Honey, I’m Home!
The trip home started with the check in and pre-flight weigh-in to make sure that my luggage did not exceed 75 pounds. We all were required to wear our special ECW (extreme cold weather) clothing on the military flight from McMurdo Station to New Zealand and we then crammed our change of clothing, computers and other carry-on stuff into the orange ECW bag. After our 8-hour, cold and noisy flight in the Hercules C-130 cargo plane we arrived in Christchurch New Zealand where I learned that for some reason I had not been booked on any commercial flights to get home. The great folks at ARCUS solved the problem right away and the next afternoon I was on my way to Auckland and then onto a 12.5 hour flight across the Pacific (and the International Date Line) to land in Los...
The CTD is the workhorse of most of the oceanographic research that happens on the Oden or any other research vessel. CTD stands for Conductivity, Temperature and Depth and the heart of this "inner space probe” is a package of instruments that sends a stream of data back to computers aboard the Oden as it is slowly lowered over the bow of the ship. Signals are sent back and forth between the CTD and the ship through a special cable that is over 2 miles long. The conductivity of the water allows the oceanographers to infer the saltiness and by measuring and graphing the profile of changing temperature and salinity the scientists can identify specific layers in the water column. The CTD aboard the Oden also carried sensors that measured the amount of dissolved oxygen and the movement of...
Exploring McMurdo
For me, the reoccurring theme of this 2 month adventure has been, "Just when you thought it could not get better….”. As we walked off the Oden on Jan 12 we were told that our flight home would be delayed for one more day and we would not leave until the 14th. This meant that we had an extra day to explore the historic and interesting area around McMurdo. Our first stop was our dorm room. Although I was suddenly sharing a room with 4 others, the beds were fine and the food was great. On our first evening we had a chance to tour Scott’s Discovery Hut which was built over 100 years ago by Robert F. Scott and later it was used by some of the other early Antarctic explorers. The most fascinating thing about he hut is that because the climate is so cold and dry, decay...
Are We There Yet?As much as I have enjoyed every minute of this expedition and I am already starting to miss some of the great people I have become friends with on the Oden, the last mile to McMurdo has taken us over 24 hours. The Oden has been cutting a channel through 3-meter thick sea ice and it has been slow going. We have been able to see the buildings for 2 days and this morning as we prepared to leave by helicopter, we are only about 200 meters from the ice pier. The decision was made to keep us on the ship until 2pm and skip the helicopter because by then we will be able to walk off the ship.
Everyone is packed and our rooms are all cleaned and inspected and it is the longest 5-hour wait I can remember. Once on shore we will be able to spend some tourist time today and then we...
An Encounter with Antarctic Minke Whales!!
As the Oden cut several miles through the unbroken sea ice of McMurdo Sound we soon realized that the 100 foot wide path of the icebreaker had become a path of opportunity for Antarctic Minke whales too. These 35 foot long, 10 ton whales can gulp huge mouthfuls of seawater and use the baleen plates in their mouths to strain out the tiny krill. They can swim and hunt under the sea ice but they need open water in order to breath and rest. Minke whales are experts at pushing aside broken sea ice to find areas where they can breathe. During the 2 days that we stayed at the ice station about 6 miles from the northern end of Ross Island, several Antarctic Minke whales used the small pool of open water in front of the Oden as a resting place between...
I Discovered That Adelie Penguins Can Fly!!
The Oden was parked at an ice station in McMurdo Sound, about 6 miles off the coast of Cape Bird on the North end of Ross Island. The icebreaker had created the only pool of open water as far as the eye could see and about 100 Adelie penguins were happy to take advantage of it. I shot this video by lowering my underwater camera over the bow of the Oden into the pool of open water in front of the ship. Enjoy!
