Today was basically a transit day to Elephant Island. On our way to Elephant Island, we did finally travel beyond the latitude of 60 degrees south, which means we are now in Antarctic waters! We should be arriving at Elephant Island at about 9:00 in the morning, and the corals group plans on getting straight to work with a Blake trawl. My shift will start during the middle of their trawl, so I am excited about sharing that news with you tomorrow.
This afternoon another presentation was given, this time by the chief scientist, Ian. His talk was titled, Rocks, Ice, and Water, The Antarctic Ice Sheet and its Future. He focused on the differences between west and east Antarctica, the formation of Gondwanaland, the changes, if any in the mass of the ice sheet of west Antarctica, and the formation of lakes on east Antarctica. I learned so much and really enjoyed his presentation.
The remainder of the day was spent organizing and packing all the rock samples for shipping to the United Kingdom.
Matt and I finished up making the bags of rock samples, and then moved on to packing them in shipping boxes.
All the rock samples will meet Julian, Alan, and Matt in Cardiff for further geochemical tests. We are all interested in knowing more about the rocks from the seafloor of the Scotia Sea!
Congrats to all Zilker students for an excellent field day! I got a report from my student, Erin, that my class won Tug-of-Friendship-great job!! I am so bummed that I missed it, but I am proud of your effort and great sportsmanship. Also, thanks to Ms. Ponzoha for another awesome field day, I am sorry that I missed it!