Leaving the Ice

After leaving the Valleys, I had some time to kill in McMurdo. While dealing with drying out my samples, an ordeal that was more complicated than it sounds, I also did some walking. My friend, Nick (one of the firefighters), got a page about the possibility of penguins out at Hut Point. By the time we got there, the penguins had moved on but there were a couple of lethargic seals laying on the sea ice.

Even here, you can see the sea ice is starting to change. Since here, the powers that be in McMurdo have closed the roads out on the sea ice and progressively moved operations back to the margin with the Ross Ice Shelf.

I was supposed to leave the ice on December 16, but the flight was delayed in Christchurch. At 3:30AM on December 17, we were transported out to the Pegasus sea ice runway to catch our flight off -- a South African C100, which made for quite the ride. Cramped seats, leaking pipes, windows and all. All told, it took about 7 hours and we cleared customs faster than I ever have, with the exception of coming back from the Bahamas.

Flowing Water in the DRY Valleys

Kathy and I took a trip up to the Wright Valley on December 10 in another search for windblown sediments. We set down near the Stream Team's gauging station for the Onyx River. The Onyx is the longest river in Antarctica. It actually flows away from the coast, as there is a glacier blocking the exit. The glacier forms Lake Brownworth, which in turn feeds the Onyx.


We had five hours of ground time, so we spent it hiking in a big loop from the Onyx east to Lake Brownworth on the south side of the valley and back on the north side. We came across some pretty impressive windblown formations against the lee side of the hill slopes. There were also some pretty impressive ventifacts in the area, which I also sampled.

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After talking to the Limno Team about their bundt pan experiments, it was decided that I would be the one to collect them this year. In doing so, I also get direct access to the samples. I was emailed a series of coordinates for each of the three transects of 9 pans: one at each of the major lakes in the Taylor valley (Fryxell, Hoare, & Bonney).

On my first run, Lake Fryxell transect by the F6 camp, two of the nine coordinates I was given were incorrect and one of the bundt pans set ups and been completely torn apart by the wind.
The transect at Lake Hoare went swimmingly. Lake Bonney, however, had it's own trials.

At Lake Bonney, technology failed me. Both my in-use batteries and the back-up batteries for my GPS died by the time I got to the fifth (of nine, again) bundt pan. I attempted to find the rest by line-of-sight and was successful, except for the ninth pan. In the end I had to call it lost because I was cutting it close on time to make it back to Lake Bonney in time for my helo flight back to Lake Hoare.

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By the time I started hunting for bundt pans (and really from the time I went to Bonney the first time...) the moats on the lakes had started to open up in earnest. This makes crossing the lakes a very treacherous and, more often than not, a wet one. There's nothing quite as surprising as stepping on what appears to be solid ice, only to fall through and be wet above your boots in icey, glacier-fed lake water. There are even waterfalls coming off the glaciers!

It is around this time of year that the boats come out to get to the solid ice for those that find themselves needing to cross the lakes. It is also this time of year that the ATVs are no longer used, making lake walking take even longer.

Hoare crystals form along the margins of the thicker ice and where the lakes and the glaciers meet. These appear to be a function of the melting and refreezing of these relatively shallow portions of the water

Lake Bonney Extravaganza

December 1-4, Sandra (Lake Hoare's assistant camp manager) and I headed upvalley into the Lake Bonney basin. We dropped our sleepkits off at the camp itself, and got a ride back to the Marr Glacier and Upland Ponds area to sample. (Above left, the Marr and a pond; above right Bonney basin; left, Taylor glacier and a ventifact)

The area is very picturesque. The Marr feeds five ponds in an upland plateau that then drain down into the Hoare basin.

As we continued out of the upland area into the Bonney basin proper, we started encountering large-scale ventifacts that are a stark reminder of the power of the winds that whip through the valleys. The ventifacts are formed when the strong winds blow sediment and abraid away parts of the rocks. If enough of a catchment is formed, sediments can get caught inside and blown around to create bowls and other hollows.

On the second day, we headed out onto the lake itself. Lake Bonney is divided into two lobes
divided by the Bonney Riegel, which creates a "Narrows" separating the lobes (see left).

