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| Notes on daily life: | Most of us have made it home! Cobi and Steve N. have another month yet in McMurdo to finish up their jobs, Benjamin, David, Markus, and Leigh are staying in New Zealand for a couple weeks to enjoy the warm weather and beautiful scenery. Gordon, Brian, Steve A., Paul, Mark, and Zach are back in the United States enjoying more snow in their respective towns. It was a very successful expedition and we all had a terrific time. The plan now is start analyzing the data that we collected and use what we learned this year to help us prepare for next year's expedition from Byrd camp to Siple. Between now and November 2001 (when we return to Antarctica) there is a lot of work to be done. The ice cores are still in McMurdo and will be shipped to the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver Colorado in March. Many of us will travel there in June and July to process the ice cores and prepare them for analysis. Data from the other experiments on US ITASE will also continue to be analyzed over the next year. We appreciate all the mail that we have gotten and we hope that these daily reports have been interesting and helpful. Though the expediton is out of Antarctica for now please feel free to send your questions and comments to Zach at the Institute for Quaternary and Climate Studies at the University of Maine zach.smith@maine.edu. We are also involved in creating more educational activities for students and teachers to help them understand about ITASE, Antarctica, and climate change. This information is available to teachers upon request. Teacher workshops will be hosted at the University of Maine this summer and presentations will take place throughout the year at local and national science teacher conventions. Watch the USITASE web site www.ume.maine.edu/USITASE/ for announcements. Thanks for following US ITASE and we hope to see you all again in November 2001. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Whew! What a flight we had from Byrd Surface Camp back to McMurdo. The wonderful New York Air Guard flew their huge Herc in and picked up the team and the rest of the ice cores and lots of equipment. We traveled back to McMurdo with the cores in the cargo hold. It was -20°C during the entire 4 hour flight. It was a bit rough, but we are very glad to be back in the comfort of McMurdo. Hot showers at last! We have a lot of work ahead of us for the next few days. Packing and storing equipment that is to be left here. Packing the ice cores and other samples for shipment on the boat back to the United States. Checking and packing the equipment that needs to be returned to our respective institutions, whether we carry it home or it is shipped to us. And lots more details to be taken care of. We are scheduled to return to New Zealand on Monday January 8th. We will then go our own seperate ways. Some of us will return home as soon as we can, while others will spend a few days sight seeing in New Zealand. |
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| Notes on daily life: | We made it back to Byrd camp! Not that we had any doubts, but it just seems like it has been a long time since we were here. We left Byrd camp on November 16th and arrived on New Year's Eve 2000, a total of 45 days on the traverse. During that time we collected hundreds of meters of core (over 5 times more than last year's traverse), dug numerous snow pits, collected 820 kilometers of radar data, created 6 "coffee can sites", mapped hundreds of kilometers of surface area, and had a great time. Last night we had a delicious cheese stuffed-shells dinner and toasted in the new year although most of us were in bed by 10 pm. We are excited to be here in Antarctica on what some people describe as the real millennium change. Yesterday we organized and packed most of our gear and will spend today writing reports, making lists, and staging gear for next year's traverse. US ITASE has two more seasons during which we will traverse the section of West Antarctica from Byrd camp to Siple in 2001-2002, and the section from Byrd camp to the South Pole in 2002-2003. Each year we learn more about the equipment that we will reuse or repair for the next year's traverse. At Byrd camp we will leave over 1 ton of gear that will be ready for us when we return in November for the third US ITASE traverse. We will fly out of Byrd camp tomorrow, weather permitting, except for Steve N. Steve will stay on to help a crew that is flying here from McMurdo to winterize Byrd camp. Byrd will remain unoccupied until November 2001. It will take them a week or more to complete the task before they return to McMurdo. When we arrive in McMurdo tomorrow it will look very different from the way it did when we left in November. Much of the sea ice has broken-up in McMurdo Sound and the Polar Sea has arrived in McMurdo. The Polar Sea is a ship that transports materials to McMurdo from California via Australia and New Zealand. At the end of the season before the winter it will carry ice cores, unneeded materials, garbage, and other items from McMurdo back to California. The co-director of ITASE, Dr. Ian Goodwin from the University of Newcastle in Newcastle Austalia, has arrived on the Polar Sea and we will be meeting him tomorrow. This maybe the last daily report for the next few days as we move from Byrd camp to McMurdo and New Zealand and then on to our respective homes. At least one more report will be filed to let everyone know that we have returned home safely. Though US ITASE will not be in the field for the next 10 months our work will not stop. We have lots of reports to write, ice cores to process, and data to analyze. If you have questions about US ITASE/ITASE look for the answers at www.ume.maine.edu/USITASE. Feel free to contact us at the Institute for Quaternary and Climate Studies at the University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, or itase@maine.edu . Please let us know what you think of our web sites. Take care, thanks for the support, and we will see you in Novenber for US ITASE 2001-2002. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Let's hear a "Yea!" with an "Oh Well" added on. Our science is done and we will be heading back to Byrd camp tomorrow. We are happy to be almost home but we are sorry that our adventure will be over soon. It was a very successful day and we accomplished quite a lot. We celebrated our last day of science work with a fabulous Mexican meal cooked by Markus. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and only a gentle breeze. Steve and Brian are back from Byrd camp with the Caterpillar Challenger and the rest of us are slowly starting to pack up our gear. While at Byrd, they groomed the airplane runway and prepared the Jamesway. A Jamesway is a canvas covered shelter used widely in Antarctica, that can hold two dozen people . Tomorrow we will be packing the last of our gear and heading out to Byrd about 110 kilometers away (66 miles). |
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| Notes on daily life: | Today has been a great day with blue sky and a slight breeze. We will spend three days at this site so we have plenty of time to finish the last of our science work. By Saturday morning everyone will easily be ready to move on to Byrd camp where we hope to spend only a few days before we catch a flight out to McMurdo. Today Dave finished his snow pit with help from Markus and tomorrow Markus will finish his snow pit with help from Dave. Leigh finished her "coffee can" experiment (for more info see earlier daily reports) with help from Cobi. Paul, Mark, Benjamin, and Zach drilled another 34 meters of ice core. Brian and Steve N. are still at Byrd preparing the camp before they return here tomorrow evening. |
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| Notes on daily life: | We arrived here at our last site with only occasional stops due to the deep soft snow. We did not arrive until 2 am due to the delays and we were all asleep by 3. We slept in until about 10 am before we started the day. Today's work included a 20 meter core for Gordon and Leigh's experiment, a snow pit for experiments by Benjamin, David, Markus, and Zach. There was a great mac and cheese dinner, cooked with left over ham, prepared by Cobi and Mark. Brian and Steve N. have already taken off in the Caterpillar Challenger for Byrd camp with the fuel sled in tow. They will be gone two days and not only drop off the fuel sled but do a little preparation at Byrd camp before they return here to collect us and the gear. Two more days and we will be finished here. We will then travel back to Byrd camp after 44 days on the traverse. We still have a lot of work here with more experiments and another 60 meters of ice core to recover. The countdown now is for showers. By the time we get to McMurdo we will have gone approximately 48 days without showers. We do brushed our teeth everyday and have even washed our hair once or twice, but 48 days is a long time without a good scrub. I wonder if they would let you on the airplane in New Zealand after that long without a shower? |
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| Notes on daily life: | Wow, what a meal! We hope that everyone had as great a Christmas dinner as we had. After a full day of work, we feasted on ham, mashed potatoes, yams, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. Tomorrow we can rest as we travel to our next site 100 kilometers away. You can bet that instead of the usual crackers and cheese we have on travel days we will have ham sandwiches and lots of leftovers. We should arrive at 122 degrees16 minutes’ West longitude and 79 degrees 08 minutes’ South latitude. This will be our final science site this field season. From there it is only 100 kilometers (60 miles) to Byrd camp. We plan to celebrate New Years Eve at Byrd before the C-130 Hercs fly in and take us back to McMurdo. Everyone is in great health and doing well. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Happy Holiday everyone. We all wish you the very best. On Christmas eve we worked all day and then had burritos for dinner. Not as festive as at your place perhaps, but a wild place to wait for Santa. Our Christmas ham is thawing and the pumpkin pie has been prepared. We are having a white Christmas this year. Today on Christmas we will work some more and prepare to move tomorrow. Our next site is 100 kilometers (60 miles) from here and 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Byrd. Yesterday Steve A. and Steve N. drove the Caterpillar Challenger, with the fuel sled in tow, to our last and final site. We expect them back sometime early today in time for Christmas dinner. We have all made our Christmas wish lists which include our personal flight schedules from "the ice" to our homes. If everything continues to go well, will this have been an excellent field season and we will all be home on time. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Well here we are again. Snow, white, 24 hours of sun, cold temperatures, but it is Christmas Eve! So that makes this the Christmas Holiday edition of ITASE 2000. We all want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas especially our love ones. We will be having our Christmas feast tomorrow night. We arrived earlier (about 10 pm) than we usually do at our new sites and as a result we accomplished quite a lot tonight. The ride was a little smoother than in the past and some of us were able to process a little data. Steve A. is always busy on the drives as he collects data of all the subsurface snow layers down to a depth of 90 meters over the entire traverse route. It is amazing that the same layers extend across hundreds of kilometers. The continuity of these layers enable him to calculate accumulation rates over hundreds of square kilometers of West Antarctica. Last night, Leigh was also able to finish her Global Positioning Satellite system (GPS) map of our new site. These maps show minor variations in elevation in a 2-3 kilometer radius around each site. Our elevation here is 1683.5 meters (about 5,200 feet) above sea level, which is approximately 200 kilometers lower than our last location. Today is business as usual with everyone getting as much science done as possible. We hope to drill another 80 meters of core at this site. We have gotten more people onto the drilling team including Leigh, Brian, and Dave. With this much help we should finish drilling in record time. |
