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Antarctic Sub Glacial Lake and Stream Studies

(This came in an email to me, so I copied here for everyone to see.)

HI, Mike - questions from my 2nd graders

In what kind of building are you staying? What route did you take to get to Antarctica? Kayden wonders if you know his sister, Kristen Price. She attends LNHS What will you be doing there? Do you like it there? How much does it snow? Is it scary landing in a plane on to such rough terrain? Have you seen any penguins?

Mrs. Bishopps Class

Tue, 11/13/2012 - 10:54

Mike LeBaron

Hi guys. I hope that you are having a good week there in Mooresville! Here are answers to the questions you have.I'm staying in a dormitory. It's a large building with many bedrooms in it. Some rooms have 3 people sleeping in them, some have two. My room only has two beds. Right now I'm on my second roommate. The first was a scientist named Peter who is doing penguin research. He left a few days ago to move to a camp in the field where there are penguins to study. My current roommate is a mountaineer - a man who is an expert at mountain climbing and working on glaciers. He's from Iceland! (see if you can find Iceland on a map). His name is Aener Steinarrson (I think I'm close on spelling). He speaks excellent English.
To get here I flew from Charlotte to Dallas, Texas then to Los Angeles, California. After that I got on a plane and few for 15 hours to Sydney, Australia. From Sydney I flew to Christchurch, New Zealand. I spent two days in Christchurch getting ready to do the final flight to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. All together I was in airplanes for about 30 hours and I'm about 10,000 miles from Mooresville.
Tell Kayden that I think I've had her sister in my Earth Environmental Science class.
What am I doing here? My best answer to that is to read some of the journal entries because I'm doing all sorts of things. My main job is to write about what happens on our project and tell all of you back in the United States about it.
I really like it here. I've never been in such an amazing and interesting place.
It has snowed a little bit, but the total snow that comes down every year is a very small amount - just a few inches. This is a cold desert. When you read about there being miles of ice covering Antarctica it's true, but it's taken 100,000's or millions of year for it to get that thick. Actually today is supposed to be very warm - 28 degrees, so we'll probably have a lot of melting going on.
Our airplane landing in Antarctica was probably the smoothest I've ever had. I honestly didn't even know we were on the ground until the pilot started braking to slow the airplane down. I didn't have any windows to look out of, so all I could tell was that we were changing speed and direction. Look back at my journal entry on 11/4/12 to read about the trip. see http://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/antarctic-sub-glacial-lake-and-stre... .
And finally, penguins - no I haven't seen any penguins. We are quite a way from open ocean right now. We have seen seals, but no penguins.
Thanks for the questions - keep reading and following what I'm doing and asking questions.
Mr. LeBaron

Tue, 11/13/2012 - 11:20

Mike LeBaron

Hi guys. I hope that you are having a good week there in Mooresville! Here are answers to the questions you have.I'm staying in a dormitory. It's a large building with many bedrooms in it. Some rooms have 3 people sleeping in them, some have two. My room only has two beds. Right now I'm on my second roommate. The first was a scientist named Peter who is doing penguin research. He left a few days ago to move to a camp in the field where there are penguins to study. My current roommate is a mountaineer - a man who is an expert at mountain climbing and working on glaciers. He's from Iceland! (see if you can find Iceland on a map). His name is Aener Steinarrson (I think I'm close on spelling). He speaks excellent English.
To get here I flew from Charlotte to Dallas, Texas then to Los Angeles, California. After that I got on a plane and few for 15 hours to Sydney, Australia. From Sydney I flew to Christchurch, New Zealand. I spent two days in Christchurch getting ready to do the final flight to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. All together I was in airplanes for about 30 hours and I'm about 10,000 miles from Mooresville.
Tell Kayden that I think I've had her sister in my Earth Environmental Science class.
What am I doing here? My best answer to that is to read some of the journal entries because I'm doing all sorts of things. My main job is to write about what happens on our project and tell all of you back in the United States about it.
I really like it here. I've never been in such an amazing and interesting place.
It has snowed a little bit, but the total snow that comes down every year is a very small amount - just a few inches. This is a cold desert. When you read about there being miles of ice covering Antarctica it's true, but it's taken 100,000's or millions of year for it to get that thick. Actually today is supposed to be very warm - 28 degrees, so we'll probably have a lot of melting going on.
Our airplane landing in Antarctica was probably the smoothest I've ever had. I honestly didn't even know we were on the ground until the pilot started braking to slow the airplane down. I didn't have any windows to look out of, so all I could tell was that we were changing speed and direction. Look back at my journal entry on 11/4/12 to read about the trip. see http://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/antarctic-sub-glacial-lake-and-stre... .
And finally, penguins - no I haven't seen any penguins. We are quite a way from open ocean right now. We have seen seals, but no penguins.
Thanks for the questions - keep reading and following what I'm doing and asking questions.
Mr. LeBaron

Fri, 11/16/2012 - 06:14

Anonymous

so were do you think they are

Fri, 11/16/2012 - 18:48

Mike LeBaron

There are several teams doing research on penguins. They are about 30 miles away from where I am and from what I've heard, those are the closest penguins.If you want to follow along with the people who are doing the penguin research, ask your teacher if you can go look at the website:
http://www.penguinscience.com/education/Journal_2009.php
Ms. Jean Pennycook writes the stories on this page. She's a retired teacher and just like me, she loves getting questions from students that follow her work. I met Ms. Pennycook last week before she left to be in the field at Cape Royds. She is one of several groups I've met that study penguins.
Keep the questions coming!
Mr. LeBaron