provide our food; make sure buildings have heat and electricity; ensure we have clean, fresh water and treat the wastewater; maintain roads; regulate transport of people and supplies; and facilitate communications through radio, phone, and computers, just to list a few of the jobs. Without these people quietly and diligently working behind the scenes, scientific research would be hard pressed to continue.
Support personnel are the people who spend the longest amount of time here; some arrive during Winfly (end of...
Many of you probably recycle. In some locations, far away from large recycling centers, options may be limited. Many places can only recycle the basics: aluminum, glass, paper (office, newspapers and/or magazines), corrugated cardboard, and maybe steel cans. In McMurdo there are no landfills; there is no "away". Everything that is used or "used up" must be returned to the United States for disposal. That means everything.
Everywhere around McMurdo there are recycling containers. In the lounge for every dorm there is a series of containers. When you're in your room, you have the usual trash can. It's convenient for tossing waste into, but as it fills up, you have the responsibility of taking it to the lounge and separating absolutely everything in it. Sometimes, it's difficult...
Today instead of sampling rocks for dating with cosmogenic isotopes, we ventured to the bottom of the mountain to where the Beardmore Glacier meets the Ross Ice Shelf. Our destination was a small lake that receives water both from melt water from snow/ice fields on Mt. Hope and from the Ross Sea. Two years ago, when John was here last, he noticed that the lake was slightly brackish (salty) tasting and suspected that its volume might be influenced by the Ross Sea.
Looking down on the lake at the bottom of Mt. Hope next to the Ross Ice Shelf. We are taking samples from this lake to verify that it is connected to the Ross sea.
Yesterday morning, John took a time-lapse camera down to the edge of the lake and programmed it to take a picture every five minutes. He left the camera...
"Antarctica: It's a Harsh Continent", so the popular saying says. This phrase can be heard and seen everywhere down here. About half of the time, people say it in jest; but, when the weather turns bad, they mean it. There are bumper stickers for sale with phrase, and when the credit card machine at the McMurdo store broke down, there was an apology note on the door reminding everyone that Antarctica is, indeed, a harsh continent.
Antarctica is the world's highest, driest, and windiest continent. While I've been here, I've not seen her true nature. Everywhere I go, everyone comments on how they've never seen such nice weather for this length of time. At any minute, the weather is destined to turn. Now, our nice weather has disappeared. We woke this morning to fog and overcast...
Camp life in the field has been more comfortable than I expected. The Scott tents are quite warm - they have been as warm as 45F (you might not think that's very warm, but when the ambient outdoor temperature is below freezing, it seems warm). The tents are made of two, thick canvas walls and are yellow in color. When the sun is out (we have sun 24 hrs/day here), the top of the tent gets quite warm - maybe up to 55F. Because Antarctica is so dry, any temperature above freezing allows things to dry out quickly. Up near the top of the tent there are ropes where we hang clothing and boot liners to dry at the end of the day. The Berg Field Center (BFC) issues everyone sleep kits. Inside are insulated sleeping pads (one Ensolite and one Therma-rest), a sleeping bag, a tiny camp pillow, a...
What a way to spend New Year's Day! Today, Maurice and I hiked to the summit of Mt. Hope. (We are currently camped on the northeast ridge of the mountain.) John and Perry had set off around 9 a.m. to collect samples along the east ridge on their way to the summit. Maurice and I left camp at about 10 a.m. for our hike. The top can be accessed easily - it is simply a scramble over rocks and snow. The easiest way to get there is by donning crampons, grabbing an ice ax and heading up the snow/ice fields. There is a short bit near the summit where you have to take off the crampons and scramble up some scree slopes and over/around boulders.
This is a view of our camp down on the northeast ridge of Mt. Hope. Just to the upper right of the frozen glacial lake you can see our three Scott...
John Stone is the principle investigator (PI) for our project, I-414. The National Science Foundation (NSF) grant was awarded under his name and proposal.
John Stone is leading a logistics discussion on moving our camp out to Cloudmaker peak. We're at CTAM discussing cargo priority and helicopter flights.
John has nine seasons in Antarctica under his belt. He has been down here just nine seasons because he is so busy with dating projects all over the world. He has been on research teams doing erosion rate studies in Brazil; dating of ancient volcanic eruptions in Hawaii and the Canary Islands; and glacial history in Australia, Scotland, and various locations around North America.
His first season was in 1991. He was working with Australian Antarctic Department in the Vestfold...