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| Notes on daily life: | It has been a nice couple of days here. The sun is out, the clouds are gone, and the wind has stopped (almost). As a result, the views of Mount Sidley have been stellar. We have all remarked how much more exciting it is to have a mountain to look at, even if it is 100 kilometers (60 miles) away. At the last couple sites it was flat white snow scape all around. Everyone has been very busy trying to finish their science work so that we can move on to the next site. On Wednesday and Thursday Steve N. and Zach drove the Caterpillar Challenger and towed the fuel sled to the next site 70 kilometers (42 miles) away from here. The next site is very much the same as this site including the view of Mount Sidley. The new location is only 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Byrd camp. We will be at this next site (124 degrees 55 minutes west longitude and 78 degrees 9 minutes south latitude) for our very white Christmas. Towing the fuel sled with the Caterpillar is a great way to spend two days. The cab of the Caterpillar has large windows on all four sides and the sun shines in warming the inside. The windows also give the riders a 360° view of the landscape. It is also great just to get out of camp and away from your regular duties for two days. Originally, the cab was designed to hold only one person, but one of the carpenters at Byrd camp built a jump seat to accommodate a second passenger. On all trips out of camp we send two people for safety. While one person drives the other can rest and keep the driver awake. In the warm cab on the long drive (at 15 kilometers per hour for the 5 hour trip) it is easy to sit and enjoy the scenery. Steve N. is a terrific guy to spend a couple days with because of his easy going manner and his many stories of life in Wyoming. This is Steve N.'s 10th season in Antarctica and when he is not here, he is in Wyoming fighting forest fires and running pack trips. Back in camp tonight we feasted on stir-fry vegetables with brown rice and chocolate pie for desert (some of us eat a lot of chocolate here). Everyone will have their science equipment cleaned up and be ready to take off for the next site in the morning. It has started to cloud up and snow lightly. It should be a nice day for a 70 kilometer (42 mile) drive . |
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| Notes on daily life: | We actually saw Mount Sidley today. The clouds cleared long enough to give us a terrific view in every direction. Good thing the weather cleared because the Bassler airplane landed here last night about 11 pm. The pilots spent the night with us and this morning took Gordon to collect his data from last year's "coffee can" sites (see earlier reports on the coffee can experiment). Before the Bassler took off we received freshies (apples, oranges, and fresh vegetables) and mail. Thanks folks, we loved the letters! The Bassler also took the ice core boxes that we had stored here and with Gordon's help, the pilots will collect the other ice core boxes that we have buried at two of our previous sites. We left the ice cores buried in the snow at the other sites to save room on our sleds and to keep the ice cores from melting. The pilots flew the Bassler all the way from Oshkosh, Wisconsin to Antarctica. The route they took was over Mexico, Central America, and South America to Punta Arenas, Chile which is one of the common routes for folks coming to Antarctica. From Punta Arenas they flew across the Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula and on to McMurdo. The trip took the Bassler pilots about 3 weeks to complete. The Bassler will be in service for one month here in Antarctica before it returns to Wisconsin. We hope that Gordon has a great flight and is home by Christmas. Paul, Cobi, Brian, and Steve A. took the two snowmobiles and the ice penetrating radar to record more data near Mt. Sidely. The plan is for them to spend the night and be back in camp by tomorrow afternoon. We plan to spend two more days here and complete our science work. Sometime tomorrow afternoon Steve N. and Zach will be taking off in the Caterpillar Challenger and hauling the fuel sled to our next site, about 200 kilometers (180 miles) from Byrd camp. We have two more sites before we return to Byrd on time on the 31st of December. Tomorrow is the winter solstice which makes it 4 more shopping days until Christmas. Have fun at the malls. |
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| Notes on daily life: | We have arrived at our next drill site after a bumpy 10 hour drive. The new site looks very much like the old site. Lately we have described the sites as bascic white on white (white sky on white snow). We plan to spend about 4 days here at the last site on this leg of the traverse. Tomorrow we are also expecting the Bassler airplane to come here, pick-up Gordon and take him to measure his coffee can sites from last year (for info on coffee can sites see earlier daily report). The Bassler will also go back to two of our previous sites and pick up the ice core samples that we buried to stay cold. More importantly the Bassler is supposed to bring freshies and mail. We are not holding our breath that the Bassler will arrive on time. At this site, we should be able to see Mt Sidley, but the weather is not cooperating and we are lucky enough to be able to see from one end of our camp to the other. We expect that this site will have very wind compacted snow and everyone is anxious to see what type of snow layers are beneath the surface. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Today was another cold one. We were all involved with our individual science projects all day. Mark, Paul, Benjamin, and Zach drilled another 40 meters (120 feet) of ice cores. Markus worked on his experiments and then assisted Dave. Dave finished two of his projects with help from Markus. Steve A. and Cobi worked with the ice penetrating radar while Gordon and Leigh continued to work on their GPS mapping. This morning Brian and Steve N. hooked up the fuel sled and drove off for the next site. They will leave the fuel sled at there and return in time to tow the rest of us to the new site on Monday. We are all looking forward to seeing Mount Sidley which is about 200 kilometers (120 miles) ahead of us. Mt. Sidley is over 4100 meters (12,000 feet) and will be the last point on this leg of the traverse before we turn back towards Byrd camp. Not only is Mt Sidley a turning point towards home but it will be the biggest change in the topography that we will have seen since the mountains near McMurdo. |
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| Notes on daily life: | What a day to be in a snow pit! It is cold in the pit but with a wind chill of -39°C (-38 °F) it is too cold everywhere else. The snow pits at least offer some relief from the wind. Today Markus set-up his atmospheric air sampling experiment, a second experiment to measure peroxide concentration in the snow, and a third experiment to measure formaldehyde concentration in the snow. He also took snow pit samples to measure snow density. Leigh and Gordon started to map our present site to a radius of 3-4 kilometers (1.8 to 2.4 miles) out from camp with the Global Positioning Satellite system (GPS). David assisted Markus with his density samples and then mapped the subsurface stratigraphy of the snow pit. The subsurface stratigraphy is observed on the walls of the snow pit and shows melt layers, wind pack layers, and annual accumulation zones. The stratigraphy helps us measure the way snow was deposited at different times in the past in this location. Benjamin and Zach collected snow pit samples for chemical analysis and Mark and Paul set-up the drill to prepare for tomorrow's ice core drilling. We expect to drill another 60 meters (180 feet) here to recover samples for chemical analysis (to be done later in the laboratory) plus an additional 30 meters (90 feet) for Gordon who will analyze the ice cores for beta particles. Beta particles are by-products of the atomic bomb tests conducted during the 1950's and 1960's and were deposited in the snow layers. Gordon uses the results from this analysis to determine an absolute date for those snow layers and then calculates the accumulation rates since that time period. We are expecting a Bassler DC-3 airplane, now in use here in Antarctica, to pick up Gordon on Monday. The airplane will transport him to last year's "coffee can" sites to allow him to measure their positions. He will then transport him to McMurdo. He has a few other things to accomplish in McMurdo before he leaves to return to the US. The coffee can sites are places where he has inserted a GPS unit in the snow at a depth of 20 meters (60 feet) in previous years. These GPS units then move along with the glacier as it flows. This experiment is one that will help him measure the accumulation rate of new snow each year and the rate of flow of the glacier. It is called the "coffee can" experiment because originally coffee cans were buried with poles attached that extended up into the air to assist in finding the coffee cans each year. The coffee cans are located each year and the new positions are measured. It is nine more shopping days until Christmas and if anyone out there is shopping for us, we could use a little heat. |
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| Notes on daily life: | On the road again. We left site 3 at about noon and traveled the 100 kilometers (60 miles) to site 4 in 12 hours. We have had nice sunny weather again since Leigh and David joined us. Last night it looked as though we were about to have a huge storm but it blew past and this morning is bright and windy. Last night it took only an hour to set up camp since we are all now accustomed to the routine. Some of us then played a little frisbee until the disk shattered from the cold. On our trip we did have a view of Mt. Frakes, a 3337 meter peak (10,000 feet). The peak was about 300 kilometers (180 miles) away and we could just see it above the horizon. It was exciting to see Mt Frakes because we have not seen any thing but flat white for a month now. Now it is business as usual and everyone will be out collecting data all day. We plan to be at this location for about 4 days before we head off again. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Today was another cold one and we all did our best to stay warm. About 4 pm the Twin Otter airplane arrived and dropped off Leigh, David, more fuel, and more gear. When it took-off it left with Chris and Bob. Because of overcast skies they could not fly directly to McMurdo but flew from here to another camp, Siple Dome. They expect to arrive at McMurdo tomorrow. Leigh has been in Antarctica twice before working with Gordon and David has worked in Greenland so they both have field experience. Other than the fact that we are just happy to see Leigh and David, they brought us mail, freshies, and other needed items. Even though we left McMurdo only a month ago on November 16th, and we do have e-mail and radio communication (however limited), it seems like we have become a little disconnected from the outside world The items that we received were very welcome. The Twin Otters airplanes are operated by Ken Borek Airlines, Canada. They fly 4 Twin Otter airplanes here in Antarctica and they are always in the air weather permitting. The Twin Otters are very important components of the program here in Antarctica for supplying camps with food, fuel, personnel, and gear. In our usual fashion, the last group came in to dinner at 10 pm so it is another late night. We expect to be able to leave here tomorrow by around noon and be at our next site by midnight. Then we start it all over again. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Steve N. and Paul returned with the Caterpillar Challenger after dropping off the fuel sled at the next site. A Twin Otter plane is scheduled to arrive here tomorrow to take Chris, Bob, and Gordon to McMurdo, and drop-off Leigh and David. For the first time in a while we actually had snow. Not very much, but enough flurries to make things feel a little different. It is very cold today and most of us spent all day outside working. Mark, Gordon, Benjamin, and Zach took pit samples and drilled another 40 meters of ice cores. Steve A. and Brian worked on their ice penetrating radar. With the cold we took more frequent breaks and we used a whole box of hot chocolate long before dinner. The Twin Otter brings any mail that has been waiting at McMurdo for us, a few freshies (you can not imagine how good an apple would taste right now), and a few other items that folks need. (Note: "Freshies" are fresh fruit and vegatables.) We have only a few weeks left to finish our work. In Antarctica a long-term schedule only extends a few hours but we are "scheduled" to be back at Byrd camp around the 28th of December. The entire team will fly to McMurdo around New Year's Day. Not that we are anxious to get back to McMurdo but we are trying to schedule our science work for the remaining field time. If all goes well we plan on leaving here the day after tomorrow for site 4. |