Flying Penguins
Making memories on the ice,
Jeff Peneston
McMurdo Sound Ice StationAs we approached Ross Island at the far western edge of the Ross Sea Polynya, we were greeted by amazing views of the 4 volcanic peaks of Ross Island. This was the first real land we had seen in over a month and it marked the beginning of our last week on the Oden. After 12 hours of icebreaking we established our last and longest sea ice station where we stayed for over 2 days. During that time all of the science teams worked to collect and analyze their last samples. It was also my last chance to go out on the ice with the seal research team. This time I was part of a 5-person group as we worked with the biggest Weddell seals of the entire trip. I was even promoted to be one of the 2 net handlers who actually captured each of the 5 seals. The ice of...
Oden News Flash!
Before we get to today's topics I need to make 2 announcements....
We crossed the International Date Line Today! If you check the longitude for this journal post you will see that for the first time we are located in the Eastern Hemisphere. For the last 5 weeks we have been traveling west and we crossed the 180˚ of longitude this afternoon. This also means that we have gained a day on the calendar. For example, when we speak with all of you during the Live From IPY webinar on Wed Jan 7th at 1pm Eastern time, we will be on New Zealand time and our clocks will tell us it is 7am on Thurs Jan 8th. It's a big, round world out there!
I can see Ross Island! After spending almost 3 days crossing the 500 mile length of the Ross Sea Polynya, we are nearing the western edge which...
Oden News Flash! Before we get to today's topics I need to make an announcement....
Mark Your Calendars and Register for this week's Live From IPY Webinar from the Oden. Go to the PolarTREC.com homepage and sign-up to participate in the one hour live event that will start at 1pm Eastern time this Wednesday, January 7th. I created a document that helps teachers understand how to prepare their classes for a webinar and it is posted on my Dec 13th journal.
The Ross Sea Polynya
After weeks in the sheltering calm of the Amundsen Sea ice, the Oden has entered the Ross Sea Polynya. Polynyas are areas along polar coastlines where prevailing or seasonal winds push the sea ice away from the shore. The exciting part is that these open polar waters allow sunlight to penetrate the sea and cause the...
Note: We are running a few days behind with these journals due to communications issues with the Oden. Thank you for your patience.
Oden News Flash! Before we get to today's topics I need to make a few announcements....
Mark Your Calendars and Register for this week's Live From IPY Webinar from the Oden. Go to the PolarTREC.com homepage and sign-up to participate in the one hour live event that will start at 1pm Eastern time this Wednesday, January 7th. I created a document that helps teachers understand how to prepare their classes for a webinar and it is posted on my Dec 13th journal. 2. New videos are coming soon. I am interviewing some of the scientists on board plus I have I am working on videos titled "Krill Safari" and "I Picked a Seal's Nose for Science"....
My Day With The Seal Research TeamYesterday was a life-changing day for me that I will never forget. The seal research team had invited me to spend the day helping them haul their equipment and they had asked me to help them capture video of their work. First, we searched the rapidly melting sea ice for two days until we found thick floes with seals on them. Yesterday as the Oden's big crane lowered the team's inflatable Zodiac over the side, loaded with nets and skis and biological sampling equipment I was so excited that I could barely control myself. A few weeks ago I had walked out from the ship to video the team as they worked with a seal but today I was welcomed as a member of the group. My job was to help carry equipment and to shoot video of the capture process. I also was needed...
## Ice Research Team
Each day as we reach a new ice research station, the ship's crew ties the Icebreaker Oden to the floe with huge ropes and steel stakes. Then the ice research teams dress in floatation suits, waterproof boots, hats, gloves, sunscreen and polar sunglasses. Before we carry our equipment down the gangway, the team leaders radio the officer on the bridge to announce who is going onto the ice. Once on the floe, the drill location is selected. The first task is to measure the snow depth and then shovel up to 1 meter of it away to reach the surface of the ice. The first core removed is measured and photographed, then small holes are drilled into it every 10cm so that a temperature probe can measure the sea ice temperature profile. Additional cores are cut into sections so...
