...and two years later, one of my post ice projects

This video was created as a result of my ARISE project proposal, to show the science of ANDRILL through artistic expression. I hope you enjoy it.

The Mackay Sea Valley Survey

At long last, I made my way out to the deep field camp of Granite Harbor for the geophysical survey of the Mackay Sea Valley. Granite Harbor is a small bay in the Ross Sea, nestled along the old granite cliffs that form the basement rocks of the Central Transantarctic Mountains. The setting is quite breathtaking! The Mackay Glacier is a large glacier which terminates in the Ross Sea. In past years, when the ice sheet was larger, the Mackay Glacier carved out a deep trough on the continental shelf. In subsequent years, as the climate warmed, this trough became an area where deep packages of marine sediments accumulated. Those marine sediments are the reason for this site survey.


The Ross Sea in this area is still frozen over – so our camp is built on frozen sea ice, approximately 2 meters thick. As we look out toward the sea, there is solid ice as far as the eye can see – with old icebergs from last year, or perhaps older, embedded in the sea ice.
They are quite monumental – standing sometimes hundreds of feet up above the ice surface and can be seen for many miles away. As the sun moves across the sky during the day, the illumination of the icebergs is constantly changing from bright white to deep blue to gray – to every shade in between.

Our deep field camp consists of 11 people. 7 Scott tents, 2 Rac tents, 2 snowmobiles, and 2 Pisten Bullys (oversnow vehicles).
The Scott tents are for sleeping, 2 per tent, and the Rac Tents are for eating and for science. The Rac tents have heat and generators for recharging electronics. It is remarkably comfortable and “cushy” in this remote camp!

Why are we here? We are in Granite Harbor to conduct a seismic survey of the seafloor and the rocks below the seafloor which accumulated in this large trough carved by the Mackay Glacier. Under the leadership of Dr. Ross Powell, of Northern Illinois University, we are working to get a picture of the rocks below the seabed where thick accumulations of Holocene (the past 7,000 years) sediments are located. These sediments are of interest because they can tell us information about what the climate has been like in this part of Antarctica for the past 7,000 years, and how it compares to the climate seen in atmospheric records and marine geological records for other parts of Antarctica during the same time period. The seismic survey will not drill for rocks, but will provide information for future drilling projects about where the sediments are located and where a future drill hole should be placed.

Seismic surveys operate using a sound blast, made by an airgun, which is set off below the ice. We drill a hole through the sea ice so that we can place the airgun, which is on a cable, down 8 meters in the water. We have a 1.5 kilometer long streamer that is dragged on the ice, behind the piston bully that carries the laboratory with all of the seismic recording devices. The streamer contains 60 geophones that record the sound waves after they have traveled out of their air gun, and traveled down through the different layers of rock on and below the sea floor, and been reflected back up. Different types of rocks give off different types of reflections, and require differing amounts of time to travel back up to the geophones. Computers in the mobile lab record the sounds as they bounce back to the geophones, and based on their time delay, they give an image of the different layers of rock in the subsurface. This type of work is typically done by ship with the geophones towed behind the ship. We are using a very new technology to conduct this survey over sea ice, and getting excellent results.

The survey was very successful in identifying where the pockets of sediment are. The seismic data was all collected digitally and will require continued processing back at Montana Tech University where Dr. Marvin Speece, the geophysicist on the site survey, teaches. Once processed, the seismic records will tell us in much greater detail, about the types and thicknesses of sediments – and allow scientists to determine the optimal site for future drilling.

Field work dominated life in Granite Harbor. But there were also wonderful moments of exploration and fun. Please visit my next blog, entitled "Reflections from a Remote Field Camp" to learn more about life and exploration in the Granite Harbor area.

Ms. Theilen - First Grade, Talahi

These are answers to questions asked by students in Ms. Theilen's class at Talahi Community School in St. Cloud, Minnesota

Where do you sleep at night?

We sleep in dorms. They are large 2-storey buildings. We are lucky because we are in 2-person rooms (some people have 4 or 5 to a room I gather). There is a bathroom (toilets and showers are down the hallway), and a laundry room with washers and dryers down the hall. These pictures show the outside of the dorm and the inside of my dorm room, which I share with Louise Huffman. When we did ‘Happy Camper’ School I slept (not much!) in a Scott Tent (see my Happy Camper blog). The people that are working at the drillsite sleep at the drill camp, which is just next to the drillsite. They have ‘rooms’ built into containers, they have little ‘portholes’ for windows – take a very close look at the picture.