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| Notes on daily life: | We have arrived at site 3 after a 12 hour drive. We did not have any problems and stopped twice for short breaks. The ride was rather rough, making it very difficult to read or write but the long break was restful. We took the opportunity during one of the breaks to recharge our batteries so that Steve A. and Gordon could continue to collect radar and GPS data while we drove. Steve A.'s ice penetrating radar was especially successful during the drive and he collected data continuously along the 100 kilometer (60 mile) route from site 2 to site 3. After he compiles his data, he can see the annual layers of snow and ice down to 120 meters (420 feet) below the surface. He has found that individual layers of snow and ice are continuous across most of West Antarctica. For some layers we know the exact dates they were deposited. For example, he is particularly interested in a layer that contains dust particles from the 1815 eruption of the Tambora volcano in the Philipines. The dust material from the eruption was present in the atmosphere for about 1 year and was slowly deposited over the Earth. Thus the snow layer in Antarctica that contains dust from that Tambora eruption must have been deposited in 1815. It means that you can calculate the accumulation rate for layers based on the amount of snow deposited between layers of known ages. As we get closer to the coast the accumulation rates are higher; it snows more. At Byrd camp and site 1 the accumulation rates are less than they are here. At this location we will have to drill deeper to reach layers that were present closer to the surface at our first site. All of our science work is tied closely together and helps us interpret whether the West Antarctic ice sheet is increasing or decreasing in size, possibly as a result of global climate change. We managed to get to bed at 3 am. This morning we got up at 9 am to a pancake breakfast courtesy of Brian. We then started to unpack our gear and get started on our science work. During the day we also helped recover the fuel drums that were air dropped by the New York Air National Guard for us at this site. The New York Air National Guard is the wonderful group that flies the C-130s here in Antarctica. Mark, Gordon, Benjamin, and Zach recovered more 2" ice core, Markus started to collect more atmospheric data, Steve A. worked on the data he collected during the drive, and Bob worked on the GOES satellite system. About 2 pm Paul and Steve N. took off in the Caterpillar Challenger to deposit a loaded fuel sled to our next location, site 4. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Having been in Antarctica over a month we are getting used to the low temperatures. However, as soon as the wind blows we all feel the biting cold through our clothing. We are about ready to pull up stakes and move on sometime before noon tomorrow. It is 9 pm Sunday night and everyone, has had dinner (burritos) except Steve A. and Brian who are out collecting radar data. Most of us are a little stunned by the "early" dinner and are not sure what to do with ourselves for the rest of the evening. Working outside until 9 or 10 pm has been the standard for the past few weeks. Steve N. and Bob have returned from dropping off fuel and gear at site 3 and we are happy to see them return safely. Our next location, site 3, is at 115 degrees 55 minutes W longitude and 78 degrees 26 minutes S latitude. We plan to spend 3 to 4 days at that location before moving on again. Our site 4 is located at 120 degrees 05 minutes W longitude and 78 degrees 05 minutes S latitude. The distance from here to site 3 is 100 kilometers (60 miles) and we expect that at the rate of about 10 kilometers (6 miles) per hour we ought to arrive by 10 pm tomorrow night. |
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| Notes on daily life: | After a couple weeks in the field, everyone knows what needs to be done so our set-up time at this new site has gotten shorter. Today Mark, Paul, Benjamin, and Zach used a different ice coring drill that collects a 2 inch diameter core. The drill that we were using at the last site collected a 3 inch core. This 2 inch drill gives us a core that will be used for collecting samples for chemical analysis instead our usual method of digging a snow pit and hand sampling. This is experimental, and if it works, it will save a lot of time at each location. Markus set-up his air monitoring experiment and collected his snow density samples from a shallow snow pit that was dug so that he and Chris could collect samples. By about noon, Steve N. and Bob took off in the Caterpillar Challenger tractor to take everything to location #3 that we do not need here. It is 100 kilometers (60 miles) to location #3 and we expect that Steve N. and Bob will be able to make the round trip in about two days. That is just enough time for us to finish our work at this site. We will then hook up the rest of the train for the trip to site 3. Shuttling the loads works well and is the only way that we can get all of our equipment from one location to another with our remaining tractor. Everyone is well and with all the good food I doubt that any of us will have lost weight by the end of the expedition. In a few days, we are expecting a Twin Otter plane to bring in two new expedition members, Leigh Stearns and David Schneider. Chris, Bob, and Gordon will fly back to McMurdo. This crew switch was organized months ago before we arrived in the field. Chris and Gordon will be returning directly to the United States. Bob plans to take almost a year to travel through Asia and Africa before he returns to the United States. |
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| Notes on daily life: | We arrived at our new location (site #2) about 8 pm after an uneventful 6.5 hour drive. Markus and Steve N. drove the Caterpillar Challenger while Brian rode in his enclosed radar sled, and the rest of us rode in the blue room science shelter or the kitchen polar haven. This is the first time that many of us have had a chance to read, nap, or relax in over a week. About five days ago, Steve N. and Bob picked up fuel from a prior airdrop and delivered it to this location. We were able to travel at an average speed of 13 kilometers per hour (8 miles an hour) because we were not hauling the heavy fuel sledge. It is great to be working at a new location, even though it looks exactly like the old site. When you are working as hard as we are, a little change is good. After we unpacked and sorted gear we sat down to a delicious macaroni and cheese dinner complete with mixed vegetables. We were finally in bed by midnight ready for the next two days of work. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Today was our last day at this site. Tomorrow we leave for our next location. We accomplished a lot of science today. Benjamin and Zach finished their permeability and porosity studies in the snow pit. Gordon, with help from Paul, Mark, and Steve Niles, installed another Automatic Weather Station, AWS or RASCAL ( see yesterday's report) . Brian and Steve A. collected more radar data of the snow/ice layers down to 150 meters (450 feet) below the surface. For lunch some of us finished the leftovers from last night's Thanksgiving dinner. The weather around here has become very standard -sunny, slight breeze, and cold. We expected to have more severe weather at this location but we are thankful that so far we have had nice weather that allows us to do our science work. We have heard through our radio communications that the folks in McMurdo are having such nice weather that they are enjoying cookouts. One of the interesting things of coming to Antarctica is experiencing multiple seasons in a short period of time. Some of us started our trip with late fall conditions in New England, arrived in New Zealand for spring; weathered the last blasts of winter in McMurdo, and currently we are seeing wintery conditions in mid West Antarctica. At the end of this expedition we are all looking forward to experiencing a few days of nice warm summer in New Zealand. No worries if you do not hear from us for a day or so as we will be "on the road again" to our next location. We will have our satellite communications set up as soon as possible. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Another nice day in West Antarctica. The sun was out and it was relatively warm though the slight breeze still nipped noses and fingers. Gordon, Paul, Steve N., and Mark drove out on the snowmobiles to install an Automatic Weather Station (AWS). Gordon calls them RASCALs (Remote Autonomous System for the Control of ALtimetry) about 20 kilometers (18 miles) from camp. Brian and Steve A. worked on their radar today and Benjamin and Zach spent the day in the snow pit testing the permeability and porosity of the snow layers. The permeability and porosity of the snow layers are important to understand because they affect the movement of air through the snow. Some air is trapped in the snow as the layers form. The ice cores that we collect are analyzed to determine the composition of the different atmospheric gases (air) trapped in the ice. By measuring the change in the concentration of atmospheric gases present in the ice cores we can understand how the Earth's climate has changed over time. We finally had our Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, stuffing, yams, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. It was great to celebrate Thanksgiving even though it was almost two weeks late. It would be nice to have time to sit back on the couch and watch a couple of football games on the television, but since we do not have the time or the couch or the television I guess it is back to work tomorrow. We will be finishing up our science programs at this site, preparing sample boxes to be picked up in the next couple weeks here by airplane, cleaning up the area, and getting our gear together to travel. |
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| Notes on daily life: | We had haddock and fried potatoes for dinner tonight. Perhaps tomorrow we will have time to cook our Thanksgiving dinner, but the most important thing is to complete the science work that we are here for.
