Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 11/19/2012 - 15:06
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Antarctic Sub Glacial Lake and Stream Studies

How often do you have snowball fights?

How much preparation goes into building the snowball fort?

Are the teams even?

Have you ever thrown a yellow snowball? if so... Does your friend forgive you?

John Economou 1st block

Mon, 11/19/2012 - 22:06

Mike LeBaron

Hi John,Actually, it's really hard to have a snowball fight here. First, the
snow is very dry and doesn't pack into snow balls. Second, because the
wind blows so much, the snow that is here is blown into very hard, dense
drifts that you can literally cut with a saw into blocks (go back to my
journal entry about Happy Camper School - we made block walls, which I
guess could be a fort, but we used them to block the winds that always
blow) I guess since we can't really have snowball fights, there are no
teams. And finally, no yellow snow in Antarctica. In an effort to
minimize mans impact on the environment, you don't just pee on the snow.
Instead, if you're at a work site there are outhouses where waste is
collected and processed in the waste water treatment facility. If you
are out hiking or away from areas with outhouses, you carry a water
bottle that you pee into and take back to town with you where it's
dumped into the toilet so it's processed with the normal waste water
flow. (you also clean the bottle and disinfect it before using it
again). There aren't that many people here, but because we do tend to
work together in the same areas out in the field, there need to be some
controls on pollutants, including human waste. It all works very well
and people are good about following the rules to maintain a clean
environment here. In Antarctica man can have a huge impact on natural
systems. We try very hard to keep our impact to a minimum and not
spread human germs and bacteria through the natural ecosystem.
See you in December.
Mr. LeBaron