KrillIt is so easy to imagine a place on the Earth in terms of the charismatic animals that live there. Monkeys in tropical jungles, colorful fish on coral reefs, dolphins in the sea, polar bears in the Arctic and penguins in the Antarctic. Each spring and fall, the Fingerlakes Institute in Geneva, NY invites me to bring my students out on Seneca Lake aboard their research vessel and most of the students expect to see and study the fish that the lake is famous for. Instead, when we fly our underwater camera over the lake bottom we see a slightly cloudy "soup" of plankton being filtered by a carpet of mussels covering the lake bottom. The vast majority of the life in every ecosystem is small, microscopic life that makes up the critical base of the food chain. Here in Southern...
Christmas Eve is the day for Swedish celebration with gift exchanges and a traditional banquet.
Every person on the Oden is unusual. No one was chosen at random to spend months traveling to the beautiful frozen seas of Antarctica. Some are the best scientists and hardest working students in the world. Others have invested years becoming so skilled as sailors and technicians that they were chosen over many others for this international expedition. No one on board has just let life happen to them. No one is here because they were lucky. Everyone has worked hard and sacrificed to become part of this important team. We all know that the work we do here is important to people across the world but we also know that part of the cost is personal and family sacrifice. All of us are thinking of...
I am glad that so many of you are enjoying my videos!
The folks who write to me through the Ask The Team forum have suggested and inspired many of the topics that I have presented in my journals. Today, I will try to respond to the interest in videos.
The first video features Julia Diaz who is a graduate student at Georgia Tech. She has been on many oceanic research expeditions searching to understand the microscopic plants upon which the entire marine food web depends. The second video is a one minute panorama that I shot this morning while we headed through what is probably the greatest concentration of icebergs in the world. Enjoy.
All Antarctic Life Depends on Green Plants in the Sea...
Oden News Flash! Before we get to today's topic I need to make an announcement....Set your calendars for our 2nd Live Webinar on Wednesday, January 7th! Our first live event was a great success and we are excited to give everyone another chance to participate. By Jan. 7th we will be nearing the end of the scientific data collection portion of the expedition and we will be able to announce some preliminary results. Go to the PolarTREC home page and go to the Live From IPY link to register for the event. Before our first webinar I posted an attached document that helps you understand how to get the most out of the webinar and how to prepare your students. You can find that document on my Dec 13th journal.
Holiday decorations are appearing all over Oden! Today's journal is a collection of...
Oden News Flash! Before we get to today's topic I need to make an announcement....It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas aboard Oden. Check my upcoming journal posts for photos and descriptions of how the international members of our expedition are preparing for the holidays.
Fika, the Swedish Word of the Day
Dr. Katarina Abrahamsson , Dr. Melissa Chierici and Dr. Agneta Fransson lead the team of Swedish ice researchers. While we were collecting ice cores they taught me an important new Swedish word. Fika is a casual way to refer to a coffee break. The trick to a successful Fika while on Antarctic sea ice is to have something to lean or sit on (like the ice block in the photo) and you must have a very well insulated thermos to keep the coffee hot!
An Experiment: Going to the...
Oden News Flash! Before we get to today's topic I need to make an announcement....
I learned today that some of my journal posts from this week were lost in the complex satellite cyberspace pathway from ship to satellite to Alaska to Internet to you! I have worked with the tech experts at PolarTREC and on the Oden today and hopefully by the time you get today's journal you will also have a few extra day's journals to enjoy as well. It is all part of communicating from the remote parts of the planet!
Today's topic is...
Seal Research aboard Oden
In 1955 an epidemic disease swept across the crabeater seal population of Antarctica and 97% of the crabeater seals (millions of individuals) died. Dr. Tero Härkönen from the Museum of Natural History in Sweden was among a group of scientists...