Why is Antarctica a desert?
See the blog I posted yesterday – and email me more questions if you have any; also check out this web page on Antarctic Desert and Tundra.

Is all of Antarctica a desert?
There are a few places on the Antarctic Peninsula that get more rain than places at the center of the continent (go to and check out average rainfall and temperature for the coastal locations, especially Palmer Station); they are a bit warmer, and are closer to the ocean, and is impacted by storms that carry more moisture. There are a variety of research projects that examine the ecology of specific areas. There is some really exciting current research on algae and other microscopic life forms that are living in the extreme environments in Antarctica; researchers have recognized areas they have termed the Marielandia Antarctic Desert and Maudlandia Antarctic Desert; thses areas are identified as Antarctic Specially Protected Areas, because of their unique fauna.

Is there more snow or ice (in Antarctica)?
This is an interesting question. What happens is that the snow at the surface gradually turns to ice, so that there is often a thin veneer of snow at the surface (unless it has been blown away by wind which is quite common), that covers the ice below.

How do you decide where to drill?
This is a complicated question to answer. Basically we use information we have from two areas. First we use information from the few other places in the Ross sea area that have been drilled – these tell us what sediment layers there are there. We also use information from what we call seismic surveys. These surveys send out waves of energy, the energy waves bounce off some of the sediment layers beneath McMurdo Sound, and help us know how thick the layers are, and where they get thicker of thinner. Because we want to drill through a particular set of layers, we use both of these pieces of information to select the drill site. Two of our ARISE team are out on a seismic survey at the moment. Check out Julia’s blogs - she just got back from the seismic survey.

Does it snow a lot?
No it does not snow much. As you have learned, the definition of a desert is that it receives ~250 mm (about 10 inches) of rain (or rain equivalent) a year. We get closer to a maximum of 125 mm (5 inches) a year here at McMurdo. The tricky thing is that the winds (which can be REALLY strong) usually blow snow around, so even if it isn’t actually snowing, it feels as though it is, and it becomes ‘white-out’ conditions because of the blowing snow. The snow rarely melts – although I did notice a few patches of melting snow around the dark volcanic rocks as I went on a walk today. We can see storms arriving when we see clouds of blowing snow moving towards us from the southwest.

What kind of food do you eat?
We eat in a large central building called “The Galley” or “Building 155”. It is just like a school cafeteria (except the food is much better – the baker here is awesome). Everyone just puts their coats in the ‘coat bays’, and goes in to the cafeteria (washing their hands on the way - see Joanna’s blog).

We collect trays, plates and glasses, just like in any cafeteria, then we sit down at a table to eat. Here you see me sitting down to eat with Phill and Bob. Robin took these pictures. At breakfast there is cereal, some cooked breakfast, and an option of having an omlette of some kind. There is also canned fruit, yogurt, juices, and hot drinks.

At lunch there is a variety of hot meal options, plus bread and soup, and there is a sandwich bar. There are also yummy desserts (not to be confused with deserts). Dinner is the same.

There is also a meal called ‘Mid-Rats’ - it is a ‘lunch’ for nightshift people. On Sundays we have a brunch – it is my favorite meal, because they usually (as long as a plane has come in) have fresh fruit and cheese, with foccacia. They also have other hot items, and waffles at brunch.

What kinds of things have you found in the drilling?
We have found all sorts of sedimentary rocks. Some of them are sediments called diamictites – these were deposited by glaciers. Other sediments we have found are just like beach sands. We have also found fine sediments that have diatoms (microfossils) in them – these are called Diatomites.

Snow Day from 11/08/07

Snow Day- 11/8

The weather wasn’t very good for doing science yesterday. The crew went out for a bit, but had to come back to came when snow started to fall making visibility a problem. Dr. Marv Speece entertained us in the afternoon with a lecture on geophysics. We went to bed last night with fluffy snowflakes falling through still air. Sometime around three this morning the wind started howling so that the tents were all flapping frantically. Needless to say, no data collection again today. It’s hard to tell if it’s currently snowing or are the 20+ mph winds just blowing the fluff that fell yesterday. Current temperature is around 17F, positive numbers thank goodness. Anyway, it’s hard to see much except shades of white and gray, and even more difficult to function outside for very long.

