G-063 hits Christchurch
Our research team's official USAP identification number is G-063, so that's what I'm calling us. There are 7 of us, and 5 are traveling together, to be joined by 2 more in about a month. You've met Tyler Mackey, he's one of the Principle Investigators and he's featured on the home page. I've also introduced you to Megan, who is the main character in the journal titled "Meet the Microbiologist". It's time for you to meet the other 2 team members.
Sasha Leidman
Its been a pleasure to get to know Sasha! Here he is to greet you:
Hi, I'm Sasha. I'm a Junior Specialist at UC Davis and I'll be joining the research team in Antarctica. I graduated from UC Davis this past spring majoring in Geology with a minor in Watershed Sciences and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). At Davis I did my senior thesis on Lake Vanda, an ice covered lake just on the other side of the ridge from Lake Joyce, trying to determine the water balance of the lake along with developing a new method of interpolating the lakes bathymetry (underwater topography). At Lake Joyce, I'll be mainly helping out the drilling processes and developing more up to date subsurface maps based on the data we collect in the field. This will be my first time to Antarctica (the first time off the continent even) and I'm really excited. This past summer I worked as a Glacier Monitoring Specialist for the Denali National Park in Alaska. The park glaciologist and I did high precision GPS surveys of several glaciers within the park as well as drilled in ablation stakes (large metal poles) into the ice to monitor how much volume of water was lost this season. I've always enjoyed science, especially that which gets me outside and exploring the intricacies of nature. While my affinity for geology stemmed from my love for backpacking and hiking, I didn't get involved with glaciers until two years ago when I joined the Juneau Icefield Research Project (JIRP). On the Juneau Icefield, along with a team of undergraduates and grad students, I took mass balance measurements and studied changes in supraglacial (on top of the ice) streams in response to weather variations. Other interesting facts about me are that I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada, I was nominated as a finalist for the Mars Arctic 365 program (a Mars Simulation and Polar Research Mission in the Canadian Arctic), I've completed Wilderness First Responder medical training, and I'm currently applying for grad schools to continue studying glaciers and polar hydrology in the Pacific Northwest. The research project in at Lake Joyce is going to be a great learning experience and a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to getting out on the ice.
Sasha Leidman at Botantical Garden, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Justin Lawrence
Justin is a fun member of our group! He's actually the former student of another PolarTREC teacher, Lisa Seff! (Hint: that means that students of mine could become polar scientists too!) Justin writes:
I grew up either in the ocean or outside on the East End of Long Island and developed an interest in science early on. [Lucy- one of your fellow PolarTREC teachers, Lisa Seff, was my 8th grade Earth Science teacher and is definitely partly to blame here]. I continued on to study environmental geoscience and biology at Boston College, as well as oceanography while abroad with Sea Education Association. After graduating last year I was fortunate to join the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) limnology team from Montana State University last year in the Dry Valleys. I assisted with sample collection and analysis as part of the vast, ongoing LTER project. While working at Lake Vanda, I met some of the UC Davis team which lead to my involvement this year. I'm looking forward to helping out with general field and camp operations, drilling sampling holes, and anything else that may need to get done. When not down on the ice I work at a financial services company striving to direct investments into companies that have positive social and environmental benefits. Ultimately, I hope to return to graduate school to study astrobiology. I like to spend my free time to sailing, surfing, cycling, or hiking.
Justin Lawrence with the gear at U.C.Davis.
Hitting Christchurch
We spent the morning doing errands around the city. Thanks to Tyler, we stayed on the left side of the roads. We went shopping for some grocery items the USAP won't provide us with. We also spend some time talking about how to deploy sediment traps, which you'll hear a lot more about in future journals.
This afternoon we ventured out on foot to the city center, where there's a superb park with an idyllic botanical garden. Its spring here, and everything is lush and green and flowering. We all took so many pictures and joked about how the greenery will soon be nothing but a fantasy to us when we're in the Dry Valleys.
G-063 on the loose in the botantical gardens of Christchurch, New Zealand.
A fern frond unfurling in the Botanical Gardens of Christchurch, New Zealand.
Lucy Coleman in the Botantical Gardens of Christchurch, New Zealand.
The damage to the main catherdral done by the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand.
We also visited the Canterbury Museum, which had a ton of artifacts and displays related to Antarctic exploration. It was interesting to compare modern expeditions with what early explorers experienced a hundred years ago.
A model of the Scott Party- an earlier Antarctic Expedition that ended badly. At the Canterbury Museum.
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