Continue to part 2-->
Days like today make it difficult for me to believe that I am on the coldest continent on earth! What a glorious day. Yes, it was still cold, only about 8 degrees, but there was very little wind and clear blue sky. The area warmed up nicely. After we completed some work this morning, three of us decided to take a break and walk over to Scott Base, which is the New Zealand (or "Kiwi") base. We gathered up our cold weather gear - don't forget.... even though the conditions at any given moment may be fantastic, it can change drastically within minutes - and checked out of town at the fire house. We walked the trail called the "Cape Armitage Loop." This trail took us out onto the sea ice and around the Cape Armitage peninsula over to Scott Base. It was quite humbling to comtemplate that the ice we were walking on sits atop 1000 feet of sea water!
(I am having trouble gettting video clips posted from here. Miss Adams is trying to help me get the video clips posted - keep checking back for video clips. Thanks Miss Adams!)
 |
One of the rules when traveling on the sea ice is to stay on the flagged routes. At times.... it gets a bit confusing!
|
This is White Island (on the left) and Black Island (on the right). These are important islands to this area. Directly between them is facing south, so if we were to keep walking in that direction, theoretically we would get to the South Pole. But, the reason they are important is because that is the direction from which most of the fiercest storms come. The rule of thumb is that if you can no longer see the bluff to the left of Black Island, take shelter as quickly as possible!
|
 |
 |
From this angle, you can start to appreciate the massiveness of Mt. Erebus. Notice, also, the plume of steam coming out of the crater! McMurdo Station is visible in the nearby hills.
|
We made it to our destination! |
 |
 |
The view of Mt. Erebus from the "Kiwi" side!
It's easy to understand why I considered this a glorious day!
|
When we got back from our hike, we had a quick dinner, did some more work, and then went to the Sunday night science lecture. Dr. Doug MaCayeal was the speaker and he was fascinating to listen to, and funny! He studies icebergs, and this evening's lecture was all about the B-15 berg that wreaked so much havoc in this region. His team was responsible for placing monitors on the iceberg in order to track it (when it was moving - it was stuck here for 40 months!) and monitor what happens to "bergs" as they move. He also has learned a tremendous amount about global conditions from his monitors on the bergs in Antarctica. B-15 broke off the Ice Shelf in March of 2000. It took 12 months for it to float by McMurdo where it got stuck. It got stuck because of the wind patterns coming around Mt. Erebus. Because it was stuck, the sea ice in McMurdo sound could not "break out" as it usually does and for a few years, the ice got thicker and thicker. This caused seals to stay further away from the area because they need the open cracks to breath through. This also caused tremendous problems for the adelie penguin colonies. They had to travel so far to reach the ice edge in order to forage, that they literally were starving to death and unable to bring enough food back to their chicks after they hatched. Believe it or not, Tsunamis that were happening around the Pacific were a significant factor in the initial breaking up and moving on of B-15. The most significant one was the Tonga tsunami of May 4, 2006. Thanks, in part, to that tsunami, the adelie colonies are recovering. It just goes to show how intimately the world is connected, even over seemingly vast and dividing distances. We're all in this together; what we do has global impacts.
Continue to part 2 --->
•Ms. Ellwood - rellwood@sau50.k12.nh.us
Questions may be posted with the answers on the page below.
• Questions and answers about the trip.
|
Antarctica 2006 
Antarctica 2006 homepage.