# Adventures in Antarctica



## Warehouse23 (Sep 15, 2006)

In response to the requests in CarlZog's RI gameday thread, here is, at long last, a thread dedicated to my research in Antarctica (for which I'll be heading south again to continue from October 20 through January). 

A little background about me-- I am a third year PhD student at Brown University in the department of geological science, planetary group. I'm a little scatter-brained at the moment (quals on Tuesday!), so feel free to ask lots of questions if my explanations aren't clear. 

I study an area called the Antarctic Dry Valleys, which are part of the 0.3% of the continent which is not covered in ice sheets (basically, the mountains keep the ice back). Rather, the valleys are floored with small, debris-covered glaciers, and landslide detritus. Antarctica is a cold desert (in fact, as continents go, it is the highest, driest, coldest, windiest continent on Earth), which means that many of the landforms present there can be studied as analogs to features observed on Mars. In particular, I study thermal contraction crack polygons (the snow-filled troughs that make the valley floors look like bathroom tiles in some of the air photos), which are also observed on Mars. 

LINKS: (Here are some links to photos, maps, and papers about my field site)

http://www.soils.wisc.edu/antarcticConf/images/Beacon Valley2.jpg
Nice panoramic view of Beacon Valley.

http://archive.digitalglobe.com/archive/showBrowse.php?catID=10100100029E0E03
Satelite map of Beacon Valley and environs (Beacon is the large valley all the little ones are feeding into).

http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/atrs/web_photos/dryvals/beacon_polygons.jpg
http://wmthemes.jessanderson.org/sht/beacon_valley_tn.jpg
Thermal contraction crack polygons in Beacon Valley. 

http://www.mcmlter.org/images/pictures/meteorology/beacon_met.jpg
A meteorological station in Beacon Valley used to monitor global climate change. 

http://journals.cambridge.org/actio...921&jid=ANS&volumeId=18&issueId=03&aid=466920
A pdf of a paper I wrote for the journal Antarctic Science summarizing observations from the 2004-5 field season. 

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2003/07/19/2003.07.19.M1900047.jpg
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/11_15_99_polygons/moc2_msss_southpoly100.gif
Patterned ground on Mars


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## Varianor Abroad (Sep 16, 2006)

Very cool stuff! (Gives me some ideas for games too.) Thanks for the explanation and the photos.


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## sydbar (Sep 16, 2006)

Some interesting stuff there, but i'm interested in geology, so that kind of stuff is interesting to me.


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## guedo79 (Sep 17, 2006)

Will you be going through the Stratton Air base?  My parents live by there and we hear of flights to Antarctica all the time.  I wasn't sure how many flights like that are made in the northeast that don't go through the air base.


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## werk (Sep 18, 2006)

I had a friend that spent a couple seasons at McMurdo (sp?) Station doing general support stuff.  She also studied at the bio sphere and likes to get away every now and then.  She said it was a great experience, but she drank too much/too often and now has a deathly fear of static electricity.

I have a lot of pictures with her surrounded by penguins.


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## Warehouse23 (Sep 18, 2006)

McMurdo is the main US base on the continent and is a funny cross between mining town (all the heavy support equipment moves through it) and college town (most of the science staff on the continent has lab space there, and field parties move through Mac-town. Add on to that dorm living and communal dining in the galley, and it's back to college sometimes!). 

Little known fact about McMurdo: there are three bars at McMurdo--a smoking bar (think biker bar on the ice), a trendy bar, and a wine/liquer/coffee bar (the former officer's club). 

The only penguins in the Dry Valleys where I work are mumified penguin remains of a little Adelie penguins who treked close to 100 km inland, over glaciers and crevasses, in a vain attempt to start a new colony.


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## GlassJaw (Sep 20, 2006)

If you found some dormant Elder Gods in the ice, I bet that would make a good topic for a paper.


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## Barendd Nobeard (Sep 20, 2006)

If not, I at least hope you'll run a Call of Cthulhu "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" campaign while you're there.


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## Piratecat (Sep 20, 2006)

What should the temperature be like during the months that you're camping out there?


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## werk (Sep 20, 2006)

Warehouse23 said:
			
		

> The only penguins in the Dry Valleys where I work are mumified penguin remains of a little Adelie penguins who treked close to 100 km inland, over glaciers and crevasses, in a vain attempt to start a new colony.




I don't want pictures of that...


