C-130 landing near McMurdo Station.
After a LOOOOOOONNNNNNG time traveling, I'm home, safe and sound! things were smooth, for the most part. The trip off the Ice was exciting but sooo uncomfortable. My team and I traveled by People…
Microbial mats
Soon, we will leave "The Ice" - maybe even today? Our bags are packed and turned in to the cargo department, and we are waiting for news of our flight. Will we leave today, as planned? Maybe! We fly…
Team mascot in ice cave.
Beaker, our team mascot, freaking out in an ice cave on Lake Fryxell. Yay!!! I GOT MAIL! Mrs. Lively forwarded me notes and questions from students at Twelve Bridges Middle School. I miss you all…
High resolution scanning electron microscope image.
High resolution scanning electron microscope (SEM) image by Brad Kryzsiak. You may have noticed that we are a team of microbiologists (and one science teacher) but I haven't shown you any…
Boarding helicopter at Lake Fryxell.
Boarding helicopter at Lake Fryxell. A few days ago, we headed back to McMurdo Station, and we are here for about a week. We've been doing a lot of stuff here in "town" to get cleaned up after our…
PhD student Kodi Haughn
Microbes have their tiny selves in so many parts of our world, big and small. In the lakes of the Dry Valleys, we can see how tiny chemical interactions contribute to huge geochemical cycles, like…
Charismatic Megafauna of the McMurdo Dry Valleys
Greetings, readers! It's another lovely day in Antarctica, with temperatures hovering around a balmy 27°F. We had a another day of wrapping things up with a return of every piece of gear borrowed for…
Stability and Change in the McMurdo Dry Valleys
Sadly, we have left the Dry Valleys for McMurdo Station. That first shower was SO NICE! Since then, we have spent our time resting, unpacking gear and returning it. It has been warm (ok, warm-ER)…
Canada Stream flowing from Canada Glacier.
Canada Stream flowing from Canada Glacier. The focus of my team has been the microbes that live in the Dry Valley lakes. But there is a wider picture of the Dry Valleys I'd like to show you by…
Photo by Lucy Coleman
It's been sunny and warm here the last couple of days! We have just one more day of collecting samples before we spend a couple of days packing up. We anticipate flying back to McMurdo Station over…
Photo by Lucy Coleman
In fits and starts, it's warming up here at Lake Fryxell! We have less than a week left of getting as much science done as we can. We go out everyday and drill and collect water samples. Some days…
Photo by Lucy Coleman
We celebrate Thanksgiving here in the Dry Valleys, too! Our team took the day off from drilling and sciencing. We hiked over to another remote field camp at Lake Hoare, about 4 miles from here. The…