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Week 6 - December 2, 2001 to December 8, 2001
Date: 12/08/01
Latitude: 78.1 degrees South
Longitude: 95.6 degrees West
Temperature: –19°C( –2°F)
Wind speed: 7 knots
Wind Chill: –27°C( –17°F)
Wind direction: East
Meters of ice collected: 426
Notes on daily life:
It's Saturday – the 'end' of the work week and a day we should be at the mall doing our Christmas shopping. But we're the kind of people who like to leave our shopping to the last minute, so we did some more fieldwork instead. It was a productive day all around.
On the drive to this site, Brian's radar stopped collecting data when his generator became packed with snow during the storm. He was anxious to fill in the gaps in his profile, so he and Allan drove 40 km back along our route to complete the radar work. Markus did another couple of successful balloon launches and finished melting and processing the cores collected a few days ago. Paul and Steve A. drove a couple of kilometers out of camp and excavated a fresh 2 m deep snow pit that they sampled for heavy metals. The work required them to dress in clean suits –– Steve returned at dinnertime unable to get out of his suit, it was on so tightly over his other clothing –– for a while it looked like Susan was going to have to cut him free with a knife.
The drilling teams had much better success today. Mark, Susan, Dan and Steve N. used the 3" system to collect a 15 m deep core for Mary Albert in the morning. In the afternoon, they moved the drill a few feet and began on another 70 m deep core that will be shipped back to Maine for studying high resolution density. By the end of the day, they had collected 37 m of that core. The 2" team – Lynn, Blue and Gordon – collected a 20 m deep core at the coffee can site without any of the problems of the day before. Dave had a busy day, transporting the full boxes of core to a trench where he buried them – we will collect these core boxes when we pass through this site on our way back to Byrd at the end of the season.
In the afternoon, Gordon called Jan French at her school in Cincinnati. Jan had arranged for the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders to gather in the library – they asked a lot of great questions. We look forward to seeing some of these students running their own projects in Antarctica in 20 years time.
The feature presentation at Saturday Night at the Movies was "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
Date: 12/07/01
Latitude: 78.1 degrees South
Longitude: 95.6 degrees West
Temperature: –17°C( 1°F)
Wind speed: 1 knots
Wind Chill: –22°C( –7°F)
Wind direction: West
Meters of ice collected: 351
Notes on daily life:
Despite the date, today was a Friday the 13th kind of day for the two drilling teams. The 3" drillers (Mark, Dan, Susan, Paul) had problems early in the day because the outer drill barrel kept freezing to the inner barrel, making drilling impossible. The reason for the freezing? The warm air temperature, believe it or not. Ice and snow crystals on the metal drill barrel would melt in the heat of the sun, then instantly freeze when the drill was sent back down the hole. Mark's remedy was to thoroughly heat the drill to melt any remaining crystals and get the barrel dry. Then the barrel was left suspended in the hole for a while to get really cold and prevent any new snow crystals melting on the surface. This worked, and by the end of the day, the drillers had collected 55 m (a single day record for this season) and finished their 70 m hole.
The 2" team (Blue, Lynn, Gordon) started the day well, drilling two short 3 m holes for Markus (who bravely left his inflated balloons unattended) and Joe McConnell (one of the ITASE investigators not currently in the field). After that they began the first of two planned 20 m holes for beta radioactivity detection. Almost from the start they had trouble with the anti–torque devices – these are spring loaded skates that stop the drill barrel from spinning in the hole. Blue tried several different combinations of spring strengths and skate thicknesses but it took a lot of experimentation before they were able to stop the drill rotating in the hole. It took the whole day just to get to 20 m – "half the work in twice the time"! All the drillers agree that the snow has unusual properties at this site, but hopefully Blue's anti–torque combinations will work for the second 20 m hole tomorrow.
Markus spent the day processing the short cores and continuing his atmospheric sampling. He launched his balloon twice (and got it back both times), reaching a record height of 600 m. Brian and Steve N. drove south 40 km with the deep penetrating radar. Steve A. and Dave worked on processing of their data. Cobi spent the day roving the camp with a video camera, interviewing many of the science investigators about their projects.
