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Journal Entries
2005-06
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| Jump to a specific journal entry by Marianne Kaput: | ||
| August 2005 | 23 | |
| October 2005 | 31 | |
| December 2005 | 15 29 30 31 | |
| January 2006 | 1 3 4 5 7 9 10-11 12-14 15 16-17 18-19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | |
| February 2006 | 1 2 5 6-8 10 | |
| Click here to access journal entries by Giancarlo Lopez-Martinez or Luke Sandro. | ||
January 5, 2006 - Palmer Station, Antarctica! Yippee, we finally made it!
I was awakened bright and early (5 am to be exact, and we all know how much I love mornings — NOT!) by Rick Lee knocking on my cabin door saying, "Wake up and see the views!" So my roommate Joann and I got dressed in 2 minutes, grabbed our hats and gloves, and went out on deck. What a magnificent scene appeared before us! The Drake Passage was very calm but it was so foggy that we could only see about 50 feet off the boat. This morning, everything was crystal clear. In front of the boat were massive mountains covered in glacial ice. They were unlike any mountains I have ever seen! The glacial ice is a distinct robin's egg blue, mixed with pure white streaks of ice that is miles thick! The denser the ice, the bluer the color. And to think that the ice I was looking at is the same ice seen by many of the earliest Antarctic explorers. Deep below the ice were stark and contrasting dark gray rocks protruding high above the deep blue ocean water. Scattered around the boat were icebergs of all sizes and shapes. The smaller icebergs are very appropriately named bergie bits. Scattered among the other chunks of ice are these dark black, razor sharp, clear pieces of ice called bar ice.
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Turning the final corner of a narrow passageway we finally made our way to Palmer Station. It felt as if we had finally made it to Oz. We had a warm welcome at the station and were given a tour of the facilities.
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That was followed by survival training in case we got stuck out on an island. We had to practice pitching a tent in the wind and how to light the stoves to melt ice into water for drinking. We then got in our float suits and took one of the Zodiacs out onto the water with an instructor to learn how to maneuver these black rubber rafts around the area. We each took turns until we were comfortable steering the boat, docking at the islands, reading the GPS (global positioning system) and using the two-way radios that keep track of where we are. We even practiced how to safely and quickly get Bob (the dummy) out of the water in case one of us accidentally ended up in the freezing water.
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And yes, Alli, I have seen penguins — tons of them! Wait till you see the pictures! Til then...
- Marianne Kaput (a.k.a. Kaput-on-Ice)
January 7, 2006 - Palmer Station, Antarctica (64° S Latitude)
Each day brings a new adventure. We started out early yesterday morning in search of the mighty Belgica antarctica. We set out in a Zodiac, a small rubber raft with a motor, and headed for one of the many islands around us. We were in luck at Torgersen Island. We found them! Hundreds of these mighty critters! Collecting them is exciting work — NOT! BUT it is interesting. The Belgica larvae are found in their protective home under a rock. We gently place them into bags to take into the lab to sort and separate into sample groups for experiments in the lab. We collected about 1,700 larvae in one day on one island! Quite a catch!
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After dinner I hiked a glacier with a couple of new friends. We tied some snowshoes to our backs, grabbed some water, and set out for a hike in our back yard glacier.
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These glaciers are tens of thousands years old and are over 400 feet thick. Half way up the glacier someone stopped and said, "Listen!" We heard the most unusual sound that sounded like bongo drums — it was water. Water was running under the ice below us! Since the temperature is so warm (about 34°F/1° C), the top layer of ice and snow is beginning to melt and it finds its way down small cracks in the glacier. Larger cracks are called crevasses and can be very wide and even deeper. Talk about an unsettling sound! We carefully made our way up to the top, occasionally stopping to listen to the water. The first thing I did when I got to the top was make a snow angel in the snow and then we had a "snow toast". We could eat the snow here because it is totally pure. There is no pollution from cars or factories, unlike the snow where you live.
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- Marianne Kaput (a.k.a. Kaput-on-Ice)