Interesting Sights...

There are lots of interesting things to see in this otherworldly continent. Although the land is mostly devoid of life, the sea is teeming with it. Here are a few examples brought up by some divers recently:

The beastie above is a sponge coral, but unlike all other sponge corals I've seen, this one had numerous glass spikes emanating from its body. The glass is synthesized from minerals in the sea water and the spikes are used as protection from predators.

This next creature is a Sea Spider. It isn't in the same family as spiders or crabs - it's unique. They get quite large here - over two feet. This one has a good-sized parasite on one of its legs.

There are a variety of strange vehicles here. One that we use often is called a Pisten-Bully:

It has two compartments: the driver's compartment with two seats and the passenger/cargo compartment in back, which can seat 6 people or hold a bunch of cargo. Here's the obligatory Jim-driving-a-cool-new-snow-tractor photo:

A friend and I hiked up a nearby 800-foot hill (Observation Hill) which offered great views of the surrounding landscape. Next is a shot of the lovely McMurdo Base:

Next is a shot of the Mt. Erebus volcano puffing away at sundown (not sunset, since there won't be anymore of those until next year):

And finally, a shot of Mt. Discovery with a standing lenticular cloud around its summit. These clouds are caused by high winds and orographic lifting, and appear to be stationary. To a pilot, they indicate nasty turbulence on the lee side of the mountain. To normal people, they just look interesting! :-)

A Long Week

All sorts of stuff has happened this week. For one thing, I got up close and personal with a Weddell seal:



This poor guy had just had several implants and tracking devices surgically removed and was still sleeping off the ketamine. But he was still fun to see anyway:

So after visiting with the seal, I went back to the dive hut to carry on with another SCINI dive. Unfortunately, unlike the first two dives, this dive met with failure! First, one of the two active camera lights failed, and then the imagery received from the robot was far too dark. When we pulled the robot back out of the water, we noticed smoke inside the camera "bottle" and immediately shut off power. We took the camera bottle back to the lab and eventually determined there was a short circuit in the camera lighting circuitry due to salt water intrusion:

We took this opportunity of being back in the lab to fix several other nagging problems.

In the mean time, we started preparing a new dive site at Cape Armitage. This site is about a 15 minute drive across the sea ice from McMurdo Station, and is in sight of the New Zealand base. We are using a device to melt a hole through the ice called a "Hotsy". We had tried several attempts with a truck-mounted hydraulic drill but were not able to reach water by the time the 24 foot limit of the drill was reached. Thus we resorted to melting our way through. Here Francois and I are refueling the generator and melting machine:

This collection of machines pumps hot propylene glycol through a metal coil which is lowered down a hole. This heats the surrounding water, which expands the hole in the ice.

While we were making a hole at a new site, two of us were SCUBA diving in a dive hut in front of the station. The dive hut has a heater which keeps the inside fairly warm. We had also rigged a fan and a plastic tube to blow warm air on the surface of the ice hole to prevent it from re-freezing:

We have been promised an actuall day off tomorrow (Sunday), but it only starts after our 4:30AM trip to refuel the generator and Hotsy.

Finally In the Water!

We were finally able to get the robot (called SCINI) in the ocean yesterday! We made the dive under the sea ice in front of the station in a dive hut also used for tagging seals and got there in a Mattrack:



This is the hut in which we made the dive:



The hut has a hole in the floor over an existing hole in the ice, but the hole had partially refrozen and had a layer of ice about 12″ thick. Our first task was was to cut a hole in the ice big enough for SCINI to fit through. First, we drilled a series of small holes in a circle:



Next, we chopped out the ice between the small holes to break the big piece loose:


Finally, we had a hole big enough for SCINI. We finished the preparation by using a net to clear away the slush and small pieces of ice floating in the hole.