As for happenings around the kitchen: Blue is functioning at full strength after a new carton of Tang was found in an previously unopened food box; and, Steve A. took a bite out of what he thought was a chunky chocolate oatmeal cookie before discovering that it was actually a defrosting veggie burger.
Date: 12/06/01
Latitude: 78.1 degrees South
Longitude: 95.6 degrees West
Temperature: –13°C( 9°F)
Wind speed: 1 knot
Wind Chill: –13°C( 9°F)
Wind direction: South
Meters of ice collected: 270
Notes on daily life:
So much for yesterday's storm – calm conditions prevailed by breakfast time this morning. We were all glad for the change in weather because working in the storm would have been extremely unpleasant.
This being our third site, work started early on our various projects now that team members are into a routine. The first task was to move the drill sled a short distance away from camp. Usually this is done the day we arrive, but yesterday's storm prevented that. Another early task was to map the surface topography – Blue did that using a GPS receiver mounted on a snowmobile.
Drilling started just before lunch, with two short 3 m cores collected with the 2" drill for Markus and Dave. Mark worked on getting the 3" system ready and discovered a small problem that needed fixing, so it was late in the afternoon before he, Paul, Dan and Susan started collecting core. By the end of the day they had recovered 25 m.
Blue and Gordon installed a new coffee can (mass balance) site about a kilometer upstream from the drill site. Markus worked on his atmospheric sampling work and late in the day launched one of his helium filled balloons to make atmospheric measurements.
For some, today was a day to take a shower. We brought a sunshower with us this year, but the sun has no real warming potential at this latitude so bathers heated up water in the kitchen and filled a bag that they hung inside a Scott tent. There, standing on a wooden pallet in temperatures close to –15° C ( 5°F), they 'enjoyed' a few minutes of bliss and emerged buffed and glowing. Although they might now smell clean and fresh, they still have to live with the rest of us who haven't showered in weeks...
Date: 12/05/01
Latitude: 78.1 degrees South
Longitude: 95.6 degrees West
Temperature: –18°C( 0°F)
Wind speed: 36 knots
Wind Chill: –34°C( –29°F)
Wind direction: Southwest
Meters of ice collected: 239
Notes on daily life:
We are now at Site 3 after 171 km and 22 hours of traveling. Since writing the last log in route, the weather steadily deteriorated so that by midday it almost impossible to see from one sled to the next. The generator powering Brian's radar failed after the air intake became blocked by blowing snow. At that point, Brian moved to the Blue Room for safety – if the tow line to his sled were to break, it would be difficult to locate him in poor visibility. Drivers of the two tractors had no visual references and were navigating solely by GPS. At our destination would be four pallets of fuel airdropped a week or so ago. Amazingly, we pulled up right next to the fuel – a testament to the accuracy of Air National Guard air drops and the ability of GPS to guide us with pinpoint precision across almost 200 km of featureless Antarctic terrain.
The bad weather on our arrival prevented us from doing little more than a few essential tasks – dig a hole and move the toilet sled, bury the ice cores to keep them cold, and make water. Blue and Cobi cooked up our first hot meal in quite a while – it was a seafood feast that included deep fried shrimp with dipping sauce as an appetizer.
In the evening, the residents of the Blue Room watched a movie on DVD. Tonight's showing was a real Antarctic classic – "The Thing". With the wind howling and the storm blowing outside, viewers were in hysterics watching this fictional portrait of life at an Antarctic fieldcamp, although we now have a plan of how to deal with space aliens if we ever happen to drill them up in our ice cores.
Date: 12/04/01
Latitude: 77.98 degrees South
Longitude: 100.2 degrees West
Temperature: –16°C( 3°F)
Wind speed: 11 knots
Wind Chill: –26°C( –14°F)
Wind direction: Southwest
Meters of ice collected: 239
Notes on daily life:
We are traveling again today. So far the ride has been smoother than our last travel day and we hope that continues. We spent the early part of the day packing equipment and loading sleds before leaving in the late afternoon. That way we will drive through the night and arrive at Site 3 after about 24 hours travel. We are working eight hour shifts again. The drivers have noticed that we have traveled over a number of bumps and hills and that the winds have gotten stronger. Otherwise, there have been no substantial changes in scenery from our last site.