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## Warehouse23 (Sep 22, 2006)

guedo79 -- Most science staff fly commercial flights from their home cities to Christchurch, NZ. The US Air National Guard (of NY) and the NZ air force handle flights down to the ice--either in C-130 cargo planes (a solid 8 hour trip, crammed in knee-to-knee with your compatriots and surrounded by shaking boxes of produce) or a more modern jet cargo plane (I want to say C-4, but not the plastique kind), which is a 4-6 hour flight, and is rather like spending the afternoon in a spacious, humming warehouse. 

Piratecat-- In the dry valleys, temperatures range from about -20*C to right around 0*C during the peak of summer. It feels wicked cold, wicked quickly when the sun dips behind a valley wall, and wind-chill is a pain (60 mph or faster katabatic winds drain into the valleys on a nearly daily basis). Truth be told, though, the coldest I felt there last field season was when cold, wet air (e.g., blizzards) blew in from the coast. Most of the time it's cold, but it's a dry cold, which is less sapping. Field researchers adapt to the cold by working hard, keeping moving, and eating lots of chocolate and hot tang.


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## Xyanthon (Sep 22, 2006)

Warehouse23,

Very cool stuff.  I had a friend in the Washington State Air Guard who would go down there in the summer (Antarctic summer) to work on their networks.  I was in the Washington Air Guard and well and was a network tech and I must say, very envious of what he did.  Thanks for the links to the pics!


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## Angel Tarragon (Sep 22, 2006)

Most excellent resources. I fully intend to plunder them!


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## Varianor Abroad (Sep 23, 2006)

hot..._tang_....

Tang, Instant Frozen Breakfast Drink?


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## Piratecat (Sep 23, 2006)

Warehouse23 said:
			
		

> Piratecat-- In the dry valleys, temperatures range from about -20*C to right around 0*C during the peak of summer. It feels wicked cold, wicked quickly when the sun dips behind a valley wall, and wind-chill is a pain (60 mph or faster katabatic winds drain into the valleys on a nearly daily basis).... Field researchers adapt to the cold by working hard, keeping moving, and eating lots of chocolate and hot tang.



When I suffer for my job, it generally involves having to play a bad video game for an hour or two.

You, my friend, are dedicated. Some day you can tell your grandchildren about this if you haven't frozen off your ghoolies.


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## Warehouse23 (Sep 24, 2006)

Aye--Tang. Developed by NASA, prefered by janitors (turns out it works about as well as Comet on persistant stains). It does a pretty good job of holding off scurvey, too, which is less of a problem these days (particularly with fortified foodstuffs).


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## kirinke (Sep 24, 2006)

I heard somewhere that eating like a pound of butter keeps you warm for some reason in that kind of severe cold.


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## Warehouse23 (Sep 25, 2006)

Basically, to stay warm on the ice, you need calories, fat, and some protien for muscle growth and repair (digging sample pits and wrassling ice cores is hard work!). Although sugar will keep you going in a pinch (early explorers kept themselves going with cocaine tablets for long forced marches--but greatly preferred daily sugar cube rations to hourly "pep pills"), one of the big discoveries of polar exploration was the need for a relatively high-fat diet to keep body temperature up.


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## Joshua Randall (Sep 27, 2006)

GlassJaw said:
			
		

> If you found some dormant Elder Gods in the ice, I bet that would make a good topic for a paper.



Damn, someone beat me too it. 

You should also watch out for shape-shifting Things. I wouldn't trust any of the sled dogs, if I were you.


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## Warehouse23 (Oct 19, 2006)

Hi All-- Sorry for the hiatus, but life has been very busy in the lead up to the field season. I'm leaving the USA tomorrow for Christchurch, New Zealand, which is the jumping off point for the Ross Ice Sheet (McMurdo Station) side of Antarctica. With some luck, all the flights will connect and all of the equipment we are bringing will arrive intact. 

The first stop is the US Antarctic Program (USAP) Antarctic Center, where the team will pick up our extreme cold weather gear (ECWs). 

Deconstructed, the full cold weather uniform looks like this:

http://www.sethwhite.org/images/trips/trip to antarctica/extreme cold weather gear.jpg

All the gear lives in a giant warehouse, with hangar-like dressing rooms:

http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Feb02/cdcjackets.jpg

After trying on each glove, each sock, each hat, etc. we'll wait for our flight down to the ice--with some luck aboard a snazzy new USAF Reserve (New York's finest) C-5 Galaxy:

http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/c5/images/C-5Galaxy_3.jpg

If the flight does not get canned mid-way through due to bad weather at McMurdo, I'll be down to the ice about 4-6 hours after leaving. 

You can follow weather in "Mac Town" here:

http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/89664.html

I'll post again from McMurdo. 