Chris started to dig another snow pit within 50 centimeters (20 inches) south of the old pit. The new pit is situated so that the sun will shine on the wall between the two pits. Like the growth rings of trees, snow accumulates in annual layers. "Events," such as volcanic ash from eruptions, can sometimes be seen in the snow and ice. When you shine light through the snow, the layers stand out very clearly. Mark made a few more adjustments to the drill and then he and Paul drilled a couple more meters to complete the ice coring at this location.
For the next two days, the plan is to finish up our work here, and clean up the site (keep Antarctica beautiful). Then we will be driving the 75 kilometers (45 miles) to our new working site. |
![[Drilling]](Pictures/drilling.jpg) Drilling |
![[Processing cores]](Pictures/process.jpg) New cores being processed |
![[Guys in yellow suits]](Pictures/yellowsuits.jpg) Zach, Paul and Benjamin |
![[Boxing core samples]](Pictures/boxing.jpg) Packing cores |
![[Using the Radio]](Pictures/radio.jpg) Making a radio call |
Click on a picture to see it full size.
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| Notes on daily life: | Today the drill broke down, but then it was single handedly repaired by Dr. Drill (Mark). After repairing the drill Mark then drilled another 94 centimeters. It took him all day to do the repairs but this is Antarctica and repairs in the field are very difficult. Had the weather been worse it could have taken a couple of days for Mark to complete the repairs. While he was busy with the drill Paul, Benjamin, Markus, and Zach spent the entire day in a 2 meter deep (6 feet) snow pit collecting samples. Taking snow samples takes a lot of time and can not be rushed. In the snow pits we wear special coveralls of Tyvek material, masks, and gloves to keep "dirt" out of the samples. Antarctica is the cleanest place on the planet and the snow here is very, very clean. The chemicals we test for in the snow samples only occur in minute quantities in Antarctica and we could easily contamination our samples if we are not careful. It looks like we will finally have our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. It is already December 3rd so I am not holding my breath if it does not happen. We are looking forward to the special dinner but in this nice weather we are very busy collecting all the data we can. We were certainly glad to have Steve N. and Bob returned from their trip today. They recovered the fuel that was dropped for us without problems and cached it at a new location that we will visit in a few days. |
![[Gordon]](Pictures/eyes.jpg) Gordon |
![[Test cores]](Pictures/henge.jpg) Test cores 'Ice Henge?' |
![[Cobi and Gordon]](Pictures/cribbage.jpg) Cobi and Gordon playing cribbage |
![[Gordon on ladder]](Pictures/ladder.jpg) Do you think Santa will find us? |
Click on a picture to see it full size.
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| Notes on daily life: | Another good science day in West Antarctica! Gordon and Cobi spent the day installing instruments over a 30 kilometer area to measure annual snow accumulation and glacier flow velocity. Brian has had some great success with his instruments and along with Steve A., measured a 30 kilometer area with their respective ice penetrating radars. Mark, Paul, Benjamin, and Zach continued to drill ice cores to a new depth of 99 meters. During the afternoon, Chris dug a snow pit that will be shared by Markus, Paul, Benjamin, and Zach later in the week. And Markus continued to collect data with his clean air monitor and collected additional snow samples for later analysis. It is Saturday night here on the West Antarctic ice sheet and after a delicious pasta dinner we are all relaxing in the blue room (science shelter) trading stories about past expeditions and the places we live. Cobi and Mark are from Alaska. Gordon (originally from Scotland) and Paul live in Maine. Steve A., Benjamin and Zach live in New Hampshire. Markus (born in Frieburg Germany) lives in Arizonia, and Steve N. is from Wyoming. Chris is from Maryland. Brian lives in Minnesota, and Bob is from Colorado. We are all getting along well. Thankfully the weather has held which makes it easier to work outside. In the middle of the afternoon a storm started to head our way but it missed us by a small margin. We work seven days a week here so with this nice weather it is back to the snow again tomorrow. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Well today was another wonderful day in West Antarctica with lots of data collecting going on. The day was sunny and very bright but got a tad windy towards evening. Dinner was chicken and bean burritos that tasted great after a long day in the cold. Because of the loss of the Tucker sno-cat and the need to rearrange our plans slightly, Steve N. and Bob drove the Caterpillar Challenger and one sledge on a 270 kilometer (162 mile) trek to pick up fuel that was air dropped for us at an earlier proposed drill site. They will transport the fuel to another position where they will deposit the fuel, drive back to pick up the rest of the team, and then transport us and all of our equipment to that position. We still plan to be at our present location for another 4 to 5 days until all of our work here is complete. Chris arrived by Twin-otter today after his brief stay in McMurdo. He brought us news that because of weather and another solar flare event (that is interfering with radio communications) there has not been a flight from New Zealand to Antarctica in the past ten days. In that amount of time, McMurdo has had two more snow storms which have helped to set a snowfall record for the month of November. The biggest concern in McMurdo was that they were running short of fresh food. There are about 800 scientists and support people now in McMurdo. We, on the other hand, have 12 people and more than enough frozen food. We are all comfortable, well-fed, and happy to be collecting lots of good data. With the time left on this expedition we will, hopefully, be able to accomplish almost everything we had planned. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Today was a sunny calm day. It was also very scientifically productive. Paul, Mark, Benjamin, and Zach drilled and recovered ice cores to 41 meter (124 feet) of depth, almost one third of the distance they intend to drill at this site over the next few days. Bob had the GOES satellite system running most of the day, Markus collected a lot of data from his snow pit, and Brian made even more progress with his instruments. Gordon installed his Automatic Weather System (AWS) at this site which will collect weather data for the next couple of years. There is about three dozen AWSs in Antarctica that automatically collect information on the weather here every day. The AWSs last for four to ten years and are revisited by the scientists each year to recover the information that has been collected. There are a few AWSs that transmit the weather data automatically back to institutes in the United States. Steve A. (with help from Cobi) also collected the first seen high resolution radar data of ice layers down to 90 meters below the surface at this location. We still have not had our Thanksgiving dinner and it looks like it will have to
wait until December. Chris rejoins the group tomorrow and will hopefully bring
more to add to the upcoming feast. Every Wednesday and Saturday at 2:30 pm EST
we make a scheduled live phone call to the Boston Museum of Science. Today's
call (remember we are a day ahead) went well as Steve and Zach answered questions
from the live audience in the museum. If you can not make it to the Boston
Museum of Science to hear the live phone calls you can still listen to all the
previous phone calls recorded and archived on the web site. http://www.secretsoftheice.org The Boston Museum of Science also maintains a display of the US ITASE expedition in addition to
their many other wonderful displays. Also on this web site there is a section for
everyone to write to us on e-mail and ask questions of the group. If you have
ideas for experiments that you would like the ITASE team to perform here in
Antarctica please send them to us. Thanks to those of you that have already
corresponded with us. Twenty four more ice coring days until Christmas! |
![[Shakelton's Hut]](Pictures/roydshut.jpg) Side view of Shakelton's hut |
![[Mt Erebus]](Pictures/volcano.jpg) Mt Erebus with a glacier in the forground |
![[Erebus]](Pictures/guysereb.jpg) Four team members, Mt Erebus in the background |
![[Byrd Station]](Pictures/campbyrd.jpg) Byrd Station |
![[testing the drill]](Pictures/drillpract.jpg) Testing the drill |
Click on a picture to see it full size.