Date: 12/03/01
Latitude: 77.85 degrees South
Longitude: 103 degrees West
Temperature: –12°C( 10°F)
Wind speed: 3 knots
Wind Chill: –15°C( 4°F)
Wind direction: East
Meters of ice collected: 239
Notes on daily life:
Our goal is to be spend just two days at this site, so this being our second day here we had a lot to do. Two drilling systems were in operation again. In the morning they were drilling side by side at the main 200 year core site. Mark, Paul, Susan and Dan began the day with the 3" system at 33 m. Things went well most of the morning, but just before lunch one of the gear controllers broke, halting progress. Mark spent the afternoon first diagnosing the problem and then fixing it, so drilling didn't begin again until after dinner. The 3" team stayed up late (3:00 AM!) to get the job done, finishing at a depth of 71 m.
In the morning, Blue, Lynn and Gordon used the 2" system to collect a 20 m core right next to the deep core. They finished that task at lunchtime, and in the afternoon moved the drill sled out to the coffee can site where they collected another 20 m core. These cores will be analyzed for snow containing increased levels of radioactivity resulting from atmospheric nuclear bomb tests in the South Pacific in the 1950s and 1960s. These snow layers are accurate dating horizons and are used for calculating snow accumulation rates and also an independent check on the annual layer dating of the main core.
Brian and Steve N. carried out a 40 km traverse that took them farther downglacier towards the coast. Brian was interested in studying the shape of the bed beneath the Thwaites Glacier, one of the fastest moving glaciers in Antarctica. Obviously, because of the danger of crevasses, they did not travel on the fast moving portion of the glacier, but stopped safely short of where crevassing was observed on Gordon's satellite imagery.
Markus's work at his atmospheric sampling site continued. He launched two balloons today – only one of which was planned. The other 'launch' happened while he was asleep, when one of the inflated balloons broke free of its tether. The drilling teams saw it soar quickly away from camp. The planned launch went much better, providing important information about the chemical composition of the atmosphere close to the ice sheet surface.
With all our work completed, we propose to move to our third site tomorrow. We will be hoping for smoother traveling conditions this time. back to top
Date: 12/02/01
Latitude: 77.85 degrees South
Longitude: 103 degrees West
Temperature: –17°C( 1°F)
Wind speed: 7 knots
Wind Chill: –26°C( –15°F)
Wind direction: East
Meters of ice collected: 156
Notes on daily life:
We woke to beautiful weather this morning – the sky was clear and a light breeze was blowing. Perfect working conditions. After breakfast we started getting ready for our day's work. For Blue and Gordon, that meant loading up a Nansen sled with drills and survey equipment. They drove to a site 3 km upglacier from the main camp (a place they estimated the main camp was 200 years ago) where they installed one of their mass balance measurement sites ("coffee can" site). While Gordon was drilling four holes each about 15 m deep for the markers, Blue drove in a grid pattern around the site and the camp to collect data for a topographic map. He processed the data in the evening to make the map – turns out their coffee can site is 50 m higher in elevation than the camp. Although it doesn't sound like a lot, that much of a change in 3 km is quite unusual for an interior ice sheet site.
Mark, Susan, Dan and Cobi moved the drill rigs a little distance upwind from camp and began the coring program. First of all they drilled two short 3 m holes using the 2" system for Markus and Dave. Then they began drilling the 200 year core with the Eclipse drill – by the end of the day they had reached a depth of 30 m. In the afternoon, Brian helped Markus sample a 2 m snowpit next to the drill site.
The radar guys, Steve A., Allan and Brian, spent a large part of the day processing data collected during the traverse leg. With the three radar systems, they now have overlapping data from the ice sheet surface all the way to the bed.
Steve N. and Lynn used the day to deal with minor mechanical problems that arose during the travel day. The rough ride meant that a lot of things had started to work their way loose – including the Blue Room from its sled! With everything tightened up and the both tractors serviced, we will be ready to move again in a couple of days.