Hi All,

This will be my last (and perhaps best) mass email from Antarctica.  With any luck I will be heading north to the uncivilized world, where the sun actually goes down.  Imagine such a barbaric place that it got dark at nighttime.  Gives me the shivers.

Let's see.  What has happened since the last time I wrote?  That was about a week ago.  Since, I went to Diamond Hill, to the south of McMurdo.  I rode out on a 212 (the larger helicopter here) to Lake Vida, in the dry valleys, and also McSaveney Spur, at the top of the Barwick Valley.

The ride out to Diamond hill was pretty serene.  Only the occasional crevasse reminded me of my mortality.  Below you can see several lying on the Ross Ice Shelf.  It is not the ones you can see that you have to worry about. It is the ones you can’t that will swallow you whole in a split second.  But that is only if you are traveling on the surface.  Up in the air, we were perfectly safe.

On the other hand, we got an amazing tour around Discovery.  The day lent itself to voyeurism.  We arrived at about 10:30 AM.  To do so we awoke about 6:00 AM to get down to the lab by 7:00.  This gave us about 20 minutes to get all the hand carry items down to the helipad, which was literally right outside.  Once there, we found that the site had to be placed on another moraine.  A moraine is a pile of rocks that has been dumped in place by a glacier.

Now, moraines are interesting to geologists and geophysicists alike.  However, they do not react the same to earthquakes as solid rock.  They are not as solid, which means that they shake differently.  What we hoped for is that since it is sooooo cold in Antarctica that the moraine would be frozen sold, and shake much like other solid rock surfaces.  This moraine lay at the bottom of a glacial valley, extended miles in each direction.  Each boulder seemed to have come from a different place, and probably did.  Glaciers have the capability to move rocks many, many miles.  We saw volcanic rocks (igneous extrusive).  We saw rocks that formed deep within the earth (igneous intrusive).  There were sedimentary rocks which were baked and pressed into metamorphic rocks). 

This far down the valley we found that the glacier had rounded most of the rocks.  Later you will see that up further in a glacial valley the rocks are not so round.  The rounding is due to two forces; air and ice.  The catabatics, which are winds that come screaming down from the plateau, have enough speed to pick up pebbles and sand.  This sand then grinds away at the larger rocks, smoothing them out.  The ice, over many years rolls the rocks together and pounds them until they break and round.

 

(Above left) We see a rounded rock with a salt deposit on the right found just by where we put up our solar panel A-frame (Above right). This salt deposit occurs because water collects, and then evaporates.  The salt is then left behind.

The day was nearly picture perfect.  We finished early.  While Patrick took a nap, Don and I headed up the hill to look for a better view.  While we found one that was better, we were forced to turn back before reaching the peak of the small knoll.  While the top seemed like it was just a little ways a away, it took us 40 minutes to get to a point that looked no closer.  I swear that it is impossible to tell distances in Antarctica!

On the trip back to McMurdo two A-stars (known to all other nationalities as squirrels) picked us up.  I had the privilege of sitting in the front seat.  Big John, the pilot, was a most informative tour guide.  Below you can see the other A-star from where I was sitting in the front seat.

On the way down we couldn't see much because all of our equipment blocked the views.  We did not suffer this problem on the return trip.  Below are just a few of the views offered by this gem of a day.

The day after a couple of us went to Lake Vida, in the Write Valley.  Unfortunately I didn't charge my camera the night before, so I couldn't take any pictures.  Other members of the group have been assured me that that I will get plenty of copies. So in time, you may see them too.

The dry valleys left me both awestruck and a little disappointed.  While they were huge, vast, and larger than life, there was something seriously lacking.  I think that it was greenery that I kept looking for.  I don’t mean to slander the dry valleys in any way. I just think they would be even more impressive if they had life.  I have read that just a couple million years ago bay trees, very similar to those found in New Zealand, in and around the dry valleys.  While the dry valleys were amazing, the dry valleys millions of years ago would have been more amazing!