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| Notes on daily life: | In the last daily report, we talked about the ability of the Challenger tractor to pull our entire train of vehicles. Well, as we found out, that is dependent on the consistency of the snow on which we travel. When the Cat bogs down in the soft snow it sometimes takes an hour to get everything moving again. As a result of our constant struggle with snow conditions we have decided to shuttle our vehicles in two loads from one drill site to another. We continued traveling last night in and out of white-out conditions, and after some excellent GPS work, we arrived at our first drill site around 6 am. We slept in until noon and began working again. Paul and Steve N. have driven the Cat back to retrieve the two sledges that were left behind. The rest of us occupied ourselves preparing to spend the next week here collecting data. Gordon prepared drill holes for more GPS measurements. Markus, Benjamin and Zach started to dig the first snow pit to take snow samples. Steve A., having collected quite a bit of data on the traverse, continues to collect more around the drilling area. Mark has the ice core drill set up and ready to drill as soon as the snow pit samples are collected. Brian continues to perfect his radar system and is working with Steve A. to make the most efficient use of available equipment and time. It was a long day yesterday and we are all preparing for an exciting day of collecting our first ice core. We have watched dramatic changes in the weather each day and we hope that it will allow us to complete a lot of work tomorrow. After tonight's dinner of leftovers from last night's New England salmon and clam chowder, fried potatoes and herb pasta we are ready for action tomorrow. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Yesterday we returned from dropping off the Tucker sno-cat at Byrd camp and this morning at 10 am we are off to the first drill site. Our vehicle train is now composed of the Challenger Cat 55, one fuel and gear sledge, another sledge with ice core boxes, two Maudheim sledges, the science shelter now named the "blue room", the kitchen polar haven, three Nansen sledges with science gear, the polar outhouse, and the radar sled. Our Caterpillar Challenger 55 is rated at 40,000 pounds of pulling power and so far it is easily capable of pulling this entire train of vehicles at about 10 kilometers per hour (6 miles per hour). We are all very well and happy to be on the move again. Today is a beautiful day with bright sunshine, warm temperatures and no breeze. Our science work is going well and some data has been collected so far. Markus is taking his turn riding in the Caterpillar tractor operating the GPS navigation system with Steve N. who is the primary Cat driver. Steve A. has set up and is operating his ice penetrating radar equipment as we travel and Gordon, who is in charge of monitoring our position with the GPS receivers, has kept us on track for our entire first 80 kilometers (48 miles). The Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system works with hand-held receivers utilizing signals from satellites orbiting the Earth. There are different levels of accuracy with GPS systems and some are capable of sub-centimeter accuracy. Translated, that means that we can plot our position in latitude, longitude, and elevation to within a few centimeters (less than 1 inch). This important work allows Gordon to measure the rate of flow of the glaciers and let us know where we are and where we are going. Dinner this evening was a wonderful New England salmon and clam chowder cooked by Cobi and Markus. |
![[Trains ready to go]](Pictures/trav2.jpg) Both trains ready to leave Byrd Station |
![[Checking under the hood]](Pictures/uhoh.jpg) Did anybody bring their AAA card? |
![[towing]](Pictures/towing.jpg) Towing the Tucker |
![[Totem poles]](Pictures/totem.jpg) Totems |
Click on a picture to see it full size.
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| Notes on daily life: | Happy Thanksgiving from the ITASE team. We had intended to have our Thanksgiving dinner at our first drill site but instead had a great pesto pasta dinner with garlic bread cooked by Markus and Zach. The turkey dinner will have to wait for another time. In the mean time we will continue to complete the changes necessary for our new leaner expedition. Mark put the drill together and drilled a practice hole along with Paul. Bob continues to work on our GOES satellite system which we are using to post these daily reports. Gordon has finished preparing his GPS system and collected some data simulataneously with Steve's high-resolution radar, Brian continues to work on his radar, and Markus has set-up his first snow pit to collect samples for later analysis. |
![[Sun dogs]](Pictures/Sunbyrd.jpg) Sun dogs | ![[Sun dogs]](Pictures/sundog2.jpg) Sun dogs | ![[Polar outhouse]](Pictures/pooper.jpg) Polar outhouse | ![[The Blue room]](Pictures/bluroom.jpg) The "Blue Room" | ![[Inside the Blue room]](Pictures/bluroom2.jpg) Inside the Blue room | ![[One train ready to go]](Pictures/trav1.jpg) The Challenger train ready to go |
Click on a picture to see it full size.
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| Notes on daily life: | We are underway here in the middle of West Antarctica as the winds are howling and the snow is falling. Yesterday morning we connected all of our vehicles together and started traveling to our first drill site 170 km (102 miles) away. Currently we are traveling at about 10 km per hour (6 mph). Our front vehicle train consists of the tucker sno-cat (with the ice penetrating radar mounted on the front) which pulls two sledges filled with generators and other equipment, then four smaller sledges with scientific equipment, and in the back is the polar outhouse. The second vehicle train consists of the Caterpillar Challenger 55 tractor pulling a huge sledge filled with fuel, equipment, and ice core boxes, next comes the actively cooled freezer sledge, then the science shelter, then the polar-haven kitchen and the last in line is a deep ice penetrating radar unit. In the first 4 hours we traveled 40 kilometers (24 miles) and then stopped for the night. It takes 7 people to operate all of the tractors, radar, and global positioning system (GPS) equipment needed to travel. That leaves three of us to hang out in the science shelter working on writing, the satellite system, and catching up on sleep. We started today out with a nice breakfast of cold cereal, hot drinks, diminishing winds, and sunshine. Today is a special occasion because Steve Arcone, who has been delayed in the United States, arrived in a Twin Otter airplane. Steve is the chief operator of the radar used to detect snow layers within 60 meters of the surface and crevasses. As we travel today we will continue to work the quirks out of our system which, hopefully, means that we will move faster and more efficiently. Paul and Cobi are driving the Tucker, Steve A. and Gordon are manning the radar in the back seat of the Tucker, Steve N. and Benjamin are operating the Challenger, and the rest of us are working in the science shelter (except for Mark who is napping). |
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| Notes on daily life: | Here in Byrd camp it is already Monday. We have been here for about 5 days but it seems like much longer. Working 12 hour days trying to get our caravan together has made the time go quickly. Yesterday around dinner Steve Niles had the Caterpillar tractor assembled so we hooked up our science shelter, freezer unit, kitchen unit, and a 10 foot by 21 foot sled loaded with fuel, and took a test drive around camp. Our Caterpillar tractor is rated to pull 40,000 pounds and it better because we have lots to pull. Our other tractor, the Tucker tractor named Ellie May, will be pulling about 20,000 pounds of additional gear. Yesterday and today were filled with packing, unpacking, rearranging, and reorganizing. It is incredible to believe the amount of food, fuel, and gear we will need. We have seven 4 foot by 4 foot boxes of food, one for each week. And an additional 7 boxes of frozen food, one for each week. Tonight for dinner we had halibut steak, brown rice, broccoli, and ginger snap cookies for desert. We all rotate with assisting Cobi with dinner cooking and cleaning-up. Tonight Cobi and Gordon cooked and Paul and Mark cleaned-up. Both yesterday and today the weather was very nice - for West Antarctica. With the blowing snow crystals we had spectacular halos and sun-dogs both days. Today we even had a rainbow. It was 99' white but it was a rainbow made by a snowstorm instead of a rainstorm. About 4 pm today we realized that the farthest distance that we could see on the horizon was getting closer and closer. A ground blizzard was developing and we started to make sure that everything was tied-down tightly so that it would not blow away. We have made very good progress assembling our caravan of vehicles and sleds. We are planning to be underway and start our traverse in two days, on Wednesday November the 22nd. Everyone is very anxious to get underway and start to collect data. Our satellite dish is a little finicky so daily reports have been reduced to two per week. Please keep checking back for further updates. |
![[prep work in the lab]](Pictures/labwork.jpg) Working in the lab at McMurdo |
![[recent storm at McMurdo]](Pictures/stormy.jpg) recent storm at McMurdo |
![[Zach and Paul in the cab of the Challenger]](Pictures/ZPcat.jpg) Zach and Paul in the cab of the Challenger |
![[Gordon in goggles]](Pictures/gogglesgord.jpg) Gordon bundled against the wind |
![[Hercs loading for deep field]](Pictures/hercs.jpg) Hercs that ferry the team and equipment to Byrd |
Click on a picture to see it full size.
