20 November 2012 Building And Installing Seismometers

I have spent the last couple days working very hard to get our seismic stations ready for the field. The entire team is pulling 12 to 16 hour days to be ready to fly at any moment. The weather here is so unpredictable that the flight schedule changes constantly. On any day we can get the call that we have a plane and that the weather is descent enough to fly to a particular site. Not necessarily the priority ones, but you place them where you can when you can. Once all of our training was complete we had a mad dash to complete stations for the field and before we had many ready we were called upon to fly out. While some of the team went into the field others stayed behind to set up more stations.

Now we have all the stations ready that we will place from our base in McMurdo. Unfortunately, we have only five sites done but we are slightly ahead of schedule. Now we wait for the call. We are not first priority to fly because another science group needs to fly out and set up their camp so they can start their research.

The last 72 hours have been rough but we came together to accomplish the goal. With five sites placed in the field and four more to place before we leave for the Italian base Mario Zuchelli in five or so days, the schedule is tight but it can be done. I was fortunate enough to be on the team that installed two sites in one day, which is rare because of the distance, weather, and weight of the equipment. If we can do that one more time, maybe tomorrow, we will be in great shape to finish here on time. Then it’s off to some of the most beautiful scenery that Antarctica has to offer at Mario Zuchelli.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and check out the latest video of my adventure. http://youtu.be/vcBdu_0H2p4