Joe


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## Piratecat (Oct 23, 2006)

He must be there now - and it's a balmy 8 degrees!


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## Hypersmurf (Oct 23, 2006)

We're looking at a quick jaunt to Fiji in January as a relax-and-unwind, but while coming to the decision, we flicked past a site that runs a cruise down to Antarctica - whale-watching, penguin colonies, Titanic reenactments (well, not really), and so on.

Sounded fantastic... we just can't really afford the $12k-25k NZD per peron...


-Hyp.

Edit - _person_!  Per person!

Whew - Evita jokes narrowly avoided...


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## Warehouse23 (Oct 24, 2006)

Howdy All! Greetings from the Ice! Indeed, we've had some beautiful weather here the past two days--cold, clear, and slightly breezy (my nose was the very first part of me to remember what it's like here--chilly!). Unless there's a Poley (South Pole Station personnel) somewhere on these boards I don't know about (but would love to), I think this may be the southernmost post ever made to EN World. 

Arrival at McMurdo station is a whirlwind of briefings, meetings, training (Survival Training Overnight == "Happy Camper School"), reunions with old friends, and exploration of old haunts. When I've not been in meetings, or doing my best to put on body mass in the well-stocked galley here, I've been hard at work preparing my group's meterology sensors which we will deploy during the season to better quanitify the physical conditions under which the landscape here is evolving and changing. Odds are I'll be in town until at least Monday or Tuesday of next week--so feel free to ask lots of questions before now and then. After I hop a helicopter to Beacon Valley, I probably will be off-grid (and off-indoor plumbing) until at least Janurary 15). 

I hope all is well back in the warmer parts of the world! If someone would mail me mid-term election results, it would help me formulate a decision as to whether or not I'd like to apply to winter-over (and maybe take up residency down here). : -)

PS-- I've got a bunch of photos from arrival I'll try to post after supper or tomorrow.


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## Warehouse23 (Oct 25, 2006)

Sorry about the lack of arrival photos--I've had some trouble connecting to the network here and have been up to my ears in work and briefings (on the agenda for this morning: "Waste Management at -20*" and "Comms--How Not to Sound Like a Trucker on the Radio."

In the interim, he's a shot of the view out of my workspace at the Crary Science Labs:

http://www.geokem.com/images/pix/G-Discov.jpg


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## Mark CMG (Oct 25, 2006)

Stay safe and warm, W23!


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## Warehouse23 (Oct 28, 2006)

Howdy All--

Pictures today! The first is proof that yours truly is in fact on the ice. It's a photo of me sitting on more than 300 man-days of packed food (at least the dried component--the frozen foods we pull on Monday) in the Berg Field Center--the staging area for all field equipment here in McMurdo. 

The second photo is an annotated view out the lab window here. You can see the approach to the ice runway, the Ross Ice Shelf (mis-labeled the Ross Ice Sheet), the Royal Society Range of mountains, and, a real treat, an Antarctic mirage (caused by super-warmed air, heated by the sun, rising off from above the cold ice, forming a lens out of thin air). 

The first photo, of course, leads to the question--what's on the menu? Breakfast consists of hot chocolate or hot powdered cider (two packets per person), instant oatmeal/cream-of-wheat/grits (two packets per person) mixed with some granola or grape nuts or dried fruit, and maybe some instant coffee. Our intrepid leader, Dr. David Marchant eats two tins of Dinty Moore beef stew for breakfast each morning, but he's more hardcore than the rest of us (and has a higher salt tolerance). Lunch is taken in the field and consists of peanut-butter and jelly (kept thawed by carrying it inside one's parka) on cabin-bread (a mega-saltine cracker, about the length and width of a playing card, and about 1/4 to 1/2" thick), beef jerky or meat sticks, a little gorp/trail mix, maybe a cookie, and a thermos of hot Tang or Raro. Returning from the field after a long day, we have a hot supper. The menu rotation includes: chili, burritos, stir-fry, spaghetti with sausage, "Thanksgiving Dinner" (tinned chicken or frozen chicken patties, stuffing, and instant mashies), and "Sheans Beef and Bean a roni" (which is new this year--if it's tasty, we'll toast Dave Shean--if it's gnarly, well.....). Dinner drinks include cocoa and a variety of teas, as well as water. We can thaw beer out on the camp stoves, and have been known to take a dessert of hot cocoa with a little disgestif mixed in. Throughout the day we munch on chocolate bars (ration: two per day per person), jerky, gorp, etc. to keep our energy up and stay warm. A solid day's work at any of our field activities can burn up to 6,000 calories--meaning no one goes to bed without seconds. It's a matter of survival. 