The western lobe terminates (or, technically, is fed by) the Taylor Glacier. The Taylor Glacier is home to another Special Feature: Blood Falls. Blood Falls is thought to be an ancient sea that was incorporated into the glacier. It is a major source of nutrients in Lake Bonney. When it's flowing, it looks like the glacier is bleeding, but since it wasn't, my pictures just looks like a large mud stain.

We continued up from the lake onto the Riegel and back to the western side of the Hughes Glacier to the other part of the ventifact fields. These were even larger scale than before, as noted by the fact that I actually was able to catch a nap in one.

















After some setbacks on day three that gave us a late start, Sandra and I decided to hike the Matterhorn -- one of the tallest peaks (~2000m) in the valley.
The hike started out with beautiful weather and an initial three hour push up a scree slope. Most of the time the scree was just at it's angle of repose -- the point at which they can no longer maintain stability. It was frustrating to say the least. But onward and up!

Then we hit the area with exposed bedrock, which was much easier to climb though steeper. Another hour got us to a rolling plateau covered in red scoria cinders and granitic ventifacts, which made for an interesting contrast in colors (below left).


Much to our dismay, just as we were about to start the last leg of the climb (up the snow pack on the LaCroix Glacier to the final ridge) the weather suddenly changed, as it is wont to do. We had been seeing whispy cirrus clouds coming through, but the skies had remained blue. When we finished our break, though, the skies had turned to grey and it had started to snow! We waited a while to see if the weather would break and we could continue on, but to no avail. The temperature had dropped ~10^oC easily and the cold forced us back down.

75% of the climb was an accomplishment, as most don't even try it. It just gives me (another) reason to come back.

The last day of our adventure, we got a very late start, though it was purposeful this time. We were both a little dehydrated and fatigued from three solid days of hiking (not to mention the epic mountain climb from the day before).
Luckily, the hike back to Lake Hoare was the "low route" along the valley floor. The only uphill we saw were in the form of short, rolling hills. We followed the Priscu Stream that ends at the eastern end of Lake Bonney.

The hike was beautiful, especially once the weather began to clear. Sandra and I were definitely a little fatigued during it, so it was nice for a leisurely hike back home. We were looking forward to sleeping in our own tents and eating with our field/trail family.

Other than my sampling, our other objective during this hike was to locate as many mummified seals as we could. A team will be coming in January that is trying to date the seals, but they don't have helo hours -- so seals within a day hike of Lake Hoare camp are preferred.



Probably my favorite area I've visited so far in the Valleys is known as the Defile. It is the narrow area between the Suess Glacier and the Nussbaum Riegel that acts as a wind funnel and large-scale sediment trap. So not only is the area beautiful, but it's also incredibly useful for my research.

The Defile was also the last bit of hiking before we entered the Lake Hoare basin (and a subsequent ATV ride back to camp for the exhausted hikers!)

The Lake Bonney experience was definitely a fun one, but it was good to be back home.

Victoria Dunes &Turkey Day

On November 25, Kathy came from McMurdo to Lake Hoare for the combined purpose spending Thanksgiving with us and helping me out with part of my project. We headed up to the Victoria Valley to check out the sand dunes.

Neither of us had been there before, so we didn't know what to expect. What we saw where large-scale "whaleback" dunes just upvalley from the lower Victoria glacier. Interestingly, the ripples on the dunes and the dunes themselves indicate that the dominate wind-direction that forms them is out of the east. The predominant winds in the valleys come out of the west off the ice sheet and proceed downvalley. More investigation into this phenomena is definitely needed!
The dunes are an Antarctic Special Feature. This means that anyone wanting to visit or sample needs to inform the NSF environmental representatives beforehand, document our landing sites, and make a concerted effort to minimize our impact on the area. It turned out that this was easier than it seemed since the environment is so dynamic -- despite the day being warm, sunny, and with relatively little wind, by the time we left our footprints were already blowing away.
Our flight back across the Wright Valley and over the Asgard Mountains and down the Canada glacier back to camp went very smoothly.
All of the mountain ranges that separate the valleys are covered in glaciers that are part of the East Antarctic ice sheet. The view is kind of surreal and gives you the real feel of Antarctica.

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While we may be staying at a field camp in the Dry Valleys, that does not mean that we don't celebrate the holidays with a good show.














