Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/23/2012 - 05:06
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Seafloor Organisms and Changing Ocean Conditions in Antarctic

Good Morning Nell,

It bright and sunny in SC this morning, and it's supposed to be warm this afternoon (50s). Your temp of 38 in today's journal sounds toasty!

Thanks for the geology hike pictures. The landscape looks so rocky, even the soil you took a picture of looks more granular/pebbly than what we think of as soil. Is it that way everywhere or is there fine grained soil in places? How large was the area of the soil in your picture?

The Marr Glacier is huge. Do you have any idea how thick the ice is where it meets the ocean? Will you ever have the chance to go out on the glacier?

Tami

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 05:54

Nell Herrmann

Hi Tami,Thanks for the note. I've been hearing that the weather in State College is spring-like. Wow! I've been really lucky with the weather so far; until today it's been bright and sunny. The weather this morning is more typical according to folks here- it's overcast with snow and rain showers. It won't be quite as fun to go out on the boat this afternoon as it has been in the past few days! ;)
I actually hiked up on top of the Marr Glacier the first day I was here. There are some pictures from that hike in my journal from 2-18-2012. It was about a 2 mile hike up the glacier and down the back side. The glacier has been receding in the past 50 years; it's calved and melted quite a bit because of climate change. I can't find any information at the moment about its thickness, but plan to write an entire journal about the glacier. I'll get back to you on that one.
The soil in my pictures is the only kind I've seen on the peninsula; I haven't seen any soils that are finer, but from what I've read there are finer soils in the Dry Valleys (nearer to McMurdo Station). The soil here on the peninsula is all relatively young (50 years old or so according to one of the geologists) which in part explains its texture.
Have a good day,
Nell