Location: Ice Station Belgica Latitude: 69° 49′ S Longitude: 92° 10′ W Air temperature: -7.2 °C (19 °F) Wind chill: -18.7 °C (-1.6 °F) Barometric pressure: 973.6 mBar
Antarctic trivia (answer at the end of this journal entry): How many penguins live in Antarctica?
It seems our team has a bit of a problem with equipment - we keep breaking or losing it. It’s a good thing the marine techs can repair things as fast as we break them – thanks Ben, Erik, and Jeremy. Here’s the list so far:
Broken A brand new ice thickness measuring tape (not a cheap measuring tape of course) Another ice thickness measuring tape (but it was repairable) A 100-m measuring tape (wind and measuring tapes don’t mix) The connecting pin to an auger (and we got the broken section stuck in the ice) The latch on a plastic case holding survey equipment
Now at the bottom of the Bellingshausen Sea - The "butterfly” at the end of the broken ice thickness tape Two ice thickness gauges (if only we’d made the handles a little longer)
Stuck in the ice at the bottom of a four-foot hole – The bit to an auger (We’ve heard rumors about a strong magnet being involved in the rescue mission for this item.)
Miscellaneous mishap A shocking event with a power auger. (It’s always good to remember that water, or in this case icy gloves, and power tools don’t mix.)
Either we are really tough on equipment, or Antarctica is!
The geophysics team spent a long day measuring snow and ice thicknesses along our most "interesting” transect line. Every five meters we shoveled the snow out of the way, drilled a hole through the ice with an auger, then measured ice, snow, and slush thickness. It didn’t sound like too bad of a job at first, and it was important work, so we plunged (or should I say ‘shoveled’) ahead first thing.
I must say in advance that I haven’t shoveled a great deal of snow in my life. There are distant memories of living in the Midwest when I was a kid and playing in the snow, but no memories of shoveling. I guess that’s another thing my Mom took care of while I was off having fun…or maybe it was my older sisters…in any event, shoveling snow is pretty much another "first” for me on this trip. I did have better luck with the snow shovel than the auger, and I found that shoveling keeps you pretty warm down here.
Even the chief scientist shovels snow around here!
The beginning of our 300-m line wasn’t too bad, but the snow and ice started getting thick around the 100-m mark. Snow depths ranged from 12 to 150 cm (5 to 59 inches) and ice thicknesses ranged from 65 cm (25 inches) to greater than 5 meters (more than 16 feet). Not exactly thin ice…we ended the day without finishing our 300 meters; we’ll go out tomorrow and finish the line.
Penguins don’t seem to mind power tools.
Blake convinced the penguins not to cross the electrical
leads he had set up for a resistivity experiment.
We had a nice visit from two of our penguin friends during the afternoon. The Belgian-Canadian group spent the day processing samples in the lab. They are out again tomorrow to start their third sampling cycle. We’ll finish today’s project tomorrow then enter data in the afternoon.
Answer to today’s Antarctic trivia question: How many penguins live in Antarctica? It is believed that there are 180 million penguins in Antarctica! Why so many? A rich food supply and no enemies on land are the reasons.
Marine mammals and sea birds spotted today by Brent: Crabeater seal ("Seal watch” continues on our port-side pair.) Southern fulmar Giant petrel Snow petrel Antarctic petrel Adelie penguin Emperor penguin
That’s all from Ice Station Belgica today. Stay tuned for more adventures (and broken tools) to come!