Our chief, Dr. Ross Powell, Glacial Sedimentologist from Northern Illinois University, continued our lecture series on glaciers in the science tent. Ross first visited Antarctica in the 70’s as a graduate student and has been here numerous times since then. He’s been particularly interested in the Mackay glacier over the last ten years and is very keen to get some good sediment records showing up on our seismic survey. On days that we’re working at the survey site, his primary responsibility is supervising the data collection process and pondering the great complexities of glacier behavior.

Today’s lecture focused on different types of glaciers, their behaviors and sediment records based on climatic differences, and how that all relates to future climate changes. I asked Ross to explain what we’re all doing here in Granite Harbor and gave him a two paragraph maximum.

Ross says, “On the continental shelf around Antarctica are some very deep troughs and basins that were scoured and eroded out when the ice sheet was much larger and expanded over those areas. Since the ice sheet last started to shrink and retreat, some of those troughs and basins, which can reach over 900 meters below sea level, have been special repositories for marine sediment. Ocean currents have carried and concentrated sediment in the basins so that it accumulates very rapidly, at a rate of several millimeters every decade. Because these basins have been exposed and have been receiving this sediment over the past 20,000 to 7,000 years as the ice sheet retreated and opened-up the continental shelf, thick accumulations of these geologically very young sediments has been stored in the basins, some now reaching up to 200 meters thick. These thick piles of sediments are made mainly of the remains of marine plants or algae named diatoms that form the basis of the food web in the highly productive Southern Ocean. These marine plants need sunlight and a good supply of nutrients from the water to flourish; some even like living in sea ice that forms every winter around Antarctica by sea water freezing. Nutrients are best provided by strong winds blowing across the water surface causing deep waters that carry the nutrients to rise up to the surface where the diatoms live.

What we want to do is core one of these types of sediment records that now lie at the bottom of the Mackay Sea Valley, and look for periods of time in the core when diatoms were flourishing and when they weren’t, going back over the last 7,000 years. Other types of sediment accumulate when diatoms are not abundant, because waters are either less nutritious or perhaps were covered with very thick sea ice cutting down on the sunlight reaching the upper seawater layer. These types of records can tell us a great deal about the ocean circulation changes over time, which we want to understand, and compare those changes in Antarctica with what has happened in lower latitudes such as around New Zealand and even in tropical waters closer to the equator. We need to understand how these ocean waters in different areas of the world are linked to each other, so we can better predict how they may change as global warming continues. It is especially important for Antarctica because of the possibility of all of its ice melting as Earth continues to warm.”

Thank you very much, Ross!

Antarctic AAA from 11/06/07

Antarctic AAA

So imagine yourself cruising along in your plush Pisten Bully over the beautiful, aqua-blue sea ice enjoying the spectacular scenery of Granite Harbor on a lovely spring day. All of a sudden, you realize something is really wrong with your vehicle. There’s no power. The engine sputters and then goes silent. What do you do? Back home you might get out your cell phone and call a good friend or family member that knows about cars, or a favorite mechanic, or if you’ve paid for the service- call AAA to come and check out the problem. But what do you do if you’re in the middle of Antarctica?

Unfortunately, we’ve had this problem come up here at camp. Antarctica’s harsh environment is tough even on vehicles that were meant to work in very cold, snowy conditions. One of the Pisten Bullys seems to have an ongoing mechanical problem. It could be battery problems, faulty wiring, or even computer malfunctions. Our field party includes a couple of very handy guys, Andrew and Kyle, that seem to me like the kind of guys that could fix most anything, but not being that familiar with Pisten Bullys they had to call in some help. Instead of a cell phone, the camp manager got on the walkie talkie to MAC Ops- the signal bounced from the transmitter on top of nearby Mt. Brooke and picked up in McMurdo Station 100 miles south. MAC Ops transferred the call to the mechanics shop and in hardly any time, Josh Knopik and Branden Thorpe were on their way out to our camp by helicopter.