Next, we readied SCINI and its support equipment for the dive. Besides the robot and its tether, SCINI requires two laptops (one for piloting and control, one for recording science imagery), an uninterruptible power supply, and a small Honda generator. Here is SCINI just before the dive:

When we got SCINI in the hole and started swimming downwards, it seemed to get stuck about 15 feet down. After looking through SCINI’s camera imagery, we determined that the bottom of the ice hole had frozen over also. After pulling SCINI out and using a pry bar to break this second layer of ice, SCINI was finally able to get into the open ocean.

After flying for a bit, we noticed a handful of problems including an inoperative depth sensor and thruster controls which were too sensitive. These problems won’t be too hard to fix though. As SCINI was flying towards another hole in the ice, we caught a glimpse of a Weddell seal diving into the water near the hole. Here is one of SCINI’s early pictures:

To get a better idea of SCINI's maneuverability in the water, here is a video of a flight in a test tank:

Amazing Natural Beauty

The natural beauty of Antarctica is incredible and hard to describe, and my pictures don't do it justice, but here are some of them anyway. The first is a picture of Mt. Discovery, the 8800' foot peak directly across the frozen sound from McMurdo Station. This picture was taken on the hills above the station during Pisten Bully (snow tractor) training.

The next picture is of Mt. Erebus, 12,500 feet in elevation and the southernmost active volcano, and one of only three volcanoes in the world with a liquid lava lake in its crater. It has been continually erupting for many years, and its eruptions are called "Strombolian eruptions", after the famous volcano in the Aeolian Islands of Italy. Coincidentally, I climbed Stromboli last year.

Here is a beautiful sunset over Mt. Discovery. The last sunset happens tonight and after that it will be continuous daylight.

Next is a photograph of a C-17 transport inbound past the beautiful mountains to the south of McMurdo Station. The broken, blocky ice in the foreground was caused by the icebreaker ship that delivers supplies in the summers.

Below is another photograph of the mountains to the south.

Snow Survival Training (Happy Camper)

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we were trained in how to survive out in the snow, including one night of camping on the ice shelf. "Happy Camper School" as its known here started this Tuesday morning with an hour of classroom instruction. We then loaded up into two big transport vehicles called Deltas for the trip out to the ice.


After unloading our gear, we received instruction on how to use our camping stoves and proper HF and VHF radio usage, as well as how to avoid and detect frostbite, how to plan a campsite on the ice to be storm resistant, etc. We then began setting up camp.


In the photo above, we are setting up two Scott tents - sturdy canvas tents used by some of the original explorers to Antarctica. Next, we set up several modern mountain tents using anchors buried in the snow. Another form of shelter we learned was the Quinzie Hut. This shelter was built by first dumping our gear bags in a big pile, then covering it with 18 inches of packed snow. It was allowed to set for a few hours, then the gear was removed via a tunnel. The result was an igloo-shaped shelter with great strength and wind resistance:

Next, we built a wind barrier wall made from blocks of hardened snow cut out with a saw. It was a true team effort:



This sawing is hard work!


Another form of shelter we were taught was a trench dug in the snow and then covered with blocks of snow. I slept in one of the mountain tents. I had elected to sleep in all of my clothes since I get cold easily. That involved a base layer of long underwear, two layers of fleece tops & bottoms, snow pants, the big red parka, a wool hat and mittens. Thusly dressed, I slept in a sleeping bag which was inside a fleece sleeve, all of which was inside a mountain tent. Despite all this protection, I was still cold and woke up with frost all over my sleeping bag!

Once we all woke up and had something to eat and drink, we took down camp and waited for the instructors to pick us up. After more instruction on safety as well as radio use, we broke into two groups and had to handle two scenarios. In the first scenario, a fellow camper has been lost in a blinding snowstorm and we must use a rope to find him, using buckets on our heads to simulate zero visibility. In the second scenario, our plane has crashed and we must deal with injuries, establishing shelter, and radioing for help.


Overall a very fun and interesting experience! But it was a welcome sight when the Deltas came to pick us up…

Sea Ice Training

At 9am today (Saturday, October 11) we reported for Sea Ice Training. The purpose of this training is to teach us how to safely travel on the sea ice, including visually "reading" the surface, testing the thickness of the ice with drills to determine if cracks are safe to traverse, and how to use hand drills to create survival shelter anchorage points. Another overall goal of the training was to travel around the area and help us get oriented to our new environment.

