Minke?

I saw about six or so Minke whales today. That was really
interesting. I got a little video of them on my digital camera, and
I am sure all of you will see the video when I return. Minke whales
are pretty dark brown with dorsal fins way in the back of them, not
so high as an orca's. They were really playful and active when I saw
them. I believe they were feeding. How lucky I am to be here seeing
such wonderful sights.
Today was very busy in the beginning, but it died down toward the
middle or so. Yesterday we were at the "Bay of Whales"--the most
southern place we will ever be on this ship. I saw a few orcas there
in addition to a few penguins. Today we got to do a "sediment
grab." I think I may have described this before. It is a process
where we lure a huge contraption into the ocean (it was really deep
here, about 1100m deep) that snaps once it hits the bottom, trapping
sediment. This grab wasn't all that interesting. It was a nearly
gelatinous, gooey mud that jiggled when we moved it. I thought it
was fun to stick my hands in to search for pebbles, gravel, and
larger rocks. There weren't any larger sediments at all! This mud
may have been a diatom. Now I am not sure, but I think a diatom is
formed biogenically (by flora and fauna). I believe this mud was
made by a build up of phytoplankton and algae like organisms. NEAT!
Now we are trying to navigate through tons and tons of ice. I looked
out the window about an hour ago, and all I could see was white. Ice
everywhere. I couldn't even see any water. Good thing this ship is
an ice cutter and not something smaller because we would be sinking
like Titanic.
Off to bed now. I need to get some sleep for another long 12 hour
night shift. I hope you are all enjoying my blog even though I can't
put up pictures. I promise as soon as I get back I will overload you
all with the pictures I have taken throughout this time.

Ross Ice Shelf

Today we are right on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. This is the
most ice I have ever seen or even imagined! There are HUGE cliffs of
pristine ice as far as the eye can see. Originally this ice came off
of the west side of the Transantarctic Mountains, but now there is a
controversy as to whether any of that ancient ice is still there or
if it is just new snow pack ice. The old ice from the mountains
supposedly moves to the bottom while snow and water builds up on top,
compacts, and forms a new layer of ice. Ocean water then moves in
under the old ice and melts it away. The only way to tell if there
is ancient ice left is to do a core. This is a very archaic
process. The scientists use a tool that looks like a gigantic cork
screw. They turn the top of the tool, and it spirals into the ice.
When the tool hits the bottom of the ice (this can be meters upon
meters in this area!) the corers pull the tool back out which
contains a big long cylinder of ice. The cylinder of ice contains
layers of ice deposited in a chronological order. I am not quite
sure how these people can tell the difference between "young" and
"old" ice, but it's a pretty interesting concept. I wish I knew if
there was any ancient ice left and how old it really is. It may be
thousands of years old! No one really knows.

Hell hath no fury like that of the ocean

Excuse the language in the title, but WOW! I've been in a storm the
past couple of days, and I will be in it for most likely a few days
more. I never quite understood the true beauty of the ocean until I
saw it in this storm. Huge waves nearly 20 ft high crash into each
other outside of every window. There is snow, rain, waves, wind.
The wind has been at a pretty constant 40 mph (maybe it's knots per
hour? I'm not sure).

I am in awe. Absolute awe. Now I also have a better understanding
of how awful and awesome, two words with very different meanings in
today's language, both have the same root. The ocean can be so
terrifying and beautiful at the same time. It's beauty is at its
greatest when it is most terrible. Don't get me wrong, I am quite
comfortable and safe at the moment, but I can only imagine the
destruction this storm could wreak on a smaller, older, wooden boat.

I haven't been outside in quite a few days. I don't believe anyone
has. The towers are iced over. Snow covers the cameras facing the
bow, a-frames, decks, etc. I am constantly on a ferris wheel or a
roller coaster. The waves push me up and pull me down with such
force that I nearly fall down the stairs or even UP the stairs! I
was working out this morning (my morning which is actually 3 pm my
time and 7 pm for most of you), and I feared flying up into the air
while pedaling on the stationary bike (not so stationary bike I might
say!). Lifting weights was quite the experience too! When we were
lifted up by the wave I felt like I might strain myself just trying
to lift five pounds. While we were headed down, I may have hit
myself with the weights due to the borrowed strength I had from such
physics law as "centripetal acceleration" and my "apparent weight."
I feel just like I am always on a roller coaster!

