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 field season. We literally have cleaned ourselves up with showers- that was FANTASTIC. We also have been returning a lot of gear and lab materials that we borrowed for use during the field season.
The helicopter flight was exciting in that we got to see some live animals! This happened for a couple of reasons. One is that we fly over the sea ice, which is where many of the most interesting larger animals live (in contrast to the Dry Valleys, which have none). The other thing is that with warmer temperatures, the sea ice has been breaking up a little bit, allowing for animals to be a bit closer to the areas we were flying over.
Although we were flying pretty fast, the helicopter pilot zigzagged some to give us views of the sea ice from above. None of my photos turned out that well, but here's what we saw:
Date
Location
McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Expedition
Weather Summary
Sunny, windy
Temperature
16°F
Wind Chill
0°F
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