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Week 5- November 25, 2001 to December 1, 2001
Date: 12/01/01
Latitude: 77.85 degrees South
Longitude: 103 degrees West
Temperature: –16°C( 3°F)
Wind speed: 4 knots
Wind Chill: –21°C( –6°F)
Wind direction: South
Meters of ice collected: 119.5
Notes on daily life:
After about 23 hours of traveling we arrived at our second ice core site. The ride was very rough for those trying to rest and work in the Blue Room or kitchen – the snow surface was much harder on this leg than on the previous leg from Byrd. Still it is good to be in a new location, although the view is pretty much the same as at the last site.
By the time we arrived it was late afternoon in our new 'ITASE time zone'. A few of us took care of the most important task – digging a new hole for the bathroom, positioning the sled over the hole and piling snow around the sled to keep the drafts out. After that we cooked up some steaks and potatoes for a simple dinner – Brian apparently had been fantasizing about steak the whole time he was awake and riding in his radar sled so he was glad to finally get something to eat. Markus moved his atmospheric sampling tent a short distance upwind and spent the evening unpacking and preparing his equipment. Blue and Dan worked on data collected at our earlier site and others took a walk around camp to kill some time before heading to bed.
Date: 11/30/01
Latitude: 78.45 degrees South
Longitude: 103.76 degrees West
Temperature: –19°C( –3°F)
Wind speed: 9 knots
Wind Chill: –28°C( –19°F)
Wind direction: Southeast
Meters of ice collected: 119.5
A short log today as we are in route to our new site. Today's leg is 153 km and is estimated to take us about 21 hours. Before we left we spent the morning packing all our equipment, loading the sleds and strapping everything down. Then, just as we were leaving, we moved our clocks forward 6 hours. The reason is that we are at same longitude as the Midwest but have been using McMurdo (or New Zealand) time which means that solar noon, when the sun is highest in the sky and hence warmest, is right about when we usually get up in the morning. That's fine for the first few work hours each day, but when we are working into the evening it is actually solar midnight and the temperatures can be brutally cold. So, for our convenience we moved our clocks forward so that we can work during the warmest hours of the day. In case you're interested, we are now using EST, (Eastern Standard Time, the time used on the east coast of North America) although we are fully one day ahead of you back home.
The traveling today has been rough so far – the snow surface must be much harder and bumpier than our ride out from Byrd last week. Like last time, some of us are working and others sleeping and we work rotating shifts. We will be pleased when this long ride is over.
Date: 11/29/01
Latitude: 79.15 degrees South
Longitude: 105 degrees West
Temperature: –28°C( –18°F)
Wind speed: 7 knots
Wind Chill: –38°C( –36°F)
Wind direction: Southeast
Meters of ice collected: 119.5
Notes on daily life:
Big drilling day today. Both systems were operating again – the 3" drill team (Mark, Susan, Dan, Brian, Cobi) completed work on the 200 year hole, reaching a final depth of 73.0 m. The 2" drill team (Paul, Blue, Lynn, Gordon) worked on several tasks. They drilled two short 3 m cores for Markus and Dave, then moved the drill out to Blue and Gordon's mass balance site where they collected a 20 m core. Drilling mostly went without a hitch, although by late in the afternoon and evening the temperature had dropped considerably making for very uncomfortable work conditions.
Steve A. and Allan continued with their radar work, conducting another 5 km traverse to image 650 m into the ice and also doing some radar calibration work by burying reflectors in the snow. Markus completed his atmospheric sampling program, but will continue to let his detectors run overnight before we leave in the morning.
We will be traveling to our next site tomorrow, so Cobi spent some time in the kitchen making a variety of ready–to–eat snacks and meals for the trip. Steve N. and Brian melted a lot of water to keep us going.
We are looking forward to moving on to another location, although it will likely look exactly the same as our present site – flat and white.
Date: 11/28/01
Latitude: 79.15 degrees South
Longitude: 105 degrees West
Temperature: –25°C( –13°F)
Wind speed: 3 knots
Wind Chill: –31°C( –23°F)
Wind direction: Southeast
Meters of ice collected: 57.5
Notes on daily life:
Today was our first big coring day. We had duelling drills within 50 m of one another. The 3" Eclipse drill had 60 m (or about 200 years of snowfall) as its goal. Mark, Susan and Dan worked this drill, with assistance at various points during the day from Lynn, Steve N., Cobi and Brian. Paul, Blue, Dave and Gordon operated the new 2" drill a short distance away. They were collecting a 20 m deep core that Gordon and Blue will use to detect the depth of snow containing radioactive nuclear bomb fallout from the 1950s and 1060s. These layers provide an excellent way to confirm the dating of the main 200 year core.
Both drills collected excellent quality core. The new 2" system performed very well in its first real test, although Lynn is making some modifications to the winch system this evening that will hopefully make things go smoother tomorrow.
Markus continued his atmospheric sampling and began preparing a balloon–borne sonde for launch tomorrow. The sonde will measure atmospheric chemical composition. Steve A. and Allan conducted a series of short radar traverses around camp.