Looks like we'll be deploying to the field Wednesday. Hope folks are enjoying the posts!


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## sydbar (Oct 29, 2006)

I don't know about anyone else, but i find this extremely interesting, and informative.


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## Angel Tarragon (Oct 29, 2006)

Hypersmurf said:
			
		

> We're looking at a quick jaunt to Fiji in January as a relax-and-unwind, but while coming to the decision, we flicked past a site that runs a cruise down to Antarctica - whale-watching, penguin colonies....<snip>








I love peguins. And Otters.






I am seriously looking forward to seeing Happy Feet!


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## GlassJaw (Oct 29, 2006)

Great to see you made it Joe.  Thanks for the info on what's going on down there - I find it pretty amazing.  Sounds like you guys eat like kings too!  Although now I see why you need "Waste Management at -20*" after eating chili and burritos.    

Be safe on the ice and we'll kill some baddies for you at Carl's game day!


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## Warehouse23 (Oct 30, 2006)

It's been a busy day in the sky above McMurdo. The clear, crisp air must make for fine flying, as helos (helicopters) are buzzing about left and right, and the ice run-way is in constant motion with LC-130 cargo planes coming and going. 

Here's a link to an image of an LC-130 "Hercules" aircraft:

http://www.sarahandrews.net/antar_images/LC-130_2.jpg

We're scrambling down here to get the first field team (a tiny, mobile camp of two grad students) deployed tomorrow. The day after, my team (five of us, growing to six on Friday, and eight later next week) will be loading all of our gear into a Bell 212 "Huey" helo and making for Beacon Valley. 

Most of our gear is ready to fly, though, which means we had a little free time yesterday afternoon for some R&R (Sunday is the offical "off" day in McMurdo, else folks work six ten hour days a week, making a stint on the ice hard, but lucrative work). My team put on our ECW gear and headed to Observation Hill, an old, extinct cinder cone (volcanic feature) on the edge of McMurdo station. The wind was howling, and the trail was icy and steep, but we finally made the summit and were rewarded with spendid views of the Ross Ice Shelf, Scott Base (the New Zealand station on the other side of the hill from McMurdo), Mac Town itself, and of course, the mountains across the sound. 

I've included three photos today. The first is a view up the imposing face of "Ob Hill." These photos definitely fall into the category of images I can't show my parents (they very specifically said, "Do not go near the edge"--I fear the trail up Ob Hill counts as going near the edge). The second, On_Ob, is a view at the summit. You can see David Shean, our group leader and an old friend of mine, leaning into the wind, a wooden cross (which is a memorial to the victims of a helo crash a few years back), and some of the Royal Society Range mountains in the background. Finally, Mac_Town is a view looking back on base. 

With some luck, I'll be around to make one final posting tomorrow. Else, I'll be in touch some time in January if all goes well, and will pick the thread back up. Enjoy the Game Days between now and then, and stay warm this winter!

PS--If anyone is going to be somewhere warm, feel free to send me a post-card (which will be delivered by a resupply helo) at:

Joseph Levy
McMurdo Station
Project G-054
PSC 469 Box 800
APO AP 96599-1035

Because it's APO, postage is just like sending mail in the US.


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## Warehouse23 (Oct 31, 2006)

Howdy All!

Tomorrow at 0800 local, I'm off to the field for the season! All our gear has been staged down to Helo Ops (all 5,000 lbs or so of it), and is ready to load into the waiting helo fleet. 

I'm anxious, and exciting, and tired (it's been a long week preparing the gear), and a little over-whelmed--kind of like the feeling you get just before going home after a long absence. Going back to Beacon Valley feels like going home to me--to a valley I have come to know and love (I even have pictures of it on my office wall back at Brown--it's like a member of the family). Sure, there'll be stress, and lots of work, and worry, but in the end, I know that I've been waiting over a year to get back and tomorrow I'm finally going. 

Have a wonderful holiday season, everyone! Be well, be hale, be healthy, be happy! I'll post again when I'm back on station. 

cheers,

"Java" Joe (My Antarctic field nick-name)/WH23


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## Rodrigo Istalindir (Oct 31, 2006)

Good luck, and stay safe (and as warm as possible)!

Love the pictures -- there's something kinda scary at looking at all that wide-open space, but kinda neat, too.  Makes me feel the same way I did when I stood waist-deep in the surf in Hawaii looking out and realizing there was many thousands of miles between me and the rest of the world.


