Thursday, March 8, 2007

the adventure continues

As I thought my adventures were drawing to an end and calming down, I
was proven wrong. Wednesday consisted of some of the most fantastic
hours in my life. At the end of my shift on Wednesday morning
someone knocked on my door to tell my roommate and I to get ready to
go out on the ice. We got into all of our cold weather gear (red
parka, long underwear, wool socks, nylon "bibs," bunny boots,
mittens, hats, hard hats and all). Once we got downstairs and
outside we were lifted by a winch off of the ship and onto a HUGE ice
floe. There was ice as far as the eye could see. This was a
multiyear floe of sea ice (ice formed from ocean water, NOT ice shelf
icebergs) that had accumulated over the past few winters and never
had the chance to melt yet. Once all twelve of us got out on the
ice, we took ice cores. I am sure you have heard of a core where
someone uses a tool to dig long cylinders out of the earth. Ice
coring is pretty much the same. We use a long hollow cylindrical
tool with threading on the outside like a screw to drill into the
ice. It is designed so that when we pull the tool back out, it holds
the ice in it. It doesn't let it fall back out. There are so many
fascinating little inventions in science!

I have no idea how cold it was out on the ice, but I got chilled
pretty quickly (I was on the ice for about an hour). To think people
spend their lives studying in cold, windy, icy, snowy, blindingly
sunny places like Antarctica! I don't know if I have the drive. I
do love it though.

I was part of the first group of four who went back onto the ship.
As soon as I was in the air again, I turned around and saw that two
Adelie penguins were curious enough to move within 50 meters of the
two groups who stayed behind. I almost exploded with jealousy and
regret! Oh if I hadn't gotten so cold! The little penguins were so
cute and shiny. They just sat in the wind and watched the groups
collect ice cores. What an experience.

Last night (Wednesday) at about 1am, one of the vessel drivers
noticed an Aurora! The Auroras in the south are called Aurora
Australias (in opposition of Aurora Borealis in the north). I don't
think I quite understand Auroras well enough to explain them, so I
would advise those of you who do not know what an Aurora is or how
it's formed to look it up in the dictionary. It was a very slight
little green light about 40º up from the horizon in the north. It
jumped around, appeared, and disappeared quite sporadically. I never
thought in my whole life that I would see the "southern lights." I
am the luckiest person I know!

One last note. This is how absolutely lucky I am; yesterday I heard
someone say that it takes $50,000 to run this ship DAILY! Meaning
that on a 51 day trip 2,550,000 dollars are spent by the National
Science foundation just to run the ship! Outrageous!

Right now we are off the continental shelf near Wrigley Gulf and the
Getz Ice Sheet. We are headed east and somewhat on our way back home.
Latitude: -072º 58'.556 S
Longitude: -129º 04'.548 W

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rose,

I can't wait to see you again.
I hope you bring back some awesome pictures.


your friend,

Liz :)

Anonymous said...

Dear Rose,
Don't be jealous of the other groups. I have never even seen a live
penguin! Not even in the zoo.




Leah Frye

Anonymous said...

cool