Go to the UNIS website (http://www.unis.no) to read the story about the REU students.
The REU students made the latest news on the UNIS website!
The article will always be available as a PDF file on the PolarTREC website at http://www.polartrec.com/resources/article/4839
What a gorgeous day in Longyearbyen! The skies were clear and the air temperature was in the mid 40's - not too bad for the high Arctic!
Today we heard a couple more pre-field lectures where Al Werner spoke about the geologic evolution of Svalbard, and Mike Retelle spoke about glaciations and isostasy. The lectures were teasers because all we wanted to do afterwards was head into the field and figured out the unanswered questions. That will come since we are leaving tomorrow for Kapp Linne!
The rest of the day was used by the students to work on the background research for their field studies or to make last minute purchases. Al and Mike used the afternoon to finalize the logistics and to consolidate the equipment brought from the US with the equipment stored at UNIS. As mentioned in a previous journal entry it can be quite tricky packing field equipment, especially when some of the study methods have not been totally worked out yet. Knowing Al and Mike, we will have everything we need, and if we don't, we'll improvise!
And we still need to get our personal belongings into the field
There is an inventory list for each drum,trunk and duffle.
Coming soon are geography, geology, and climate lessons from the field, and soon you will be meeting the students and learning about their research projects. For now I need to back up my gear for tomorrow's journey. It's guaranteed to be an adventure because we get to wear the dry suits again!!!
We all gathered for one more team dinner and picture for heading into the field.
Still can't get over the amount of daylight up here!
Those of you counting the bear and cougar in pictures - how are you doing? Be careful, because there is only one bear and one CHS cougar! Head back to the photo gallery for the picture and the journal entry for the contest rules. Good luck!