There are no weekends off on a polar research expedition. On Saturday we tied up to an ice floe that was several hundred meters wide for Ice Station #2 and today we tied up to a flow that was nearly a mile wide and 1.5 miles long. Most of the sea ice is about 3 feet thick with 2 feet of snow on top. Once the ship is secured to the flow with massive ropes and even more impressive stakes, the science teams walk down the gangplank to establish ice stations. For safety, each team has a radio and is in constant contact with the bridge. No one can go on or off the ice without alerting the officer in charge. Everyone is also required to wear the yellow and blue safety suits that make us easy to see and also make us float, just in case. It takes the teams about 4-5 hours to collect the ice and...
Today's journal contains 2 things that many people have asked for. I have a photo below of a man in a penguin hat on skis. Actually, I had just skied about a kilometer from the Oden to check out an iceberg that is frozen into the massive ice floe that the ship is moored to. The snow is dry and granular with a thin crust on top. I spent several hours today walking and working on it and I also spent a great deal of time breaking through the crust with every third step and sinking in up to my waist. This photo was taken about 10pm when I borrowed a pair of cross country skis from the crew and went out to explore. The uneven, snow covered landscape is buried in a meter of snow and is sculpted by the wind. It looks like I am skiing on top of a giant pie covered in whipped cream! None of the...
The ice floes are getting bigger and thicker every day as the Oden works its way toward the coast. Although we are still over 100 miles from land, most of the sea is covered by rugged expanses of ice and snow. As summer comes to the Antarctic, this covering of sea ice begins to break into pieces called floes. The floes outside today cover over 90% of the sea in floating slabs that are 2 meters thick and many miles across. Between the flows are leads of open water that range in size from cracks to small lakes. For the last few days it has felt like we were navigating the canals through Upstate New York. Except that when the Oden can't find a canal-like pathway through the floes...it makes one. The mighty ship pushes floes the size of 3 football fields out of the way and turns over blocks...
Check out the 1.5-minute video I shot this evening of Adelie penguins who came over to inspect the alien visitors from the far North. Apparently the penguins had never met Swedish sailors. Bosun, Mats Hansson and Able Seaman, Einar Sjöbom just sat down on the sea ice and the penguins did the rest.
I hope you enjoy this as much as we did when we watched it from the deck of the Oden.
Take care, have fun & make memories,
Jeff Peneston
As one of the first to step onto the ice, I felt like a lunar explorer who didn't know what the surface would feel like under my feet!And, I knew that with every step I was standing where no human had ever stood before.
On Friday the Oden was tied to an ice floe and for the first time, teams were able to stand on the ice and collect samples as we floated on the ocean that was almost 2 miles deep beneath us. And, then we were visited by seals and penguins and whales, oh my!
This seal did not seem to mind the fact that his floe was being used as a scientific field station with a 13,000 ton ice breaker roped to it and teams of humans working 25 meters away.
Co-Chief Scientist, Katarina Abrahamsson from Sweden and US graduate student, Kevin Bakker are lifted from the Oden to the ice by the...
We have reached the calm seas and spectacular beauty of the sea ice! After 4 days of very rough travel across the Drake Passage, the last two days have been extremely pleasant for all. The broken and melting sea ice is about one meter thick with almost another meter of snow on top of it and it has reduced the waves and roll of the sea to almost zero. The mighty Oden takes almost no notice of the melting flows as they are pushed aside and the helmsman only needs to adjust our course when mountainous icebergs block our path. From my perch in the bridge I can see crabeater seals almost constantly and I have also seen several emperor penguins. Snow petrels are slightly smaller than a sea gull and almost pure white. They fly in groups of 3-5 around the ship.
As summer comes to the Antarctic,...
Check out this beauty!
Shortly after I sent today's journal, the seas started to calm, the sun came out and we passed close to this iceberg. As it passed I was able to use the zoom on my video camera to capture waves pounding into a blue cave at water level. Then, the real surprise. On the opposite side, my zoom lens could see that a dark region across the back of the berg was actually hundred of penguins that had climbed up on to the giant for shelter, rest, and a ride. Enjoy!
A beautiful iceberg passes close by.
Take care, have fun & make memories,
Jeff Peneston