After an hour of classroom training, we got dressed in our extreme cold weather gear and loaded into an ice vehicle called a Hagglunds for the trip out on the ice:



This trip was our first good view of the sea ice and surrounding mountains. The view was breathtaking! The shot below is of a cloud-shrouded Mt. Erebus - our local active volcano:



This next one is Mt. Discovery - a dormant volcano across the sound:



Here is a large ice cliff where the base of Mt. Erebus meets the sea ice:

Next is a group of seals lounging around a crack in the ice in front of Barne Glacier:

Our first stop was next to a frozen-over crack in the sea ice so we could learn how to use ice drills and measuring equipment to determine the depth of the sea ice and whether the crack is safe to traverse:

After this, we stopped by an iceberg locked in the sea ice and got close to it. We also had good practice using a bamboo pole to probe for hidden crevasses, of which there were several:

While we were out doing this, high winds blew in and substantially reduced visibility:


Overall, an amazing experience! That night we went to one of the station's bars to mix and mingle. It was quite strange to leave the bar around midnight and find it still light out!

Made it!

We finally made it to Antarctica. We boarded the C-17 this morning around 12:15 and left Christchurch around 1am. There were about 120 of us on the plane plus a few pallets of cargo.

The total flight time was about 5 hours, and about 4 1/2 hours into the flight, this is what we could see out one of the two windows - our first sight of Antarctica:

Here is a shot of us unloading on the sea ice runway. The idea of landing a huge jet like this on floating sea ice takes a bit of getting used to...

Our first day was a full one: attending a few orientations, unpacking and setting up our lab, and getting settled into our dorm room.

Tomorrow we have a full day of sea ice training!

Doh!

Sooo close!

We were in the van which was to take us to the airfield, the driver was just closing the door, when we heard the words "flight cancelled" over the van's radio. A few more inquiries confirmed that our flight had indeed been cancelled. It's now rescheduled for a 1AM departure in a little over a day. Sigh.

Meanwhile, here are a few pictures from around Christchurch:

Getting closer!

One flight was sent last night and it just turned around and is coming back ("boomeranging") due to bad weather at McMurdo. That must suck: sitting in a loud, cold military transport for 12 hours only to end up back where you started! Our flight is still scheduled to depart Christchurch at 3pm and hopefully we'll make it in.

Progress!

The weather at McMurdo has finally improved and the first flight went out this morning at 6am and should be landing any time now. Our flight is still scheduled for tomorrow afternoon - let's hope the weather holds!

Still waiting...

Our group is on the manifest for the third flight to McMurdo, but the flights are still on weather hold. So we wait...

Meanwhile, I had a delightful time with friends Brad and Sue in Christchurch yesterday and last night. We drove out to the coast yesterday and went for a walk with one of their friends, during which we witnessed a windsurfer get into trouble out at sea requiring rescue boats to be dispatched. We had a great dinner at another friend's house last night and great conversations.

Unfortunately, the weather in Christchurch turned from sunny and warm to cold and dreary: perfect conditions for lying in bed and reading...

Still waiting

It's Saturday morning and once again the weather is still too bad at McMurdo to send a flight. The latest word is that Monday is the next likely opportunity. So I will go hang out with some friends here in Christchurch and the rest of the SCINI team has gone off to do whitewater rafting.

In New Zealand

We just arrived in Christchurch, NZ and will be issued our extreme-cold-weather gear in about an hour.

Unfortunately, we also found out that due to nasty weather at McMurdo Station, no flights have been able to land there, and we'll be delayed in Christchurch for a few days. Oh well - an opportunity to do some sightseeing!

It begins...

It is 1:20am on departure day. The van arrives to pick me up in 12 hours, so I should probably pack. Now I'm starting to get excited about this adventure... :-)