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## CarlZog (Nov 20, 2006)

So, I'm walking my dog around the neighborhood last night, thinking, "Boy, it's getting chilly!", when I pass Warehouse23's house, and am quickly reminded that he's in a tent at the south pole in about -20°F.....

Suddenly, I was quite comfortable.

Hang in there, Joe! Hope the trip's going well for you. I look forward to hearing the tales you'll bring back.

I'm guessing you won't be able to read this 'til you get back to McMurdo in January, but we missed you at the gameday.

Carl


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## Piratecat (Nov 23, 2006)




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## Mark CMG (Nov 27, 2006)

Nearly a month.  What's new at the bottom of the world?


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## CarlZog (Nov 27, 2006)

Mark CMG said:
			
		

> Nearly a month.  What's new at the bottom of the world?




We won't know for another month. As I understand it, he's "in the field" and out of internet access 'til January when he gets back to the base.

Carl


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## Aurora (Nov 27, 2006)

Piratecat said:
			
		

>



How did I miss this? This is freaking hilarious.


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## Mark CMG (Nov 28, 2006)

CarlZog said:
			
		

> We won't know for another month. As I understand it, he's "in the field" and out of internet access 'til January when he gets back to the base.
> 
> Carl





Ah, I see.  I didn't realize "the field" meant he'd be totally out of contact like that.  Thanks for clearing that up.  Do they still shuttle post cards along to him in the field or do those await him at base for his return?


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## CarlZog (Nov 28, 2006)

Mark CMG said:
			
		

> Ah, I see.  I didn't realize "the field" meant he'd be totally out of contact like that.  Thanks for clearing that up.  Do they still shuttle post cards along to him in the field or do those await him at base for his return?




If I recall, he said there is a resupply helicopter that makes occasional visits to the field.

Carl


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## Mark CMG (Dec 15, 2006)

I wonder if season's greetings would reach him quickly?


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## Warehouse23 (Jan 4, 2007)

Howdy All!

I just got back into McMurdo this afternoon, on the heels of what we politely refer to as a "katabatic wind event" down here (after three days of 40-50 knot winds, we had enough of a break today to get a helo in, load it up with about a ton of camp gear, climb aboard, and get the heck out of Dodge...er, Wright Valley). 

The grand total for the field season is 9 weeks (64 days) straight, without a shower, in a tent, on a glacier, at the bottom of the world (new personal furthest south this season-- 79 degrees south, 160 east, at the head of Friedman glacier). With some luck, I've brought back enough data for most of my thesis, and have sensors still out in the field which should be collected next winter, to provide the rest. 

Back in McMurdo, my team spent the afternoon packing all of our gear into short-term storage (of course, being a grunt, er, grad student, I get to take care of cleaning and returning all the equipment, packing the samples, and doing some lab work, while the PIs are back stateside). Then it was off to the dorms, to wash off the worst of the grime, and then to the galley, for a supper which included something which looked genuinely green and vegetative (first time I ever thought I'd be saying that as a good thing!).

Thank you for all the well-wishes and warm thoughts this season. Carl, I got your post-card the other day just before the storm hit. Seeing a picture of palm-trees while the whole tent shook and threatened to take off down valley was very soothing. 

I'll post more photos and stories in a bit, as soon as the heaviest of the packing is done, and there's more down time from lab work. 

Happy New Year, and more soon!


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## Warehouse23 (Jan 4, 2007)

Okay, I'd be remiss not to put in a photo or two!

The first is a "hero shot" of me in a cirque overlooking Taylor Glacier at the bottom of Beacon Valley. If a look a little under-dressed it's because I just climbed up a 300 m talus slope to reach the cirque and was a bit sweaty (see future posting). 

The second picture is a neat shot of Commonwealth glacier, with the Ross Sea in the background, taken from the helo on the way in to town this afternoon. It's one of my favorite glaciers in the Dry Valleys.


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## CarlZog (Jan 4, 2007)

Welcome back -- at least part of the way!

Congrats on what sounds like a successful trip.

Morbid curiosity compels me to ask: What was the coldest weather you saw?

I'm looking forward to hearing the tales, but I'm on a plane to Florida Monday, then working on a boat in the islands 'til March.

Catch up with you in the spring.

Carl


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## GlassJaw (Jan 4, 2007)

He lives!  Welcome back. 

Give me a holler when you are back in RI - it's game time!


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## awayfarer (Jan 4, 2007)

Give everyone a yell when you find the Mountains of Madness.


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## sydbar (Jan 4, 2007)

Welcome back from what sounds like an interesting time.


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## LightPhoenix (Jan 5, 2007)

Glad to hear you made it back safe!