This was actually Josh and Branden’s second visit to our camp and we’re all old friends now. Josh is here from Minnesota for his second season, but probably won’t be back next year because he’s hoping to be in graduate school. His background is in environmental studies with interest in ecology and geology. This is Branden’s first year here. He’s from Silver Spring, Maryland and is a diesel mechanic back home. They’re great guys and seem to work well together. They even fixed the camp generator that had just conked out. The weather took a nasty turn back in McMurdo and the helicopters were grounded so Josh and Branden stayed overnight and enjoyed Joan’s great cooking.

So far the Pisten Bully is running fine. After looking through the manufacturer’s brochures that the guys had with them, I’m wondering if these vehicles are designed for lighter use than what our group is putting them through.

Camp Cuisine from 11/7/07

Camp Cuisine

11/07

I just hung up from an Iridium phone call back home with a very dear friend of my mine who was concerned that we might not be eating very well out here at camp. I could tell him that we’ve been having excellent food, which made me think I’ve been remiss in describing that part of camp life for you.

Our camp cook is Joan. She lives in Wyoming when she is “home”. We’ve become good tentmates and enjoy the infrequent quiet afternoons at camp when we can wash our hair. I’ve noticed the dinners over the last few days have become much more interesting to the palate, rather than just being good food that fills you up. Joan said she’s feeling much more in her element and in a creative mood now that we’ve really settled in. After earning her degree in geology, Joan began her culinary training in Philadelphia. She’s had many interesting experiences since then including outdoor education instructor and being a ranch hand. Cooking and the outdoors seem to be recurring themes. Joan said, “Cooking is a way to go places, because everyone needs to eat.” Brandon and Josh, the mechanics that joined us for dinner last night will attest that we don’t just eat, we’re Dining.

I wish I had taken a photo of last night’s dinner. Sautéed chicken breasts with sundried tomatoes and mozzarella, accompanied by tortellini with pesto and lovely green beans. Joan made a beautiful presentation. Tonight’s menu, Thai green curry with chicken and shrimp. The tangy aromas are making me very hungry as I sit here writing, maybe I should move over to the science tent instead!

I’m amazed by Joan’s creations given what she has to work with.

The outside photo shows the refrigerator/ freezer, or as Joan calls it, the “grocery store”. Photos inside the kitchen show the inside food stores and the stove/work surface. And of course, a very happy Joan after we all enjoyed her Thai curry. (p.s. It was REALLY good!!!! )

This reviewer gives restaurant Granite Harbor G-049, a four star rating. Reservations suggested.

Diatom Ice

It's the afternoon of November 13th. I'm back in McMurdo and very happy to finally post blogs I wrote last week. This is one is from November 3rd.

So, I noticed when we first started shooting off the air cannon to conduct the seismic survey, some of the ice that came up with the sea water and air bubbles looked it was formed from root beer. Here’s a more scientific description: irregularly shaped chunks of translucent ice ranging in size from approximately three to eight inches in length with mottled internal yellowish brown coloring. I know from the scientists here with ANDIRLL that the coloring is colonies of diatoms. Diatoms are plants that are about the size of the head of a pin and are made of silica (a sand-like substance). Most of the diatom ice slides back into the hole with the receding sea water when the air gun ceases firing. Hopefully, the diatoms go on living and no harm done.

One morning when we arrived at the survey line to begin our day, I noticed a chunk of diatom ice on the surface of the area of the last hole we shot from the afternoon before. It had sat out in the bright sunshine all night. Instead of the usual brownish color I’ve become used to, it was a lovely shade of green. I took a photo of it lying on the aqua colored sea ice with the toes of my “bunny boots” (seriously, that’s what these boots are called-why, I don’t know!) to prove to everyone that Antarctica isn’t only shades of white.

Here’s a science question for you; why was it green now and not still brownish? Why is that important? To test my hypothesis of why that happened, I collected some other pieces of brown diatom ice and left them out in the sun by the last hole of the day. My prediction was that they would be green the next day. My prediction was correct. When we came back the next morning they were green. For comparison I collected another piece of brown diatom ice and photographed them next to each other. The brown ice is the piece on the left.

So, what’s happening with the diatom ice? And why is it important?