We did see one sign of life, or of life past.  We saw the remains of a mummified seal.  We had just heard about these a day or two before. For some reason or other, seals were known to find themselves lost way up in the dry valleys.  With no food of any kind, they meet their maker.  The dry, cold climate dries them out and preserves them.  If I had pictures to show you, it would seem obvious to you that this seal was not perfectly preserved.  Like the stones that become rounded by the winds, this seal’s underside (which was exposed to the sky) had been sanded right off.  We could see the vertebrae still intact.  The flippers remained in quite good order.  The winds stripped the skin from the creature, but some of the organs could be seen plainly.  The bone marrow cells were quite visible.

On the backside (laying flush with the ground) we found that the seal still had fine hair.  If only the Egyptians could have mummified this well!

Monday the 18th, just two days before our departure date, we had one more site to visit.  Don and Jerry were already on the C-130, headed back north.  We were scheduled for flight at 11:30 AM, but were pushed up an hour and a half with literally no warning.  Another group had run into a snag, and couldn't fly.

We were afraid that we wouldn't be able to fly at all.  Just two days before an A-star, the smaller of the two helicopters flown by Americans in Antarctica, crashed.  There were no injuries.  The A-star often employs a sling to carry more equipment from a rope.  This rope is called the long line.  That Friday while carrying a light load, the long line snapped.  When a long line breaks, the line snaps back up and often hits the rotor blades.  Three scenarios can unfold from there.  1) The line does not cause any damage.  2)  The line breaks the blade(s).  3) The line gets tangled in the blades and stops them completely.

One of the A-star's three blades lost 8 feet off the tip.  This along with the sudden imbalance of the helicopter forced the pilot to go down in a semi-controlled landing.  This was the first accident in five years of PHI's service down in Antarctica.  Believe it or not, most of the crashes in Antarctica have left none hurt.  But each time, it makes those who do fly, that much more edgy.

So, Monday the 18th we piled into a 212 a little unnerved, but confident.  On the way up we heard the weather report.  Good weather should hold for at least a day.  But then again, who really knew.  The weather reports in Antarctica were very rough.  In LA they have thousands of weather stations feeding back terabytes of data.  In Antarctica there are only a few bases spread out over an entire continent.

Clouds had rolled in.  The clouds, while ominous to us, also added depth to the scene.  I feel fortunate to have seen the dry valleys with clouds to add a dynamic feel.  The clouds changed the dry valleys.  Nothing seemed missing any more.  They no longer needed life to make them complete.  They just needed clouds, scale, proportion.  The weather gave my eye a way to judge what I was seeing.  I feel fortunate to have taken the pictures below.  By far, this was my best day in Antarctica.

Please peruse the pictures below.  Enjoy:

(Above) Taylor Valley with Canada glacier running in from the north.

(Above) Write Valley with clouds above.

(Above) Near the top of Balham Valley.  These hills reminded me of Arizona or New Mixico.

(Above) Above McSaveney Spur. It is just starting to get steep.

(Above) Webb Glacier falling down from the plateau.  This glacier drops about 1000 meters!  That is over 3000 feet.  It drops in less than 500 meters!  Talk about steep.

(Above) Looking down the upper Barwick Valley towards McSaveney Spur.  The fog (clouds really) came in and out all day.

(Avove) The upper Barwick Valley!  Look at this thing.  I don't know if you can see the detail, but this valley is magnificent.  It had just snowed before we got there, and it would soon snow again.  I love that calm that comes right after a fresh snow.

(Left) The helicopter takes off, kicking up all the fresh snow as it goes.  Helicopters really are amazing beasts.

(Left) Looking down from below the iced over waterfall.  (Above) Looking down another gully I climbed up.  This one was a bit more slippery, and required a bit of tricky footwork. (Below)  Looking down the gully to the left, but further down.

(Above) A cave I crawled into between the two gullies.  One interesting fact about Antarctica, which I appreciated throughout my fieldwork, and exploring, is that there are no spiders, snakes, or any other poisonous creatures.  This makes turning over rocks, putting hands in nice rock holds, and working outside a much more pleasant experience.

Well, this has gotten long enough.  If you have read the whole thing, you are probably bored by now.  So I will leave Antarctica with a smile, and say cheers, for now.

-Jess.

P.S.  Mom and Dad, I will be home Thurdsay morning at 9:00 AM. We will talk.  Love ya.