Now I really want to go to Antarctica.  Does that make me insane?


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## Rodrigo Istalindir (Jan 5, 2007)

Welcome back!  Glad your trip was safe and successful.  I actually wondered how things were going when I was walking on the beach on Florida New Year's Eve and enjoying the balmy 80 degree temperature.


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## Warehouse23 (Jan 7, 2007)

Today was a day of rest for the team after finishing the scrub-down of the last of the tents. The ice-breaker is finally in port (we flew over it on the Ross Ice Shelf on the way in from camp), and in its wake (literally) the penguins and seals have returned to Hut Point (a ten minute walk from my dorm). After doing some wild-life watching (see obligatory penguin shot: "adelie"), Gareth and I trucked over to the sea ice below Scott Base for the annual McMurdo vs. Scott Base rugby match. After an intimidating "hakka" war dance from the
Kiwis (hakka.jpg) the game got started on a slightly reduced pitch, consisting of flagged snow on top of the shelf ice. It was a slippery field to play on, but lovely weather for a game (pitch.jpg).

The Kiwis schooled the Americans 20-0 after an hour of play, but a good time was had by all (minus the time had by one of our guys who got gouged in the eye pretty badly--the Kiwis play dirty). The Scott Base folks take the game very seriously and rolled out bleechers
(couches mounted on the back of a flat-bed, towed across the ice behind a Pisten-Bully tractor). The fire team is not allowed to leave the station, so the Kiwis had live VHF radio coverage, done play-by-play, for the unit. In contrast, the Americans basically sat
along the sidelines on their parkas and drank copious amounts of beer (the ice shelf does a nice job keeping it cold). It was a little bit surreal watching the match on the ice, in the shadow of Erebus, with the drone of the ice runway a click or two behind us but neat all the
same.


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## Warehouse23 (Jan 10, 2007)

Howdy All! I know it's double-dipping to do so, but I thought I'd post a bit that I wrote for an educational "blog" for gradeschoolers and K-12 teachers in RI I've been working on as part of my gig as a Rhode Island Space Grant Fellow. Some of this might look a little familiar, and if the tone seems a little funny, apologies. Think of it as edutainment.  

This will likely be my last post from the Ice for this season--the close of another chapter of my life in Antarctica. Even on the cusp of flying North tomorrow, and soon back to friends and family, I already am begining to miss this place. The mountains and valleys I lived in for the past nine weeks are blue and white and gold as I look at them across McMurdo Sound, and I'd like nothing more than to be on the helo I can hear idling on the helipad below the lab. Of course, now the real work begins--analyzing data and samples, and really making the most of the time I have been able to spend here. I have spent the last two and a half months learning to watch the sky and the wind to tell how tough it will be to survive another day. Challenging as it was to work and live down here, the bigger challenge looms ahead, writing up results, and convincing the world that there is an important environmental message written on the walls of the Dry Valleys. 

Thanks to everyone for letting me share my adventures, and I'm looking forward to winter/spring Game Days. See many of you soon!

cheers,

Joe

### 

December 14, 2006

Howdy All!

Greetings from the South Fork of Wright Valley, Antarctica (77.56388 S, 161.28250 E)! Today marks my forty-second consecutive day in field. Some members of our team are heading into McMurdo Station late tonight, and have been kind enough to carry this message in with them on the helo. [Note: Amazingly, right in the middle of the third paragraph of this post, we heard the low rumble of a helo approaching up-valley—three hours ahead of schedule. Due to thick weather gathering over McMurdo, the nice folks at Helo Ops (Helicopter Operations) decided to make a daring dash through snow and fog to pick up our team members from the various camps so they could redeploy north, off the Ice, the next day. Sadly, that means this post won’t make it out until January 5 at the earliest, when we are planning on breaking camp and heading back to town.]

It’s been an exciting month and a half. November was spent in Beacon Valley (77.86349 S, 160.59129 E), an extremely cold, arid, and high valley at the far edge of the McMurdo Dry Valleys. We hit temperatures of –24 degrees C during the coldest of the nights. Of course, the sun never really sets in polar regions during the summer, but the sun remains low in the sky much of the day, meaning it is obscured behind the valley walls for a portion of each day. With careful planning we were able to place our camp in one of the shadows between ten in the evening and about seven in the morning—a good time to be asleep, wrapped up in a sleeping bag, fleece liner, thermals, mittens, thick socks, and a wool “sleep cap.” Besides the cold, the winds were constant during the latter part of the month. High pressure air masses over the polar plateau and the coast kept winds blowing back and forth, up, and down the valley—sloshing back and forth once or twice each day. The weather is extreme, but beautiful as well. The air in the valley is so clean that you can’t see vapor when you exhale, despite the cold (there is no dust, pollen, or pollution for the water vapor to condense on, which makes your breath visible in winter in populated areas). As a result, there’s no visual cue that it’s mighty cold out!