We worked fairly late into the evening and were cold and tired when we finished for dinner. Markus worked in the Blue Room preparing chemicals for his experiments but others relaxed and watched several episodes of the Simpsons on a computer DVD player.
Date: 11/27/01
Latitude: 79.15 degrees South
Longitude: 105 degrees West
Temperature: –19°C( –2°F)
Wind speed: 7 knots
Wind Chill: –27°C( –17°F)
Wind direction: Southeast
Meters of ice collected: 5.3
Notes on daily life:
Drilling began today. A few bugs had to be ironed out of our new 2" system, but by the end of the day we had our first core samples. Tomorrow both the 3" and 2" drills will be operating.
Brian and Steve N. carried out a 10 km traverse using Brian's deep radar – the results appear to be very impressive. Steve A. and Allan used a higher frequency radar to map the stratigraphy of the snow trench excavated by the tractor yesterday. Markus continued his atmospheric sampling program. Others worked indoors – Blue began writing software to integrate the radar and GPS results, Susan studied for a test (yes, even in Antarctica you can take tests!) and Gordon, Steve A. and Paul discussed some of the implications of their results so far.
Date: 11/26/01
Latitude: 79.15 degrees South
Longitude: 105 degrees West
Temperature: –20°C( –4°F)
Wind speed: 12 knots
Wind Chill: –33°C( –27°F)
Wind direction: Southeast
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
Science work continued today in slightly more unpleasant conditions than yesterday because stronger winds made for colder temperatures. Susan and Dan studied sastrugi patterns for Mary Albert, one of the ITASE science investigators not currently in the field. Sastrugi are small topographic bumps, 1 m or less high, formed by wind blowing snow – the polar equivalent of small sand dunes. Steve N. used the tractor blade to excavate a 10 m long snow pit about 2 m deep – the wall of the pit reveals the stratigraphy, or layering, of snow deposited in the last year or so. Susan and Dan were able to map changes in sastrugi size and distribution in layers of different ages, providing a useful comparison with present day surface patterns.
Markus and Dave continued work at Markus's atmospheric sampling shelter. The sampling continues around the clock, so they usually work in shifts. Allan and Steve A. conducted a 10 km traverse, going back along the route we took from Byrd, using the 12 MHz deep sounding radar. Blue provided navigation and elevation control using precision GPS. The profiling appears to have been quite successful – several layers were observed at depths of 500 to 700 m.
The drill was moved from camp out to the core site. Before scientific sample collection can begin, the drill had to be cleaned to remove traces of metal shavings or lubricants from the maintenance work. The best way to do this was to drill a core. So, drilling began but because the samples are potentially contaminated, none of the material was saved.
With the way our schedule is working out, today turned out to be ideal day to celebrate Thanksgiving. Cobi and Gordon cooked up a feast, improvising with available ingredients and adapting to the cramped cooking conditions. Our menu consisted of:
- Egg nog, apperitifs, mixed nuts
- Turkey
- Garlic mashed potatoes
- Glazed carrots
- Dried cherry stuffing
- Mushroom gravy
- Cranberry sauce
- Red and white wine
- Pumpkin cheesecake with ginger snap crust
- Liquers, cigars
Date: 11/25/01
Latitude: 79.15 degrees South
Longitude: 105 degrees West
Temperature: –23°C( –9°F)
Wind speed: 12 knots
Wind Chill: –34°C( –30°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
From earlier logs you'll remember that Sunday is a day off for workers in McMurdo. Not so out here in the field – we work every day we can. So we were all up by 7:00 am for breakfast and conversation before heading out to our separate jobs.
The fog that moved in yesterday evening had cleared by breakfast time, leaving clear and fairly calm conditions – almost ideal for fieldwork. Paul, Susan and Cobi took off on the snowmobiles shortly after breakfast and drove upwind 6 km, beyond the range of snowmobile tracks made earlier by Blue during his mapping exercise. The reason for going out so far was to collect surface snow that has not been contaminated by our camp activities. These samples will returned to the laboratory where very careful analyses will be used to detect the presence of pollution from farther afield. Markus continued his atmospheric sampling program and Dave sampled the snowpit excavated yesterday for stable isotopes. Blue and Gordon completed work on their mass balance measurement site and began processing data in the afternoon. Steve A. and Brian both worked on the analyses of their radar data collected along the traverse from Byrd, and Allan conducted a short traverse with his deep penetrating radar. Lynn and Steve N. did some mechanical tinkering around camp and then used the tractor blade to excavate a large trench for storing the ice cores. Mark has completed work on the drill setup and drilling will begin tomorrow morning.
By late in the day, the temperature began to drop and the wind picked up making for some of the coldest conditions we've experienced since arriving in the field. Most everyone was in bed early to read or listen to music – a few stayed up a little longer to try to win the jackpot in a CD–ROM version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Lynn came closest, winning $500,000 – he's still waiting for his money, though.