Thanksgiving at Lake Hoare is celebrated with gusto (and LOTS of food). Luckily, this year, we also got a load of freshies in a couple days before the festivities. Generally, any groups that are in the valleys are invited to partake in the feast. Our initial count was 28 people, but weather on Thanksgiving Day kept the helicopters grounded at McMurdo, drastically cutting our head count. In the end, 14 of us were there to eat the food of thirty. We had leftovers for days (which made lunch easy!), and the pie:person ration was 1:2. Excellent odds for those with a sweet tooth!

Commonwealth Glacier

About a week ago, the glacier gurus (Hassan & Liz) and I took a short helicopter trip down-valley to the Commonwealth glacier. This is another exit glacier of the ice sheet that spills out of the mountains into the Taylor Valley. We all had slightly different agendas, but we helped each other out with everything and got done in much less than the eight hours of ground time we were allotted.

Hassan had to fix some of the instrumentation on the meteorological station. It had snowed the night before, but the skies were clear this day and it was windy -- thus the "diamond dust" was kicking up. In the picture of Hassan, you can actually see the snow that was kicked up -- it's all the shiny white specs on the picture.




Hassan and I both helped Liz drill here cryoconite hole cores.

Cryoconite holes are formed when sediments on the glacier lower the albedo of the ice it covers and the area melts down. It usually forms a cylindrical hole that regains ice cover in the winter. The melt cycles allow there to be build up of organic matter (largely algae blown up from the lakes) and they form little mini-nutrient reservoirs. Theoretically they could sustain life in the form of bacteria or algae under the right conditions.


While Hassan and Liz were drilling a series of holes, I was exploring for sediment traps when I came across a mummified seal. On top of the glacier. I have no idea how it got there. The routes to the top are pretty easily accessible by foot, but it seems a bit... difficult for seals. Stranger things have happened, though.

We finished about an hour earlier than we were scheduled for helicopter pick-up, so Liz and I tooks naps. We woke up to Hassan flying his retro kite as the winds had picked up just enough to fly it.

Home & Two Hikes

I arrived via helicopter to Lake Hoare in the Taylor Dry Valley on November 15. In the day-and-a-half I have been here, I've been on two major hikes and set up camp.
The camp is near the shore of Lake Hoare, one of the terminal lakes in the Dry Valleys. It's major source of water is the ephemeral streams that flow off the Canada glaciers. Since the camp manager had to run up to another lake to clean up an oil spill (a really big deal in the area), my first order of business was setting up my camp.
This proved to be easier said than done since the sand is difficult to drive stakes into. Thus, all my guy-lines are secured to rocks. It works quite well when combined with the trucker's hitches that we learned how to make in Snow School to secure them. It's a little loose, and thus loud when the wind blows, but it's nothing my ipod can't drown out. At least until we get a katabatic -- then it might get a little too loud.



















I've been getting questions about what we do for water. Well, the Canada glacier (the big hunk of ice in background of the picture of my Chateau) is fresh water and is calving near the margin. So we collect the "glacier berries" and pile them near the main hut both on the lake and in a tarp-lined box outside the main hut. As we need to, we pull them in and melt them in a huge metal pot in the main hut. Then we either purify it for drinking water, boil it for tea and cooking, or leave it plain for hand- and dishwashing. It tastes a lot better than the snow we were melting for drinking water during snow school!

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On Saturday after I set up my Chateau, the Limno Team (they look at the chemistry of the lakes as part of the MCM-LTER) invited me on a hike up to the Canada glacier. I, of course, took them up on the offer.


The climb up was pretty steep. More vertical than I've done since my other trips to Antarctica and for a more extended period of time. It was neat to see the glacial moraines in this setting. The moraine to the left is a lateral moraine that formed as the glacier moved into the valley.

The view from the top was amazing. It was a clear day, so you could see all the way across McMurdo Sound to Mt. Erebus, which was steaming away. We also ran into the crevasse that the glaciology team (Hassan and Liz) had just flagged a few hours prior.

According to Hassan, the crevasse has been there for several years, but is bigger than expected. They also came across a formation that they think is a moulin, which is kind of scary. Moulins are one of the ways that water gets to the base of a glacier, except they aren't really seen in the Antarctic environment and glaciers. Global warming?




The hike down was pretty intense. Hiking up may be hard on the muscles, but hiking down really tests my ability to remain on my feet.

But I made it safely. Only one major spill, but all four of us managed to fall at the same spot. The ground was icey and we just couldn't keep our feet under us. No one was hurt, though!

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Sunday is usually the day of rest. Since I just got here, however, I decided to take a hike with multiple meanings: 1) it got me out and about and active, 2) I got to figure out how to use my crampons and break in my mountaineering boots, and 3) I got to do some reconnaissance on my sampling in the Lake Hoare/Lake Chad basin.














The lake ice is really beautiful. It's not quite moat season yet (when there will be liquid water around the margins of the lakes), but you can definitely see where the ice is starting to sublime and melt to a certain extent. This is especially true where there is any sediment on the lake surface. The dark color lowers the albedo of the ice and increases melting where the sediments are making an extremely uneven central portion.

Where the moats form, the ice is almost crystal clear. In most places you could see all the way down to the algal mats on the lake beds. One of the explanations I've heard for the bubbles in the ice is that the algal mats effervesce (CO₂ in photosynthesizers) and as the gas bubbles force their way to the surface, their paths are preserved in the ice. This makes sense, theoretically, since ice is technically a fluid. Interesting!














The temperatures and wind weren't too bad until "twilight" hit. This occurs around 2-3PM when the sun makes it's way behind the Asgard Mountains and dims the valley for a bit. But all in all, the hike went very well. Sampling will be easy because there is dust everywhere on the Lake Hoare/Lake Chad complex.

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I can see why scientists have been using the Dry Valleys as an analogue for Mars. When I opened my tent this morning the landscape directly outside my tent looked suspiciously like the pictures of Martian soils I've seen in textbooks. With the exception of the fresh water Canada glacier and the fact that I was breathing, it could have fooled me.

McMurdo Firsts

Hello from McMurdo Station!

The flights from Columbus to New Zealand went incredibly smooth. There were no delays -- we even made it in early on the trans-Pacific flight.

The flight to the continent was on a US Air Force-run C17 and took right at five hours. We arrived in McMurdo on November 10 at a balmy 5^oF/-15^oC.

The next day I went into Happy Camper Academy... AKA Snow School where we learned about protocol for field camps and how to handle emergencies. These included building snow shelters and using the emergency gear provided to all people headed out on helicopters. One of the scenarios involved a simulated search and rescue mission for a person going missing during Condition 1 weather -- basically a white out. We "created" the white out by putting five-gallon buckets on our heads. It was incredibly difficult, but we found the "patient" and got him back in to safety.

More later! Despite the fact that it is 23:00 here, the sun is still high in the sky. Well, lower to the horizon, as it is our "twilight" but still bright as day... it definitely takes getting used to!

A Return to Dominica

I had a really weird dream last night that was set in Dominica. When I woke up, I remembered this random moment in Dominica that I didn't share. I'll do it now.

To get to many of the beaches that we worked on, we had to hike through the jungle. On one such hike out to Rosalie Beach we learned more than our fair share about the temperament of the livestock in the area. Or, as we referred to them, the Jungle Cows.

Dominica itself has very little flat land and even less land for pasture. Most of the island is covered in rain forest greenery and tropical fruit plantations (bananas, mangoes, starfruit, papayas), so it was common to see cattle tied up in cricket fields along the side of the road or along trails.























This particular Jungle Cow was less than happy with our need to access the beach and decided to stand his ground. He head butted my friend a couple of times, though luckily his horns were not filly developed or sharp. It was disconcerting, however, to be essentially attacked by a cow in the middle of the jungle.

Lesson learned: don't mess with the cows.

Interestingly, Rosalie Beach is also home to an endangered green sea turtle nesting area. There are two conservancy interns that live within 0.5 km of the nesting site and take twelve-hour shifts. Sea turtle is a delicacy in the Antilles and the concern is that the eggs will be stolen, hatched, and eaten. One of the interns who helped us out while we were working in the area told us that the hatchlings would be heading oceanward and invited us back on the full moon to witness the crossing.















The majority of our group returned to Rosalie on the night of the full moon and were not disappointed. Hundreds of little greens made it to the water and, hopefully, well out to sea undisturbed.

On another note, the full moon reflecting on the black sand beach (above, left) is one of the more breathtaking sites I've seen. Right up there with the full moon night hike at White Sands National Monument on July 4th. The gypsum dunes were glowing and reflected the fireworks from Las Cruces, NM.