Impossibly Beautiful - More Information
Yesterday, I couldn't figure out what to say about my day on the ice. I had too many feelings, impressions, and thoughts to express in words. Thus, I just posted some photos for you to enjoy. They are beautiful on their own, but there is also an interesting story behind each one. Now, I'd like to explain a bit about them and add a few more.
A second possible cause for the serrations is the details of stress fractures in the ice. We went into one of these fractures, which created a cave. Sometimes sea water is exposed in these caves, but the crack was frozen when we went in and snow had drifted into it. The crack is along the right wall in my photo.
When water freezes from liquid form, it tends to create stalactites (icicles) and stalagmites. When it freezes from vapor, it forms lace. Some of these vapor crystals look like snow flakes, others are skeletal hexagonal crystals, others are thin rods. All of them are gorgeous.
This photo is taken out the windshield of the Hagglund "Moonraker", which is officially known by it's number: 007.
Four people rode in the front and six in the back. Matt, our instructor, drove. The rest of us rotated between the front and the back.
The large bags in the back are survival kits. I don't know what's in them yet, but I do know that you don't leave McMurdo without them. If the weather changes and you get stuck out, you'll need them.
The other interesting thing about that first photo is the road. It is directly on the sea ice, and here, it is just an area that has been checked for basic safety. It's marked with red and green flags. Even though it is basically safe, you still have to watch carefully for hazards, particularly cracks, which we were out there to learn about. The second photo in yesterday's blog shows a large crack:
The next photo is a view of the land from the sea ice. The wispy white is snow blowing over the crests of the mountains. Sunlight forms the sparkles, and snow drifts dot the foreground. The drifts are very similar to sand dunes, with the shapes of barchan dunes and the same style of lamination. With the shifting clouds and gusting winds, these landscapes are constantly changing.
I think the serrations on the edges of the tongue are shaped by the wind, but I don't know this for sure. My photos from yesterday were near one of the serrations on the north side.
Wind was definitely carving them when we were out there. The middle of the second photo looks blurry because so much snow was blowing around. It's my second favorite photo so far.
The other interesting thing about that first photo is the road. It is directly on the sea ice, and here, it is just an area that has been checked for basic safety. It's marked with red and green flags. Even though it is basically safe, you still have to watch carefully for hazards, particularly cracks, which we were out there to learn about. The second photo in yesterday's blog shows a large crack:
Yesterday's wind blew all the snow off the older blue sea ice, but left snow in the crack because the ice filling the crack is lower. (I'll write another blog about sea ice cracks, so I won't describe why here.) This crack is about 1.5 meters wide, so when it first formed, a whole vehicle could have fallen into it. And vehicles sometimes do if the drivers aren't careful enough. This crack is filled with thick ice that Matt had characterized the day before we were out, so we didn't drill it on our trip. We looked at other cracks.
The next photo is a view of the land from the sea ice. The wispy white is snow blowing over the crests of the mountains. Sunlight forms the sparkles, and snow drifts dot the foreground. The drifts are very similar to sand dunes, with the shapes of barchan dunes and the same style of lamination. With the shifting clouds and gusting winds, these landscapes are constantly changing.
The second photo is me appreciating variations on Inaccessible Island while playing with the wind. (Dale took it.) I was actually wearing enough clothes to be warm standing in the wind for more than 15 minutes. I was wearing (from inside to outside, bottom to top) three pairs of socks, insulated boots, underwear, wool long underwear bottoms, pile pants, pile and wind proof ski pants, insulated overalls (NSF issue), sports top, wool long underwear top, silk top, my pink pile wind proof sweater, pile hoodie, wind shirt, down parka (NSF issue), neck gaiter (NSF issue), striped wool hat, pile hood, hoodie hood, ski goggles, thin dense pile gloves, and insulated mittens with wind-proof covers. I still had another pair of mittens I could have put on, plus I didn't have all the hoods cinched down to keep the warm air in. I was cold before I put the ski pants, hoodie and wind shirt on. The pile of snow in the foreground is from us, digging out a crack to characterize it.
This piece of ice is a bit of sea ice that was pushed up in a pressure ridge sometime much earlier in the year, possibly when the sea ice was just reforming last fall. It's only about 30 cm long. To take this picture, I laid down on the ice and put my camera in the shadow of the ice. The sun is behind the piece of ice, so the light is coming through it. I knew exactly what I wanted for this picture, and it is my favorite so far.
I particularly like the way it looks like the ice is parting the clouds at its upper tip. The wind was blowing from right to left, as also seen in the shape of the snow holding up the bit of ice. This extra detail makes this version of the picture particularly special for me.
The next two pictures in yesterday's blog are of the Erebus Ice Tongue. The Erebus Glacier feeds into this area, and the ice from the glacier joins the sea ice, creating a long ridge of thicker ice. We went between the tongue and the largest black island (Tent Island) and around Tent Island counter clockwise. The long, thin island is Big Razorback with Little Razorback the small dot to the northeast. (North is to the upper left.) The other larger black island is Inaccessible Island.
(From Wikimedia Commons)
I think the serrations on the edges of the tongue are shaped by the wind, but I don't know this for sure. My photos from yesterday were near one of the serrations on the north side.
A second possible cause for the serrations is the details of stress fractures in the ice. We went into one of these fractures, which created a cave. Sometimes sea water is exposed in these caves, but the crack was frozen when we went in and snow had drifted into it. The crack is along the right wall in my photo.
They are very hard to photograph because it's all white on white on white. It would be interesting to go in with some good lights and spend a few hours learning how to photograph them.
I licked some of the crystals. They are very salty. They are growing from water vapor and possibly droplets from sea water cracks. The salts from the sea water are transported with the water, so the water in "vapor" form must actually be bound to other ions. I've always assumed that water transported as vapor is mostly pure water, but now I'm wondering if it is actually groups of ions. I also wonder how the forms of the ice crystals are influenced by the extra salts. Do the different crystal shapes have different salt contents? Or are the shapes mostly controlled by temperature and humidity, as I've assumed before? These are interesting questions.
Finding the science in the beautiful makes me appreciate the beauty even more.
