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2007

Date: November 25, 2007
Location: East Antarctic Plateau, On the road
Latitude: 82 degrees, 6 minutes, 0 seconds South
Longitude: 136 degrees, 12 minutes, 0 seconds East
Temperature: −30°C ( −22°F)
Wind Speed: 12 knots
Wind Chill: −44°C (−47°F)
Elevation: 2534 meters (8314 feet)
Kilometers Traveled: 282
Ice Core Drilled: 95 meters
Written by: Nicky

We set out at 9:30AM and do a quick 50km with only one shallow–radar stop at the very beginning of the run. At a couple of the waypoints, Dan D. braves the wind and cold to make the PB and CAT drivers feel like Hollywood superstars by filming movies of their vehicles taking off. At the 50K waypoint, Mike and Luke discover that half of the hitch bolts on the Siglin sled carrying fuel have sheared off. It is decided that the repair will take several hours, so we should stop here for the night. A meeting of the minds concludes that the food should be moved to the now 'weak' sled since it weighs less, the fuel should be put on the heavy–duty Lehmann sleds, and some tools, CAT parts, and equipment should be shuffled off the Lehmanns and onto the old fuel sled. Additionally, the food sled should switch positions with the old fuel sled. Upon starting this activity, it is discovered that the food sled is broken in a different (but less critical) way and that it will have to be fixed as well. This task is left till tomorrow morning and after an impromptu 9PM dinner, arranged by Luci, we all head off to bed. With any luck we'll be 'on the road again' by lunchtime tomorrow.

 

Date: November 26 and 27, 2007
Location: East Antarctic Plateau, On the road
Latitude: 83 degrees, 21 minutes, 47.09 seconds South
Longitude: 137 degrees, 4 minutes, 27.336 seconds East
Temperature: −35°C ( −31°F)
Wind Speed: 15 knots
Wind Chill: −52°C (−73°F)
Elevation: 2589 meters (8494 feet)
Kilometers Traveled: 382
Ice Core Drilled: 95 meters
Written by: Nicky

After lots of digging (some of the sled repairs needed to be done from below) the fixing is all finished and we are on our way by 2pm. We drive without incident until midnight and then stop for a rest. The next morning we have a hot meal at 10am (Mmmm, mushroom soup!) and by 11:30 head out relaxed and refreshed for the next leg of our journey. Again we experiences no trouble on this leg, but the scenery starts to change. We've got strange looking humps dotting the landscape...I wonder what they are.

**Side note: I, not being a geophysicist, was not very clear in my description of Brian’s CMP activities on the 24th and would like to clarify something... The velocity claim. While it is true that geologists use this method to look at changes in pulse velocity through rock and sediment, this can’t be done on ice because the velocity through ice does not change. Rather, this technique is used to make an attenuation profile, which can be used as a proxy for temperature. So, complicated story made simple, it’s a way to get a relative temperature profile through the ice sheet.