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| Notes on daily life: | (more precisely we are at 80 01.187 S, 119 35.912 E if you want to drop a care package) This is really an incredible place! The view is one of wide open white in every direction. This is the flattest place you can imagine. For the past two days it has been relatively warm, -15 C (4 F), calm, and very sunny. Everyone continued to dig gear out of the snow, search for their science gear among the many airplane loads of gear that were dropped, and setup our traverse vehicles. Steve Niles directed the assembling of our Caterpillar Challenger 55 tractor during the last two days. The Challenger had to have its treads removed before it was loaded on the C-130 airplane in McMurdo for its journey to Byrd because it would not fit on the C-130 airplane in its original condition. Bert and Bob were busy connecting our GOES satellite system to send e-mail. Cobi is still busy helping to set-up the kitchen and make sure that everyone is safety aware in this extreme environment. Gordon, Ben, Markus, Paul, Brain, and Zach dug lots of snow trying to recover all last year's items. Early this morning the wind shifted 180 degrees. That is usually a sign that a storm is approaching. By the middle of the day it became cloudy and very windy. By about 2 pm a huge, spectacular halo formed around the Sun complete with sun- dogs. The halo and the sun-dogs are created because of the refraction of the Sun's rays as they come through the frozen water crystals in atmosphere. In most places those frozen water crystals occur in the high atmosphere but here in Antarctica the frozen water crystals extend right to the ground forming "diamond dust" that blows into your face and clothes. The halo is also a good indicator that weather is about to change for the worst. After a delicious burrito dinner it is still very mild outside but we shall see if a storm is coming as the night progresses. One of the other accomplishments today was the near completion of our brand-new science shelter by the Byrd camp crew. The science shelter is complete with 9 bunks, desks, and electric power supplied by batteries. The batteries are charged by a roof-top solar panel and windmill system. After tonight 9 of us may move out of our tents and into the science shelter. So this may be, for some of us, our last night out in a tent. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Yea! Here we are at Byrd camp. After a late start on the runway at McMurdo we finally took off and flew the three hours on a C-130 cargo plane all the way to a sunny day at Byrd camp, landing at 4 pm. The stark flat, level plains surrounding Byrd camp, here in the center of West Antarctica, stands in sharp contrast to the mountain and sea ice views in McMurdo. This is the Antarctica we have always imagined, the constant wind, the bright sun, the limited shelter, and the cold. When we landed at Byrd camp we were greeted by the camp set-up crew. Among them was Steve Niles the mechanic who will accompany us on the traverse. It takes a while to get your bearings out here and it may take several days until we actually feel acclimated. There is even a sense of jet lag from our flight. After a quick walk-through Byrd camp with its many tents and piles of gear organized on the snow across a 1/4 mile area we got to work shoveling-out gear from last year's traverse. Paul, Mark, Brain, Ben, Chris, Bert, Markus, Zach and Bob Zook (taking Steve's place for a few days) shoveled for 1 1/2 hours while Cobi organized gear. There is a 50 meter (150 foot) line of gear, organized at the end of last year's traverse, that we need to find for this year's traverse. Last year's gear line is organized as boxes, bags, and crates, all sitting on metal pallets, all resting atop 55-gallon drums. This whole gear line of equipment is entirely buried under snow. Around 7:30 pm we were treated to a steak dinner by the set-up crew. By 10 pm we were ready for a good night sleep here in West Antarctica |
![[Challenger]](Pictures/Challenger.jpg) the Challenger |
![[Benjamin in the computer center]](Pictures/Jamie.jpg) Benjamin "Jamie" in the computer center |
 Seal sunning on the ice |
 Gordon in the new field lab |
![[Penguins and mountains]](Pictures/mtpenguins.jpg) Adelie penguins |
![[more penguins]](Pictures/penguin1.jpg) More penguins |
 Just visiting |
 Snowmobiling |
Click on a picture to see it full size.
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| Notes on daily life: | Not a huge surprise but we are still here in McMurdo base. The weather turned on us last night and all planes were grounded for the day. One benefit was that we could get all 93 of our ISC or ice core storage boxes labeled before we left for the field. Ice core storage boxes are 2' x 2' x 4' insulated boxes in which we store the ice cores we drill. Depending on the diameter of the ice cores we drill we can store 6 or 9 ice cores, each one meter long, per ISC box. The smaller the diameter of the ice cores we drill the more that will fit into each ice core storage box. The diameter of the ice cores we drill depends on how much ice we need for our analysis later in the laboratory. This year we plan on drilling approximately 10 centimeter (4 inch) cores at our first drill site and approximately 7.5 centimeter (3 inch) cores at all of our other sites. We could label our ISC boxes in the field but the more we can do here the less we have to do in the field. Doing work here in McMurdo does not guarantee that it is warmer, as was the case this morning with a wind chill of -35 C (-30 F), but here we were able to get inside a building to warm-up when we got cold. In the field it will be harder to get away from the cold weather. The weather here in McMurdo, as you may understand from reading our daily reports, controls life here on the ice. It determines when you get to and from Antarctica, how much time you spend outside, and how you move around the continent. Steve, one of the forecasters here at the McMurdo weather service, mentions that the weather in McMurdo is similar to the weather in Alaska, Maine, and much of the northern United States except for the constant Antarctic wind. Antarctica is the highest, driest continent on Earth and the Antarctic plateau is actually considered a desert. In McMurdo, rain has never been recorded and the average precipitation accumulation is approximately 200 centimeters (80 inches). The warmest temperatures generally occur in January each year with a record high of 9° C/ 49° F. The coldest temperatures generally occur in August with a record low of -51° C/-59° F. The strongest winds here were recorded at 104 knots per hour (115 miles per hour). It certainly is a harsh environment in McMurdo and right now how it affects on our flight schedule is our biggest concern. But, if we do not like the weather we just wait for it to change. For more information on the weather in McMurdo search http://www.mcmurdo.gov (Note from webmaster: This link doesn't always work due to weather conditions in Antarctica. Try http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/89664.html for current weather conditions in McMurdo.) |
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| Notes on daily life: | Today we woke up to a beautiful day. The temperature is warm and the sun is shining. The latest report is that the weather is just as clear over most of Antarctica which means that planes will be flying and delivering cargo today. Our Caterpillar challenger 55 will be delivered today to Byrd camp and we hope to be there tomorrow. Once we get to Byrd there will be lots of digging to find the equipment we stored there last year. We may be at Byrd for as long as a week as we prepare our vehicles to begin the traverse. In a previous report we mentioned that nearby McMurdo base is Mount Erebus. Mount Erebus is 3794 meters (12,500 feet) tall and is the world's southernmost active volcano. It is located 40 kilometers (24 miles) north of McMurdo base. The first day we were here we climbed Observation Peak and noticed Mount Erebus in the distance. Many people have climbed the mountain from its first accent around 1912 to the present. There is a steam plume that is visible during clear weather rising from the top of the mountain. In April of this year there was a ten minute episode of harmonic tremor that was rather unusual. Mount Erebus is continually monitored here in McMurdo by the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory (MEVO). MEVO maintains a permanent network of nine seismometers that monitor the seismic activity of the mountain. Inside the mountain is a lava lake that has been active for at least several decades and showers the rim of the crater with volcanic bombs and glass. Thanks to MEVO for this information. You can find more information about Mount Erebus and MEVO at http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/erebus.html We have packed all our bags in preparation for leaving here for Byrd camp tomorrow. Cross your fingers, weather changes quickly here. |
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| Notes on daily life: | We are still in McMurdo waiting for reports on whether the C-130 cargo plane, which will carry our Caterpillar challenger 55 tractor to Byrd camp, will take- off today as scheduled or not. One of the reasons that the cargo has not already been taken to Byrd camp is that we are experiencing a very severe geomagnetic storm which has knocked-out communication with the field camps. The term that the radio communication folks here are using for this event is a "polar cap absorption". Without the radio communications the pilots of the C-130s will not be able to communicate with the folks at Byrd camp to get a weather report. The result is that there can be no flights to Byrd during the storm. This particular storm is the strongest since 1976 here in Antarctica and has lasted for about 5 days. For almost 48 hours McMurdo and the field stations were without communications. These storms occur on average a few times each year and they vary in intensity and duration. The storms correspond to the 11 year solar sunspot cycle. Every 11 years the number of sunspots on the Sun reaches it maximum. These sunspots expel energetic particles from the Sun out into space which flow with the solar wind around the Earth's magnetopause, a layer in the outer atmosphere that separates the Earth's and the Sun's magnetic fields. Some of the particles leak through and are trapped inside or enter through openings or "cusps" at the North and South Poles and release tremendous energy when they hit the upper atmosphere. The result is that some radio communications are affected as the ionized particles interact in the atmosphere. The Aurora Borealis is also the result of solar ionized particles entering the Earth's atmosphere from sunspots. The news down here is that this has also been one of the best displays of the Aurora Borealis in North America that has been seen in many years. The solar storm is predicted to end sometime today or tomorrow and hopefully radio communications will resume. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Today was a catch-up day for sleep and work. From yesterday's trip to the huts
