Settling in to life at the "bottom of the World"
Monday McMurdo Station, Antarctica 10:00pm High; 23F wind chill: +12 F Low: +12F wind chill –4F Winds: E 7-15 knts Station Pressure: 29.190” Present Conditions: Snowing with 8-10in. of ground cover Sunset: February 20, 2008
I am sitting on a table in the laundry room writing this and watching it snow!! winter has arrived but it is summer time here. There will definitely be a white Thanksgiving this next weekend.
Since arriving on Friday we have had a series of training sessions and McMurdo logistics meetings to attend. Sunday is not a workday for station employees so Andrew, Steve and Terry have been spending time getting computer programs set up. Sunday was a beautiful day, rather warm in the low 20’s, to go out exploring. Periodically throughout the week various researchers present their work and on Sunday night Dr. DeVrees from the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana talked about the Antarctic tooth fish and other Southern Ocean cold-water fish and how they stay alive through the manufacturing of a glycoprotein. In addition to the research lectures, ANDRILL hosted a big open house to show some of their findings. ANDRILL is the Antarctic Drilling program and is an international body of geoscience researchers looking at core samples for the clues to the past environments and atmospheres of Antarctica and the planet. They have about 60 scientists on site working on this project.
On Saturday, April and I walked over to Scott Base. This is the New Zealand base and it is about 1.5 miles up and then down the hill to the point between the Ross Ice Shelf and the open sea ice (which is still frozen right now but will thaw almost completely by February). We no more arrived at the station when they had a fire drill and everyone was evacuated to a warming house that was actually the staging area for Sir Edmund Hillary’s transantarctic expedition from 1955-1958 led by Sir Vivian Fuch’s. The Commonwealth countries of New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, and South Africa in support of the International Geophysical Year sponsored the expedition. The IGY is now recognized as the International Polar YearThe International Polar Year (IPY) is a two year (2007-2009) program of international research and education focused on the Arctic and Antarctic. Click here for more information about IPY. which is why I have been able to come to Antarctica to help spread the information about the value and importance for Polar research in the K-12 schools. The strength of the wind and the blowing ice was quite a surprise to us as we came around the area known as the gap that overlooks Scott Base.
On Monday, April and I attended Sea Ice school all day. At first this sounded like it was going to be very cold and very difficult. It was actually a great chance to go out on the sea ice and see where many of the glaciers in this area are flowing out to the sea and see the features that are created in this extreme environment by moving ice. I am going to describe more of this in detail later this week. We met for a brief explanation period and then loaded into the Hagglund (see the pictures below) to transport all 9 of us out from McMurdo on to the sea ice. In addition to the spectacular scenery we learned what to look for on the ice that could mean impending danger of losing a vehicle or falling in. Cracks, ridges, colors and patterns in the ice all detail what is safe to be on and what is not. Tuesday and Wednesday, April and I will attend Happy Camper School as it is called but in reality it is a survival training in the event we are trapped out in the environment and have to make a temporary camp to survive until rescued. I sure was hoping that Girl Scout training would come in use but this is a completely different environment altogether. Primitive camping in the frozen land of Antarctica! Look for those details on Thursday!!
Below are pictures from in and around the McMurdo town, the McMurdo Sound, Scott Base, the Ross Ice Shelf and the frozen sea ice of the Southern Ocean. Enjoy! It has been beyond what I expected the landscape to look like!! It is unbelievable!! Be sure to look at the photos in the gallery that I have posted, as there are many more then these here.
Cheers,
Ann Linsley
Landscape of the sea ice against Ross Island
Barne GlacierA mass of ice that persists for many years and notably deforms and flows under the influence of gravity. where it is meets the sea ice
Drilling through the ice to see how far before we hit water. If it is within 3 feet that is not deep enough to drive the Hagglund across. The ice has to be 1/3 of the wheel base length in depth for a safe crossing across a crack or ridge.
The town of McMurdo as seen from Hut point. In the foreground is one of Scott's huts that was used as a staging area for his expedition into Antarctica. The dormitories are the big brown buildings and i am in the one closet to the sea.
The ripples in the ice are pressure ridges. This is outside of the Scott Base. These are caused by the Ross Ice Shelf colliding with the sea ice and tidal fluctuations.
Back in New Zealand territory again! This is the entrance to the Scott Base. The wind was pretty rough!
These are seals- not rocks! They did move. The Antarctic Treaty specifically restricts disturbing any of the creatures so this was as close as we could get. They were taking a nap but the evidence of their presence was everywhere.
Be sure to see the photo gallery for a lot more pictures of this place!!
Enjoy!
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