Location: Ice Station Belgica We have officially established our home base for the next three weeks or so. Ice Station Belgica is the name given to the project location. The ice floe we’re working on is approximately circular and we think about 1.5 miles in diameter. Over the next few weeks we’ll be busy marking, measuring, coring, counting, digging, sampling, and surveying the ice, snow, slush, water and biology in the area. Our first full day on the ice was October 1. The Belgian-Canadian group established their first 2 work sites and clean areas. To avoid confusion about which site is which I learned that familiar names are often given to work sites on a project such as ours. The name Belgica is in honor of the Belgian ship that explored Antarctica in 1897-1899. The Belgica became lodged in the pack ice in this area for more than a year during the expedition. Brussels and Liege have been chosen by the Belgian group for their initial sites.
The geophysics site named our initial site Fabra in honor of one of the elementary schools in my school district. We would like to name our other work sites (2 more?) in honor of other schools that are following our expedition, so if you’d like your school’s name immortalized in Antarctic research please leave a message on the "Ask the Team” portion of this site telling us why we should choose your school!
A great deal of work has been completed in a short amount of time. The major ice efforts by the groups are for now taking place on alternating days with a "rest day” in between. Most of the data collection equipment has now been installed in fine tuning is taking place to make sure instruments are working properly.
Steve is adjusting the snow depth sensor on the ice mass balance buoy.*
The geophysics group has had two productive days on the ice. The first day was "cushy” compared to the second since we were close enough to the ship to go in for lunch and an afternoon break. We were on the ice from 9:30 until 7:00 that evening, but with an hour and a half of breaks inside the ship the work day was comfortable and quite pleasant. It was nice to be outside for long periods of time after spending so much time on the ship the last month. Our second day on the ice was colder and not so cushy! We were working away from the ship far enough that we decided to stay out all day – so we packed our lunches and headed for the field. We took a break for lunch in a "survival tent” that had been erected earlier in the week. The tent was big enough for the six of us to get out of the wind for a while. We sat on the snow floor and ate what we had packed for lunch. Nothing like a frozen cheese or peanut butter sandwich to satisfy your hunger! The juice in my juice box had become more like a slushy, which actually was quite good. Our Belgian friends who were working at this site on Monday left some cookies in the tent that we enjoyed with our frozen sandwiches. Thanks for the cookies (and the chocolates you share with us on the ship)! I should note that the Belgian group has a much tougher schedule than we do. They will be out on the ice many days for 12 or more hours with only the warming tent for comfort. These guys (and gals) are serious about ice!
Brent ponders the status of our radio during our lunch break in the survival tent.
We’ve become acquainted with a number of penguins in the area. We aren’t allowed to approach them, but they are quite social and like to see what we are doing. They have been mostly emperor penguins, but there is an Adelie around sometimes. You can see the Adelie off to the side in the picture below – we’ve named him "tag along” because he seems doesn’t interact with the Emperors but always seems to be following them around.
Humans imitating penguins?
I brought my video camera out one afternoon and as soon as I could set it on the ice a group of emperors headed my way. Anything new seems to catch their eye. They came to within two feet of me and stayed with me for ten minutes or so while I video-taped them.
These emperors put on a show for me to record.
Tomorrow we’re scheduled for lab work and some small projects in the afternoon. It’s great to be in the middle of so much exciting science. In coming editions of this journal I’ll fill you in on what everyone is working on. Stay tuned for exciting topics such as "Keith and His Penguin Attracting Peepers,” "Counting Snowflakes Made Easy,” and "Jaylo’s Ice Adventures.” You probably think I’m kidding about the exciting party, but I’m not…Keith’s peepers are measuring carbon dioxide in the ice, Katie’s snowflake counter will help scientists understand precipitation events at sea, and Jaylo’s group is always doing something interesting! Stay tuned!