Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 11/04/2009 - 09:18
Forums
Microorganisms in Antarctic Glacier Ice

Hello Cristina, Tim, Mark, et.al.,

I've read through Cristina's journal a bit, and everything is interesting and amazing and different. I do have one trivial question - what is "standing watch" and why? watch over the tunnel as people are working in it? what are we watching for?

Rick from Massachusetts

Wed, 11/04/2009 - 21:14

Lindsay Knippenberg

Hey Rick
Thanks for sending me a question. When we are working inside the tunnel someone has to stand watch. Everyone on our team carries a radio for safety and the person that is on watch stays outside of the tunnel and relays information to the team inside the glacier. When you are on watch you watch the glacier for any changes in its structure. If a chuck of ice fell off of the glacier, it would kill anyone below it so we look for new cracks forming, unstable pieces moving, cracking noises, etc... If a dangerous situation did arise, the person outside of the tunnel would alert the people inside the tunnel or in the event of an emergency call for help. Besides all of that, the person on the outside is also in charge of the generator. It needs to be fueled, restarted, and sometimes the breaker trips and needs to be reset. Feel free to send more questions if you have them.
Lindsay