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Week 8 – December 12th to December 20, 2000
Date: 12/20/00
Latitude: 77 degrees, 41 minutes South
Longitude: 124 degrees 0 minutes West
Temperature: –20°C( –4°F)
Wind speed: 9 knots
Wind Chill: –30°C( –13°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 321
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.
Date: 12/18/00
Latitude: 77 degrees, 41 minutes South
Longitude: 124 degrees 0 minutes West
Temperature: –18°C( –1°F)
Wind speed: 11 knots
Wind Chill: –34°C( –33°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 321
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.
Date: 12/16/00
Latitude: 78 degrees, 5 minutes South
Longitude: 120 degrees 5 minutes West
Temperature: –19°C( –1°F)
Wind speed: 8 knots
Wind Chill: –30°C( –14°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 40 new 321 total
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.
Date: 12/15/00
Latitude: 78 degrees, 5 minutes South
Longitude: 120 degrees 5 minutes West
Temperature: –19°C( –1°F)
Wind speed: 14 knots
Wind Chill: –39°C( –38°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 281
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.
Date: 12/14/00
Latitude: 78 degrees, 5 minutes South
Longitude: 120 degrees 5 minutes West
Temperature: –19°C( –1°F)
Wind speed: 6 knots
Wind Chill: –25°C( –13°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 281
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.
Date: 12/13/00
Latitude: 78 degrees, 26 minutes South
Longitude: 115 degrees 55 minutes West
Temperature: –19°C( –1°F)
Wind speed: 9 knots
Wind Chill: –32°C( –29°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 50 new 281 total
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.
Date: 12/12/00
Latitude: 78 degrees, 26 minutes South
Longitude: 115 degrees 55 minutes West
Temperature: –18°C( 0°F)
Wind speed: 9 knots
Wind Chill: –30°C( –13°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 40 new: 231 total
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.