Working and living in the cold makes me think about what it is like for astronauts working in space, on the Moon, or (in the future) on Mars. Left in just normal clothes, a person would not be able to survive in the extreme cold and winds in Beacon Valley—people are just not normally functional at such temperatures. Faced with such a harsh environment, we have two options for adapting to the cold—change our environment, or change ourselves. 

The first approach is to bring our own small environment with us—in the form of a thick parka (affectionately called “Big Red” for it’s bright, easy-to-spot color), hats, wind-proof trousers, thick gloves, and air-insulated boots (called “Bunny Boots” for their bright white color and oversized shape)—gear which is bulky, like a space-suit, but no less vital to exploration. We also all wear sunglasses or snow goggles, to prevent snow-blindness (a sun-burn of the inner eye), as well as to protect our eyes from ultraviolet (UV) light (this year NASA satellites have detected the largest ozone hole on record over the Antarctic—unfortunate, because Wearing all these layers, I can keep the air nearest my body at a comfortable temperature, even in the worst weather. 

The second approach is  to adapt ourselves to the environment. Doing physically demanding work (digging excavations to sample the subsurface, pulling up many meters of ice-coring drill tube, or even just hiking over rugged, rocky ground) can quickly raise a person’s body temperature to the point that they would begin sweating profusely under the thick layers worn while at rest. By eating a very fat- and calorie-rich diet, we can fuel our bodies to be able to warm themselves to a comfortable temperature, even in very cold weather. It is not uncommon for members of the team to shed layers down to boots, a base layer, over-alls, and a hat while digging or hiking up steep terrain. The lesson learned from this experience is that there is no reason to ever be cold in Antarctica. Whenever I feel chilly, I just have to have a nibble of chocolate, add on a layer or two, and start moving. In no time, I am able to warm up to a comfortable temperature. This kind of reminds me of astronauts on the International Space Station and on shuttle missions exercising on stationary bicycles and treadmills to maintain muscle tone and bone mass (which can be depleted in a micro-gravity environment): humans physically adapting their behavior to meet the challenges of an extreme environment. 

At the start of December, a small group (four of us) took off for a satellite camp here in the near-by Wright Valley: about a degree east and half a degree north of Beacon Valley. The weather here is considerably warmer—to the extent that I’m down to a tee-shirt, over-alls, and a baseball cap (although we’ve had a couple of days of snow, which have put a damper on this Antarctic “beach weather”). The science here is just as exciting as in Beacon. We are putting sensors in all over the valley to monitor conditions in the atmosphere, surface, and sub-surface. We are using satellite images and air photographs to plan our traverses and sampling locations, in much the same way that remote observations of the Moon were used to plan the surface operations of the Apollo program. 

That’s all for the moment. I need to get on the radio to make contact with the main camp back in Beacon Valley. More later! 

January 11, 2007

Greetings once again from McMurdo! It’s been a busy week since the team pulled in from the field, but I thought it would be fun to add one last post from the Ice. 

The holiday season was busy in the field, with team members moving from camp to camp to finish off last minute projects involved with ice core drilling and using a seismic survey to find out the depth of ice on which we have been living for the past few months. Weather turned out to be our biggest opponent once again (although the snow was lovely—big fluffy flakes being driven on the wind). Thick weather in summer (snow-fall, clouds, and high winds) may be an early indication of a changing climate in Antarctica. Many people wonder how global warming could produce more snow-fall in Antarctica (after all, that sounds like global cooling). One possible answer is that as the environment warms, Ross Ice Shelf (a thick slab of floating ice which lies between the Dry Valleys and the Southern Ocean) is reduced in size, meaning the liquid ocean lies closer to the Dry Valleys than it used to (You can think of the edge of the ice-shelf as being kind of like a shore or beach, although you wouldn’t want to swim there, as the ice-shelf ends in a cliff of ice above water which is about ready to freeze). With less distance between the open ocean and the valleys, wet air can be more easily carried inland on the winds. When the wet air from the coast meets the cold air from the polar plateau, we get snow in the valleys. Living in a changing climate zone has really brought the effects of global warming close to home for me.

