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Week 6 - December 1th to December 6, 2000

Date: 12/6/00
Latitude: 79 degrees, 23 minutes South
Longitude: 111 degrees 14 minutes East
Temperature: -24°C( -11°F)
Wind speed: 5 knots
Wind Chill: -31°C( -24°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 121

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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Date: 12/5/00
Latitude: 79 degrees, 23 minutes South
Longitude: 111 degrees 14 minutes East
Temperature: not given
Wind speed: not given
Wind Chill: not given
Wind direction: not given
Meters of ice collected: 121

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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Date: 12/4/00
Latitude: 79 degrees, 23 minutes South
Longitude: 111 degrees 14 minutes East
Temperature: -16°C( 3°F)
Wind speed: 9 knots
Wind Chill: -31°C( -21°F)
Wind direction: East
Meters of ice collected: 117

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.

the pitToday, Ben and Zach collected samples in the snow pit and calculated the density of the snow layers. As you go deeper, the density of the snow increases due to the compaction of the crystals. The more layers of snow you have on top, the denser the particles. The top layers of snow, called firn, can have a density about 0.40 g/cm3. At a density of 0.92 g/cm3 the snow layers are compact enough to be glacial ice.

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.

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[Drilling]   [Processing cores]  [Guys in yellow suits]
[Boxing core samples]  [Using the Radio]
Click on a picture to see it full size.

Date: 12/3/00
Latitude: 79 degrees, 23 minutes South
Longitude: 111 degrees 14 minutes East
Temperature: -23°C( -7°F)
Wind speed: 3 knots
Wind Chill: -26°C(-13°F)
Wind direction: Northeast
Meters of ice collected: 99(300 feet) + 94 centimeters (22 inches)

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.

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[Gordon]   [Test cores]   [Cobi and Gordon]   [Gordon on ladder]
Click on a picture to see it full size.

Gallery of Photos

Date: 12/2/00
Latitude: 79 degrees, 23 minutes South
Longitude: 111 degrees 14 minutes East
Temperature: -23°C( -8°F)
Wind speed: 6 knots
Wind Chill: -26°C(-13°F)
Wind direction: Northwest
Meters of ice collected: 99

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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Date: 12/1/00
Latitude: 79 degrees, 23 minutes South
Longitude: 111 degrees 14 minutes East
Temperature: -24°C( -12°F)
Wind speed: 14 knots
Wind Chill: -35°C( -30°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 80

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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