Dawn in Antarctica

(Written Nov 1, posted Nov 5) The weather has still been warm, with only a few days with substantial wind. Last night had the strongest winds. For the previous couple of days, we had some internet access, but I didn’t take advantage of it. I was planning to do so today, but the wind seems to have misaligned one of the repeaters or there is another problem, and we don’t have access today. All has been going well in camp. Dale, Ian, and Tyler are diving regularly, collecting samples, taking photos and video, measuring light levels, measuring O2 levels, etc. Alfonso has been taking ice cores as well as studying the photosynthetic behavior of bacteria growing in and under rocks. Stephen has been helping with the diving and coring as well as maintaining a time lapse photo system and two meteorology stations. I’ve focused mostly on trying to understand microbialites by dissecting them. Small pinnacles from 8.5 m water depth were first submerged by water in the early 1990’s. They sh...

(Written Oct 23) I’ve been at Lake Joyce for a week now. We’ve set up all our tents and melted a dive hole. The science gear is unpacked and being used on the first samples! All had gone very smoothly, and we are way ahead of schedule. And the mats are recovering and precipitating calcite! Here’s an abbreviated description of week 1: Steve and I arrived into camp last on Saturday, and the weather was beautiful - bright sun and no wind. It was warm! Megan (from the BFC) had already set up my tent, so I just had to move in. The cook tent, the toilet tent, and the land-based science tent were also already up. Everything looked great. Over the next two days, Megan and Leah (BFC) assembled the floors for the tents we put on it ice, one for dive gear and one for science. They put up the tents with a bit of help from us. The rest of us sorted gear out and got things organized. Evenings were lots of fun with Megan and Leah and always included lots of laughter. They flew back to M...

All our cargo is down at Helo, I have 3 loaves of fresh bread, and all our personal gear is packed. Tyler and Leah (from the BFC) fly out at 11:15, and Steve and I fly out at 11:35, more or less. Thus, this is my last post for some time. If we get internet, I’ll be back. If not, I’ll send some posts out on CD with helo pilots that will be passed on to someone at the BFC who will e-mail files to my dad who will post them... Don’t hold your breath!

Last year, I didn’t notice the moon at all. In the last week, I’ve watched the moon go from a thin crescent to a fat half moon. It follows the sun around the sky, making a circle around me. Each day it is lower in the sky. I presume it sets farther north than the sun and rises farther north as well, although I haven’t been up to see either the moon set or the moon rise. Each day, it should be in the sky for less time. As it gets close to full, it should be below the horizon all day since it will be on the opposite side of the earth from the sun, and the sun will be up all day. The moon is always beautiful. Our last sunset is Oct. 23.

The baked goods at McMurdo are excellent. There is freshly baked bread of various types. (Pumpernickel is my favorite so far, although the rye last night was particularly good, too.) The cakes and pies are delicious. (Hazelnut pear tarts are excellent.) Scones are tasty any time of day. And Wednesday is cookie day! I think there were a dozen different types. The leftovers appear the next day, but they don’t last too long. I wonder how many dozens of cookies are made for Wednesdays. One of the advantages of having given a popular science lecture is that people appreciate it, including Jenna the baker. I ran into her in the hall, and she wanted to know where Lake Joyce was since it isn’t labeled on most maps. I showed her and her friend. Jenna then offered to join us at camp to bake for us. We can’t take her up on that, but I did find out how to request fresh bread before heading out into the field. I arranged for three loaves, which I’ll pick up tomorrow morning before f...

At dinner, I sat next to Barry, the helo pilot who flew Dale, Megan, and Rebekah into Lake Joyce this morning.  He said they got in fine, but when he tried to fly in a sling load of 100 lb propane tanks, he couldn’t make it.  A katabatic wind was blowing off the Taylor Glacier down Taylor Valley so strongly that he started dropping every time he tried to fly over the toe of the glacier.  The sling load was heavy and caught too much wind.  When Barry lost too much lift, he turned back down the valley over Lake Bonney, stabilized the load, and tried again.  Twice.  "Three strikes and you’re out," so he took the propane back to Marble Point.   This is a satellite view of the area.  Taylor Valley is the brown (dry) valley a bit left of the middle of the image.  Barry was flying from Marble Point, to the north, down the valley to get to our camp.  The winds were (are?) blowing very strongly off the ice cap to the south a...

Here are the white boxes full of science gear, waiting for a lift down to the helo pad: And boxes and bags of science gear in our lab waiting for us to haul them down to helo tomorrow: