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.