One funny thing about the snow storms is that the clouds form very low in Beacon Valley (actually, Beacon Valley is quite high up—close to 1.5 km, or 5,000 feet above sea level). The clouds form at a common altitude, which produces a most unusual effect (see clouds.jpg)—rather like living in a photograph which has had the upper part torn off! After the storms, the weather was unsettled, although very lovely (unsettled.jpg).

Beyond the snow, winds were a big problem back in Wright Valley. With the stormy weather coming in from the coast, we experienced the first “katabatic” wind storm of the season. Katabatic is Greek for “moving downhill,” which is exactly what these winds do. When the air on the polar plateau cools off rapidly, it becomes very dense. Given a slight push (say, from a storm on the coast), this air starts to move down-hill under the pull of gravity, going faster and faster as it falls from the polar plateau towards the sea. (If you’ve ever seen a hanging roll of paper towels or toilet paper unravel catastrophically, the process is similar. As more paper falls off the roll, it tugs at the remaining paper on the roll, which spins faster and faster, until the whole roll is unraveled and you have a big mess) The Dry Valleys are the pipe through which these winds move—a direct line between the polar plateau and the sea. 

When the katabatics come, camp battens down and prepares for an exciting time. We pile extra stones on the tents to keep them on the ground, and add extra stakes to reinforce our tent ropes. Everything that could blow away (even big, heavy objects like coolers of food and solar panels) gets tied down, or weighted down with rocks. The winds come in bursts, which howl past at more than 30-40 miles per hour, shaking the tents like an enormous train is rushing by. Thankfully, our preparations paid off, and nothing was lost, although it was a very loud three days during the duration of the storm. 

We took off, ending the field season, just after the wind-storm. Flying back to McMurdo base, we could see two ice-breaking ships working along the coast. They are breaking a channel in from the open water, through the ice, to McMurdo, so that a cargo ship can arrive next month with all the food and fuel for next year. The boat then picks up all the trash produced at the station (and at the South Pole), and removes it from the continent. Everyone is excited when the ice-breakers come, as it means open water extends right up to the base. This means all the living things which live along the Antarctic coast can come in to visit the station. So far dozens of seals have come in to take a peek at what the ships are up to, and close to a hundred Adelie penguins have made a social call to Hut Point (near McMurdo) (adelie.jpg). Seeing wild-life is exciting down here, but really underscores the need to keep the continent as pristine as possible. Antarctica is their home, and we are just visitors. 

That’s all for now, I think. There’s a busy day of last minute work to be done here, before packing and cleaning can begin. If the weather holds, I’ll be flying north to New Zealand tomorrow and will arrive in time to see my first sunset in almost three months. It will be good to be back home, but I can’t wait to return to this wild, cold, beautiful place. 

Thanks for reading!

Joseph Levy


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## qstor (Feb 5, 2007)

Barendd Nobeard said:
			
		

> If not, I at least hope you'll run a Call of Cthulhu "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" campaign while you're there.




And kill all the players too   

Chtulhu Fhtagn!

How cold did it get btw? I remember hearing that in part of one of Jack London's stories, IIRC he said it can get so cold that if you spit it freezes in mid air. It was -2 F this morning here and that was pretty darn cold if you ask me. I like downhill skiing but I was dressed for the office not skiing 

Mike


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## Piratecat (Feb 6, 2007)

Joe, when do you get back to RI?


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## GlassJaw (Feb 6, 2007)

Piratecat said:
			
		

> Joe, when do you get back to RI?




He's been back for a couple of weeks.


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## Warehouse23 (Feb 6, 2007)

Howdy All--

Aye, I've been back in town since the end of January. Been doing the whole re-entry thing:

* Cars: they're everywhere...they move very fast.
* Cell phones: don't do the annoying radio crackle thing, but the beep. Lord, they beep.
* The stove: doesn't require priming or the creation of a fireball, but somehow food just doesn't taste as good on it.
* Fruit and Vegetables: Okay, maybe New England winter was not the right time to come back and expect a bounty of produce.
* My cat: has the good sense to wear his parka all the time, and nap most of the day. 

As for Antarctic-themed gaming...I'm working on it. Got a couple of ideas... <display:evilDMgrin>


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## GlassJaw (Feb 6, 2007)

Warehouse23 said:
			
		

> As for Antarctic-themed gaming...I'm working on it. Got a couple of ideas... <display:evilDMgrin>




Heh, nice.  I can let you borrow some Cthulhu stuff if you need it...  

By the way, there won't be any Antarctica-type weather in my Conan game.  It's pretty balmy in the Black Kingdoms this time of year.


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## Mark CMG (Mar 30, 2007)

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=84419


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