Field trip to the Mackay Glacier

A couple of days ago we completed our tasks for the day a little early so our chief scientist, Dr. Ross Powell, took us on a field trip out to see the Mackay Glacier up close. Our seismic survey is mapping sediment deposited by the Mackay and this was a great opportunity to understand the depositional process better. To get there from our camp we had to take a very bumpy, 45 min. Pisten Bully ride over multi-year ice. Our camp and survey line are located on single season ice, which means the ice breaks up and flows out to sea every season. That can be a little dangerous as the season goes on, but the ice is fairly smooth and easy to travel over. The multi-season ice is not smooth, at all!!!!

[Note that there was a movie that should be inserted here, but it is too large to insert - Ed.)

Once we had our brains unrattled (which isn’t really a word, but I’m exercising artistic license) we were amazed to find ourselves dwarfed by ice.The Mackay is an outlet glacier from the east Antarctic ice sheet flowing from a high mountain plateau. It ends as a tongue that sticks out onto the sea ice. The forward edge of the tongue shoves the sea ice ahead of it, creating sea ice chunks that often stand vertically reminding me of sculptural works.
In those areas melt pools form this time of year and are great places to find seals. Around the edges of the melt pools delicate ice crystals form. You do have to watch where you step in these areas to make sure you don’t fall into a crack. Some can be fairly deep,but Galen the mountaineer/field safety specialist makes sure we don’t get into trouble.

As the glacier makes its way to the sea, it flows over and through granite and dolerite formations. The sea ice gets shoved up against the cliff sides causing great undulations.
The younger, darker dolerite sits on top of the older, lighter color granite.
Jacob, a student from University of Nebraska, was very excited to examine the crystalline structure of this boulder up close.
As we walked through one of the glaciers canyons, we spotted pockets of clear ice that form when melt water within the glacier refreezes.
If you look closely you can see some sediment trapped in the clear ice. These sediments are carried out to sea and as the glacier melts, drop to the sea floor creating sediment layers that show up in the seismic survey data.
Some members of our party in the distance behind me were trying to find clear ice without sediment to bring back to camp to cool their beverages. I’m not sure why they need ice when you can just stick drinks outside for a couple of minutes! But then, how many times in your life can you say you’ve eaten ice that’s thousands of years old.

The Seismic Survey

Hope everyone had a good Halloween and enjoyed a chocolate bar for me. I wanted to show you what “Little Andrill” has been up to lately and give you a math problem to solve. In my blog while waiting for the weather to clear, Marv described the seismic survey process. I have some photos to share with you now that we’ve started the survey.
The first step is to get a good hole to drop the air cannon into so that it is under the surface of the ocean under the sea ice under us. Kyle Webster is our driller. He likes to call himself the “Drilling Superintendent”. He makes great holes for us.

And sometimes enjoys his free time. Note: this photo was taken while we were all having a lunch break.

After we have a good hole to work with, the air cannon is lowered to eight meters below the surface and fired four times with 2,000 psi (pounds per square inch) of pressure.

The geophones that trail behind the airgun trailer (known as the Thunder Sled) for one mile record the vibrations from the strata under the sea floor and are recorded by computer equipment.
Marv and Ross will look at the data for quite some time after we complete the survey to determine the best location for a future core drilling project. Ross is hoping to get an area of large depositional Holocene records that will tell us more about the history of the Mackay Glacier.
Here’s the math question part: while we were completing our work yesterday, some of us were wondering just how much ice was coming out of the holes being drilled. Bob, my fellow ARISE Educator tried to figure out the answer using snow and finger rather than pencil and paper.

Feel free to use a calculator if you need to. What is the volume of the hole that measures 13 inches in diameter and is averaging 2.2 meters deep? (Sorry, yes you will have to do a metric conversion, but I’m sure you can look it up on Wikipedia or somewhere else) By the way, don’t use the numbers that Bob is using. He mixed up the units and didn’t get the right answer the first time. And here’s a photo of me in front of our kitchen tent just so my family doesn’t forget what I look like.

