Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 14:34
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Glacial History in Antarctica

What has been the most difficult/easiest part of the expedition??

Thu, 01/13/2011 - 07:57

Lesley Urasky

Courtney,
I would say that the most difficult part would be figuring out what makes a good sample for cosmogenic nuclide dating. There are three criteria which a rock must meet:

It must contain the mineral quartz
It must have just the right amount of weathering (unofficially, I call this the Goldilocks weathering measure) - not too much weathering because then it's too old, but not to little weathering because it's probably from other event, so we're looking for something that's weathered just right.
It must show evidence of being glacially transported. This is indicated by striations (grooves) in the rock formed when it was pushed over other rocks by the glacier.

It seems like every sample I've found meets two of the three criteria. John has been doing this for many years, and has developed the highly practiced eye it takes to identify a prime sample from all the rocks lying around.

The easiest part of the expedition has been the camping. I'm used to camping and setting up tents and cooking on a Coleman stove are easily established routines. However, I'm looking forward to sleeping in a bed with actual sheets. Up to this point, the longest duration I've ever spent sleeping on the ground has been two weeks. I'm now going on to four and a half weeks straight of sleeping on the ground.