and penguins we took almost 500 photographs. So for some of us today is filled
with labeling and organizing photographs. Yesterdays trip part 2: After we left the Adelie penguin rookery and Shackleton's hut, we traveled back towards McMurdo on snowmobiles over the sea ice and we stopped at Evan's Point. On the way to and from Cape Royds we passed the terminus of the Barne Glacier. This glacier flows down from the slopes of Mount Erebus onto the Ross ice shelf. The ice cliff at the terminus, or end of the glacier, stands about 62 meters (200 feet) above the sea ice and probably extends over 650 meters (2000 feet) below the sea ice. From the flat sea ice surface the ice cliff is very spectacular. When we got to Cape Evans we found a Weddell seal sun bathing on the sea ice. This seal was almost 3 meters (9 feet) long and did not pay us any attention as we watched and photographed. At Evans Point stands the hut of the Captain R. F. Scott from his Terra Nova’ expedition, 1910-1913. This hut is the largest historic building on Antarctica. It is the point from which Captain Scott launched his expedition and was also very important to Shacklelton and his men when their boat the Aurora’ was blown to sea and they were marooned in 1915. The hut still contains provisions and is very well preserved by the dry cold of Antarctica. Thanks again to the Antarctic Heritage Trust for this historical background information. After visiting Scott's hut we continued on our snowmobiles towards McMurdo and made our last stop at the "Penguin Ranch". At this camp on the sea ice, scientists are studying the diving ability of Emperor penguins. The penguins are kept at this location because though they can dive up to 500 meters (1500 feet) deep they can only hold their breath and stay under water for about 5 minutes. This is not long enough to swim under the sea ice all the way back to the open ocean. These penguins are much larger than the Adelies. Adult Emperor penguins can be about 1.1 meter (4 feet) tall and weigh 30 kilograms (65 pounds). At the "ranch", scientists have a 1 meter (3 feet) wide metal tube inserted down through the 2.5 meter (8 foot) thick sea ice with glass windows at the bottom. The scientists climb down into the tube to view the penguins as they swim under the sea ice. The penguins eat small fish which live on the underwater surface of the sea ice. It was spectacular to see penguins dive into the water and then shoot back up to the surface. |
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| Notes on daily life: | As if being in Antarctica could get any better today was awesome! Other than the sky being blue and the temperature being warm, we had a fantastic excursion today. Nine of us, Paul, Zach, Cobi, Benjamin, Marcus, Brian, Gordon, Mark, and Chris took a 100 kilometer (60 mile) snowmobile trip to Cape Royds to see Shakelton's Hut and the Adelie penguin rookery, Cape Evans to see Scott's Hut, and the penguin ranch where scientists work with emperor penguins. We left McMurdo at around 9 am and returned back to McMurdo at 7 pm. This trip was so fantastic that it will take two daily updates to report on it. The Adele penguin rookery was filled with penguins, a few thousand in all. Adele are the most common of Antarctic penguins with a population estimated at about 2 million. Adelies are typically 75 centimeters tall (30 inches) and weight about 3.9 kilograms (8.5 pounds). November is egg-laying season and we saw lots of nest building by the Adelies. Their nests are built of small stones, some of which come from the ground surrounding the rookery but many come from the nest of other adelies, they are constantly stealing stones from the nests of their neighbors. The eggs, which we could not see, will hatch in December. The Adelies eat almost exclusively krill, which is a small shrimp like creature abundant in the ocean. The rookery is protected by law so we were only able to get close enough to see the penguins but not close enough to disturb them. At Cape Royds we also saw Antarctic explorer Ernest Shakelton's hut from his 1907-1990 "Nimrod" expedition. During that time in Antarctica, Shakelton and his men pioneered a route across the Ross ice Shelf and up the Beardmore Glacier to within 97 miles of the South Pole. Among their many scientific achievements, these parties were first to reach the South Magnetic Pole and to climb Mount Erebus. Shakelton's hut at Cape Royds is locked to protect theft and destruction of the property. Because of the extreme dryness and cold the hut and the items left by Shakelton and his men in the hut are almost perfectly preserved. We saw reindeer sleeping bags, cans of food, oil and gas lamps, and many items that were used on the Nimrod expedition still intact inside the hut. It was an incredible feeling to know that less than 100 years ago men lived in this hut and explored Antarctica as we are doing now. The equipment that Shakelton and his men used then is so technologically simple compared to what we are carrying on ITASE that is boggles the mind as to how technology has changed. We want to thank the Antarctic Heritage Trust for maintaining the hut and this background information on the Nimrod expedition. I will explain more about the huts and the penguins tomorrow. Today here is Sunday and we are all taking a much-needed rest. There is a rather intense solar storm taking place in the atmosphere over Antarctica and it is affecting communications with Byrd camp and the other "deep field" camps. Any planes that take off from McMurdo need a weather conditions report to land at a deep field camp and as a result much of our equipment is still here in McMurdo waiting to be sent. The weather here continues to be beautiful but without radio communications we have no idea of knowing what the weather is at Byrd. We will continue to take care of last minute details here at McMurdo. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Yea! Ben, Brian, Marcus, and Zach passed their safety training school. Around here they call safety training school "Happy Camper School". Though we all have some mountaineering experience from other parts of the globe, Happy Camper School was a great opportunity for us to learn more about Antarctica and take a refresher course on how to work safely in difficult weather conditions. The other members of the team took Happy Camper School their first time in Antarctica and were required to take a short refresher course when they arrived this year. Paul, Chris, Bert, Mark, and Gordon continued to work on readying our equipment for the flight to Byrd camp now scheduled for Monday. Steve and the put-in crew continue to organize Byrd camp and prepare the plane runway for more scheduled cargo shipments. The weather here was magnificent the past two days. There were no clouds, only a slight breeze, and brilliant sunshine. The weather was still cold and the temperature fell to about -15 degrees Celsius (5°F) during the night (remember, the sun is still out here 24 hours a day). The sun was so intense on the reflective snow that there were many mirages. McMurdo's purpose, as an American base in Antarctica, is to support science and it is very well run by the National Science Foundation. In some of the daily updates we referred to the support people here in McMurdo. There are many different jobs that are done by the support staff here. They all work very hard and do a great job of making it possible for the scientists to do their work. Twice a week there are scheduled science lectures to inform everyone, scientists and support people, about the many science projects that take place in Antarctica. This Sunday's lecture will be give by Dr. Paul Mayewski, the field leader of the US ITASE program, and titled, "Science on the Move: The United States Contribution to the ITASE Program". Everyone can learn more about US ITASE from this web site and at http://www.ume.maine.edu/USITASE |
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| Notes on daily life: | Today we awakened to the best weather in a long time. The skies were clear and there was no wind. After several days of not been able to see farther than a few buildings we could now see the mountains on the far side of McMurdo Sound. The conical shape of Mt Discovery, an extinct volcano, rises 8,600 ft above the sea ice. The jagged peaks of the Royal Society rising to over 13,000 ft seem like they are next door but, amazingly, are about 50 miles away across the sound. Days like today remind us of how lucky we are to visit and work in Antarctica. Ben, Brian, Marcus and Zach, accompanied by Cobi, began their two-day survival school today. This course is referred to locally as snow school and is required of all first time participants in the Antarctic program. It is usually a lot of fun, especially on good weather days like today. The rest of us are sure that the happy campers will return with sunburned faces tomorrow evening. The remainer of us spent the morning packing the last of our cargo and equipment in preparation for our deep field deployment. Everything is now in the cargo system. We learned today that we are scheduled to leave for Byrd surface camp on Monday. Two flights made it into Byrd today: one carried our refurbished Tucker, Ellie-May, and the other brought in a crew who will prepare the camp for our arrival next week. We continued with the planning for our 'shakedown' trip to Cape Evans and Cape Royds, which will hopefully take place on Saturday. Two of the most prominent names in Antarctic traverse history, Scott and Shackleton, have huts at Evans and Royds respectively. It promises to be a spectacular trip. |
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| Notes on daily life: | We are still here in McMurdo, or as everyone here calls it "Mactown". Tomorrow Ben, Brain, Marcus, and Zach are off to Antarctic survival training school to learn how to light a stove, set-up a tent, and spend the night outdoors in Antarctica. The school lasts for one night and two days. After that we might all take a trip to the penguin rookery and see some more of the sights. It snowed hard here for three days and it started to let up yesterday afternoon. Since then the sky has remained relatively clear. All of the food (all 2000 pounds) is packed, all the sleeping gear and tents are packed, 99% of the scientific gear is packed, and only a few items still need to be tracked down and packaged for shipment to Byrd. Since the weather controls everything here we are not sure that we will fly out to Byrd on Saturday as scheduled. If we do not it will be no surprise but then again if we do it will be no surprise. Folks here do what they can when they can and try not to sweat what they can not change, like cancelled flights. Today, though for the first time in three days, a number of cargo flights took off for the interior. We also saw two skuas fly by, an indication of fair weather. Brain, Ben, Mark and Zach spent a good deal of time outside today preparing the ice core storage boxes to be shipped to Byrd. As a result they all got a little sunburn and wind burn on the faces. Those few pounds that some of us gained in the first few days here are being worn away with all the physical outdoor work. Paul, Bert, Gordon, Marcus, and Chris continued to set-up and test their equipment. Cobi continued to prepare the mountaineering climbing ropes and equipment for the traverse. She will also accompany the four guys going to survival school. Steve is still at Byrd with the crew assigned to open up Byrd camp. They had the same snowy weather that the folks had at McMurdo. The big difference is that at Byrd everything was reburied in snow and has to be dug out again. All is ready and we just need a few good days of nice weather, especially for the guys in survival school. |