Perry Spector is a newcomer to Antarctica. He has this incredible opportunity because he has just begun a Ph.D. program with John Stone as his advisor.
Perry is resting after dinner in the endurance tent after a long day of fieldwork.
He had almost declared himself an art major upon entering college, but then took a geology class and was "hooked". Perry recieved his bachelor's in geology from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Prior to his admission to graduate school at the University of Washington, Perry focused more on the geophysics centering around the cryosphere (Earth's ice). However, he decided that he wanted "more of a field component" in his career. He's still exploring what aspect of glaciology he wants to focus on for his dissertation; he has many varied...
While collecting samples to define the limits of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) on Mt. Kyffin, John Stone uncovered an ancient ice core hidden under the moraine deposits. Underneath our feet all over the mountain lies ice from the LGM. It forms the "core", or center, of the glacial deposit. (This is different from a conventional ice "core" which is obtained by using a drilling rig that bores straight down into a glacier or polar cap and extracts a column of ice.)
John Stone is working to uncover glacial ice that remains from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). It was only about 10 centimeters below the surface.
As John was walking down the slope, some rocks slid out from under his feet and he saw the ice wasn't far underneath - only about 10 centimeters (5 inches). Taking an ice axe,...
Hurry up and wait. This is a common mantra in Antarctica. There are so many unpredictable variables that influence movement and activities down here.
The primary one is the weather. If conditions are even questionable on one end of a line of travel, chances are that travel will not occur. Weather that would be favorable in most other places can halt all air travel in Antarctica. Because most of the landscape is covered by snow and/or ice, overcast days indicate "no fly" days. Days like this create what is known as "flat" light which prohibits pilots from being able to distinguish the the conditions of their landing zone. They may not be able to tell where the horizon is because it blends into the sky. If they are landing on or needed to land on a glacier in the event of an...
Gordon Bromley just recently (1st of December this year) received his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of Maine. Following our Antarctic adventure, he is off to his next adventure as a post-doctoral researcher at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. Gordon received his bachelor's degree in physical geography from St. Andrews University in Scotland in 2003. After graduation, he was offered a Ph.D. position at St. Andrews working on glaciers in the Himalayan Mountains. He wasn't as interested in the Himalayan Mountains as in Antarctica, so he turned down the opportunity. He then moved to the United States to obtain his master's degree in Quaternary Climate Studies from the University of Maine under Brenda Hall. Immediately following his master's degree...
Brenda Hall is a glacial geologist with our team. She is here along with Gordon to map glacial deposits, both the Last Glacial Maximum limit and older deposits. By mapping these glacial deposits, moraines, mostly, they hope to reconstruct past glacial history in Antarctia. In addition to mapping glacial deposits, Brenda is also searching for ancient algae that can sometimes be found around the perimeters of ancient glacial melt ponds. When she finds these, they are radiocarbon dated back in the lab to help place ages on when the glaciers were present. So far, on this expedition, she has not been successful in her search for algae. Cloudmaker Peak and Mt. Kyffin have not held any evidence of glacial melt ponds partly because the terrain has not been favorable (no valleys or broad...
Howard "Twit" Conway is a glacial geologist with our team. He is here studying how glaciers change over time. This season, he has been using radar as a tool to determine the thickness of various glaciers. From this, he is using the thickness of the ice to reconstruct past glacial change. While with our team, he and his brother, Maurice Conway, had two days of Twin Otter time which they spent flying low (about 400 feet above the glacier's surface) over the Beardmore and Shackleton Glaciers. They spent one day flying over each glacier. They found that the Beardmore glacier is currently about 1,000 m thick where is enters the Ross Ice Shelf; most likely, the glacier is thicker up near its head where it descends from the polar plateau. The Shackleton Glacier is a little thinner than...
What a gift to be in Antarctica this Christmas! It is something that I'll never forget. With all the glaciers and snow around, there was no question that we'd have a white Christmas.
View of the mountains across the Beardmore Glacier from our camp on Mt. Kyffin. My tent is the one on the right.
On Christmas Eve, we received notification from MacOps (the radio command center in McMurdo) to tune into the high frequency radio at 7 p.m. We set up the radio, which is quite the process. It involves stringing up two antennas that are both perpendicular to the direction of the broadcasting station. The radio is in a monstrous case and is similar to the radios that ham operators use. Our radio looks as if it was made and used in the 1950s. At 7 p.m., we tuned into MacOps to find they...
