Heading Home
I am back at McMurdo preparing to leave the ice and return home. Although there were frequent weather delays, the time spent at the central Beacon Valley site turned out to be an expedition highlight for me in terms of making the Antarctic Dry Valleys/ Mars connection. Feel free to check back for lesson plans from this expedition which will be posted in the future.
Here are some final photos I would like to share from this 2012 expedition.
Photograph of Beacon Sandstone and volcanic rock.
Photograph of Cavendish Ice Falls.
Changing sea ice in McMurdo Sound.
The Ice Flight Home
The Ice Flight home was not on a C-17, but a C-130 which is smaller and slower. The flight took 8 1/2 hours. The good news is that the plane was not crowded and passengers could spread out. C-130s are famous for the high tech lavatory facilities (a bucket and a curtain). I drank no coffee on the morning of the flight to New Zealand.
These photographs were taken of structures at the Pegasus Runway waiting for the Ice Flight to New Zealand.
Here is a view inside the C-130 airplane.
I will close this ending journal with a short video clip of a snow devil shot in the labyrinth area.
http://youtu.be/5nGdixwlEh8