There have been few times where I was so struck by the confusion of
emotions I am feeling. I have never been so inspired by something so
terrible and beautiful at the same time. The ocean is stronger than
anything I have ever seen. I am tempted to become some kind of sea-
fairing lady on a permanent basis due to the fantastic mix of
emotions I am feeling.

oh with the swelling!

I'm feeling a bit green today. This is because we have hit an area
where the ocean swells and then pulls back, creating big waves. Not
quite big waves like you would see in a movie, but just rolling waves
up and down, back and forth. I've never spent much time in a boat,
so I don't have what they call "sea legs" yet. I am unaccustomed to
being in a boat when there is a lot of movement in the water. Tonight
when I got on shift, the sickness really hit me. I tried some ginger
that didn't work. I tried to look out of windows to make sure I
could see what I could feel. I nearly went over the edge, needing a
trash can, so I had to leave my post of ping editing to go lie down
for a while. I didn't think I was tired, but I went to sleep nearly
immediately without feeling sleepy. It was the strangest thing.
When I woke up the motion sickness medication had kicked in, and I
was ready to get back to work after about 2 hours off. I'm now
getting sleepy again because the medication is starting to wear off.
It's weird to think that what doesn't make me sick puts me to sleep.

Biology

I will be working the night shift from now on. That means I work
from 6pm to 6am. Tonight is actually my last night off. We just
started moving the ship about a few hours ago, so we aren't doing any
pings yet; therefore, I have no pings to edit.
Last night I stayed up until 3 am to try to acclimate to my new
schedule. I would have stayed up until six, but you have to be so
quiet when you work the night shift, and I got bored. I woke up
around 9 am and waitied until lunch rolled around. At about noon I
heard there were orcas outside! This was really exciting. We most
likely won't be seeing a lot of orcas throughout the rest of the
trip, but since we are so close to the ice, we will be seeing a few.
I saw four this morning. They were playing in front, around, and on
the side of the ship. They were so amazing! They aren't very big
whales, but they stick their dorsal fins out all the time. I also
saw one little adelie penguin jump from the ice into the water. That
was really neat too. I am glad I got to see them, but all of them
were so far away that I didn't get to take a picture. I guess all of
you will just have to come down to the cold Antarctic to see them for
yourselves!

Ping editing

Today I learned about ping editing. This is the end of a very long and complicated process. The ship uses a "multibeam" system. Simply, on the bottom of the boat there is a device that periodically shoots a "ping" a big sound off into the water. The sound then goes to the rocks and sediment below the boat (this can be 20-800 meters deep water) and reflects back to a receiver that is also connected to the boat. Our ship shoots off a "swath" of sounds to cover a big area of ground. Using basic physics laws we understand the topography of the bottom of the ocean through the reflection of the sound back to the ship. These physics laws would have to do with sound, density, salinity, etc. Each ping occurs approximately every 5 seconds (this is a rough estimate). The deeper the water, the longer it takes for the sound to reflect back to the receiver. It's really interesting. I have discovered that many different areas of geology use sound to find out about the sediment, rocks, and topography. For example, seismology is used for oil fields. Seismology is kind of like multibeam in that seismology uses sound and density to find out about rock. Oil companies dig a core (a big long cylinder out of the ground) then send an electric wire down the hole and put of a big sound. This sound reflects back telling the oil company what kinds of rock are around in addition if there are petroleum wells, gases, etc. Anyway, I'll stop boring you all with that now. What ping editing does is edit each sound's reflection. Due to different things that can react with the sound such as bubbles, big waves, floating objects, ice, etc, the pings collect a lot of errors. I get to go through all of the data and make sure the topography that is reflected follows a pattern like all geology does. Like, when you are going up a hill, there is a slope, it isn't just straight up vertically without any gradual movement up to that. The errors in the pings usually turn up like a vertical change in topography which is pretty much impossible with geology. Anyway, yeah, that's what I did today, I will be back with more background in a few days.