[Note: Julia is currently on the Seismic Survey. Are you wondering how she is able to blog without internet access? CDs with her blog text and pictures mysteriously arrive at Crary Lab every now and then. What is happening is that helicopter pilots that are passing by the survey camp or are ferrying some equipment out there stop at the camp, and Julia hands them a CD that they later drop off here at Crary Lab. We then post her blog for her]

Still Grounded in McMurdo

In my blog post on Monday I told you that we weren't able to head out to field camp. Well, it's Wednesday afternoon and we're still here. The weather cleared up for a little while and we thought Helo Ops (the helicopter port) was going to call us down at some point in the afternoon. No such luck, and now another low pressure system is moving in and snow is blowing past the window again. I took this photo last night at about 10:30pm. The cloud ceiling lifted just enough to give us an incredible view of the Transantarctic Mountains glazed with sunlight.

Since I seem to have some time on my hands while we wait to hear about helicopter flights I thought I would give you an idea of who “we” are, where we’re heading, and what we’ll be doing once we get there. The “we” is a field party of ten people. Myself, two graduate students-Luke and Taylor, an undergraduate student-Jacob, a core driller-Kyle, a cook-Joan, an air gun technician-Andrew, a Geophysical Engineer-Marv, a Glacial Sedimentologist-Ross, and a mountaineer-Tim. We hope to have another core driller and another teacher joining us soon. We're know as Little ANDRILL. We will be setting up camp about 100 miles north and a little west of McMurdo Station in an area known as Granite Harbor. If you can find Cape Roberts on a map of Antarctica we’ll be just around the point from there. I’ve been told it’s really beautiful out there with granite cliffs on shore and blue sea ice under foot (I hope I don’t slip and fall). What we hope to accomplish while we’re there is to complete a seismic survey of the sea floor in the area of the Mackay Sea Valley, capturing Holocene sediment records. I’ll show you more of what this operation looks like once we get to our destination and start to work.

From Professor of Geophysical Engineering at Montana Tech Marv Speece, “We drill a 13 inch hole into 2-m-thick sea ice and then lower an air gun into the hole down into the water column. We then release 2000 pounds per square inch of pressure in the air gun as an air bubble into the water. The energy from the bubble travels through the water down to the rock layers. At rock layer boundaries some of the energy is returned as a reflection back through the water column and then back to the surface of the ice where we record the returning energy using geophones. Geophones measure the shaking of the ice caused by the returning reflections. We then use these reflections to build a picture of what the rocks look like under the sea floor.”

This is a sample of what seismic data looks like.
Geologists will study the seismic data we collect to determine the best location for a future core drilling operation to retrieve the sediment records that Ross Powell is seeking.

Grounded by a Category 2

As Robin wrote yesterday, we've been working really hard to get ready for our trip out to the field camp. We've been hauling and packing and checking for days now. Robin and I made sure the alarm was set for 5:30 am to get the rest of our things packed, get a quick breakfast and join the rest of the MSV team (affectionately referred to as "Little Andrill") for our 7:00 am meeting. But when we looked out the window of our dorm room it looked like we were looking through a film of marshmallow fluff. A category 2 low front had moved in overnight. The wind was blowing snow from every direction and it was difficult to see anything clearly.

The meeting took place at the scheduled time only to confirm that all flights are off and the visibility wasn't good enough for the caravan of Piston Bullies, sleds and snowmobiles to head out either (I'll have to tell you about Piston Bullies and the Thunder Sled in another blog- stay tuned).


This photo is missing a very large object that residents of McMurdo would know was missing. The building in the foreground is the Crary Science building. Just behind the buildings in the background rises the very tall, steep Observation Hill. You can't see it at all in this photo because it's hidden behind swirling snow. I hope to climb up to the top sometime while I'm here, but I don't think today is the day. I wouldn't be able to observe very much. I know the people in the red coats were really struggling against the wind to get into the Crary Lab.

It's even a little difficult to see the dorms clearly behind Simon Nielsen. He's the Head Curator for ANDRILL's SMS drilling project (affectionately referred to as BIG ANDRILL).

I'm safely inside my dorm room working away on keeping you posted... and I'm watching the Red Sox vs. Indians game 7 live. top of the 7th, 3-2 Red Sox. I hope we'll get out to camp soon. I'm really excited about taking my first ever helicopter ride and living on blue sea ice so I hope the weather clears. In the meantime, I guess I'll go do my laundry.