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| Notes on daily life: | And it continues to snow. It has now been snowing for three days and it does
not seem to be letting up. So far we have gotten about 10" of new snow but with
the drifting it is difficult to measure. A few days ago as some of the snow had
started to melt and McMurdo was looking a little "dirty" as bear rock was
becoming exposed. Now the entire town looks like a winter wonderland. This
wonderland is holding up our progress though, by making it difficult to work
outside and get cargo flights to Byrd camp. Weather delays of a week or more are
standard here but we hope we are not delayed for too long in McMurdo. We are
making a lot of progress with our packing here and we will be ready to leave town
if our scheduled flight to Byrd camp leaves on time. The temperature here is still
relatively warm (-3 C/25 F) and for comparison here is the weekly weather report
from the meteorologist at the South Pole- 27 October 2000 Through 2 November 2000 UTC
Now that is cold. Breakfast today was almost whatever you wanted. Omletes, fried eggs, homefries, waffles, fruit, ham, sausage, juice, coffee, tea, hot chocolate. And lunch was make-your-own sandwiches, tortellini, pasta, meat sause, fish and chips, french fries, and drinks. Somehow I thought that on this trip we would lose weight- I’m sure that it will be different in the field. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Welcome to Antarctica. The weather here is like the joke in New England- if you do not like the weather wait a minute. This morning we woke up to blowing cold but enough visibility to climb observation peak (without getting blown away but close) but by 10 am it was snowing so hard that we could not see 20 feet ahead of us as we walked outside between buildings. In town it is a condition 2 day with condition 1 out on the sea ice runway. Most of the windows are plastered with the fresh snow. A few people went outside of the cafeteria and drew pictures on the windows that we could all enjoy as we sat inside. PEveryone is again very busy collecting and sorting gear and preparing their equipment. On this expedition we will be carrying about 2000 pounds of food and personal gear, 20,000 pounds of fuel, and many thousands of pounds of other gear. Combined with the weight of our sledges we will be towing about 60,000 pounds of equipment with two tractors. Our food is pretty standard fare and includes lots of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate, lots and lots of noodle dinners, crackers, cheese, rice, dried vegetables and fruits, canned meats, and 10's of pounds of chocolate bars. Some of us will live on the noodles, others on the chocolate. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Wow, what a day. You would not know it from the weather observations but it is a beautiful day. Very clear blue sky and only a trace of clouds with unlimited visibility so that we can see forever. There is even melting snow and small pools of water forming on the ground. Normally you do not see pools of water because the snow sublimates or turns directly from the solid snow to water vapor and is carried away in the very very dry air. Zach did his daily walk up observation peak again today and noticed again that because of the very dry air you just do not feel sweaty when you exercise. All the moisture from your body is quickly evaporated into the air. The ground around McMurdo is all volcanic rock. This rock material is very porous and any water on the ground quickly percolates into the ground. The flight from New Zealand with Paul, Gordon, Chris, and Bert was delayed again this afternoon because of weather. The flight might still make it in tonight depending on how the weather is between here and New Zealand. We are looking forward to see our colleagues make it to Antarctica. There have been other flights that have left McMurdo today to deliver supplies to "deep field" camps like Byrd camp. The camps that are not on the coast are called deep field camps. At Byrd camp there is a crew that has started to open the camp and prepare for the arrival of more gear and the science team. We saw another Skua today. It seems strange to get excited about a single bird but when you have only seen two in the last week it is a big deal. Despite the warm sunny weather there are no seals today on the ice. We realized that we have not even seen any bugs. They must be here and we are actually looking forward to seeing a bug. Today the team was involved with checking and packing camping gear. We need to check all our sleeping bags, sleeping pads, stoves, and tents. A broken zipper on a sleeping bag or a stove that does not light could be a disaster on the expedition so every item was carefully checked. Each member of the team will be issued a sleeping bag, three sleeping pads to get up off the cold ground, a sleeping bag liner, a water bottle and insulated bottle holder, and their own tent. We all get along very well but it will be nice to our own tents on the expedition. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Last night the sky cleared completely and it has been clear ever since. It is so bright here that you really need your sun glasses every time you go outside. We accomplished a lot more today with organizing our equipment for the expedition. Brain and Zach took a walk today back out to see the seals. There was one large seal, probably 10 feet long and must have weighed a couple hundred pounds, and one smaller seal, probably only 5 feet long and 100 pounds. They were very content to just lay on the ice and bask in the sun for hours. On the way back from seeing the seals they stopped at the aquarium tanks to see the Antarctic cod. The cods real name is Dissostichus mawsoni . They can be up to 5 feet long and 100 pounds. They are very strange, almost prehistoric looking creatures. The scientists catch them by fishing through the ice and lowering their lines to almost 1000 feet deep. After that Brian and Zach walked up Observation Peak with Cobi. From there you can see miles. Mt Erebus the volcano was smoking only slightly today. Life in McMurdo is really nice and a lot more comfortable than expected. Among the many important classes that Brian, Zach, Benjamin, and Marcus have attended are radio class, to learn to proper way to use field radios, and a snowmobile repair class. The classes are taught by people that live and work here in McMurdo for the summer season. These people come from all over the United States and often do the same type of work here in Antarctica that they do back home. In McMurdo there are carpenters, fireman, electricians, plumbers, and people that do just about every kind of job you can imagine. Time for dinner, I hope they have more of that rubarb cobbler from last night. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Last night the sky cleared completely and it has been clear ever since. It is so bright here that you really need your sun glasses every time you go outside. We accomplished a lot more today with organizing our equipment for the expedition. Brain and Zach took a walk today back out to see the seals. There was one large seal, probably 10 feet long and must have weighed a couple hundred pounds, and one smaller seal, probably only 5 feet long and 100 pounds. They were very content to just lay on the ice and bask in the sun for hours. On the way back from seeing the seals they stopped at the aquarium tanks to see the Antarctic cod. The cods real name is Dissostichus mawsoni . They can be up to 5 feet long and 100 pounds. They are very strange, almost prehistoric looking creatures. The scientists catch them by fishing through the ice and lowering their lines to almost 1000 feet deep. After that Brian and Zach walked up Observation Peak with Cobi. From there you can see miles. Mt Erebus the volcano was smoking only slightly today. Life in McMurdo is really nice and a lot more comfortable than expected. Among the many important classes that Brian, Zach, Benjamin, and Marcus have attended are radio class, to learn to proper way to use field radios, and a snowmobile repair class. The classes are taught by people that live and work here in McMurdo for the summer season. These people come from all over the United States and often do the same type of work here in Antarctica that they do back home. In McMurdo there are carpenters, fireman, electricians, plumbers, and people that do just about every kind of job you can imagine. Time for dinner, I hope they have more of that rubarb cobbler from last night. |
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| Notes on daily life: | Today was a little brighter than yesterday as the clouds are starting to move out. As a result, a number of flights were able to take off for Byrd camp with some of our supplies. Ben, Marcus, Brian, Zach, and Cobi took a walk out on the sea ice to look at a seal. There are two or three seals that have come up through holes in the ice to bask in the sun. The Antarctic Treaty prevents people from disturbing any animals, so we stayed about 100' away to view them. We also saw a bird we think is called a skewa. It seems strange to say that we saw a single bird but it was about the first bird that has been seen here this spring. Later in the day we took a walk to Scott's hut which is only a 10 minute walk away. The hut looks as if it was only recently constructed but it has been here since 1910. The dry air preserves thing very well including 100 year old buildings. When we looked inside the hut windows we could see the supplies that Captain Scott's men left here long ago. The building that we are staying in is very large and is only one of 30 - 40 buildings here in McMurdo. Our dorm sleeps probably 300 people and has a small store, a barber shop, and a cafeteria. Our room sleeps 4 people comfortable in two bunk beds. The windows have wooden shutters on the inside to blockout the light that shines all day and night. The sun will continue to shine here 24 hours a day for the next few months. The cafeteria serves food to all of McMurdo's residents. It seats about 200 people at a time and serves breakfast lunch and dinner. The food is very good and there is plenty of it. Last night there was make your own tacos along with many other delicious choices. The cafeteria also has a self serve soft ice cream machine. Imagine eating ice cream when it is zero degrees outside. We are still very busy preparing our scientific equipment for our research. We are still scheduled to leave here for Byrd camp on the 15th of November so we only have another week and a-half to ready everything we will need for our expedition. |
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