Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 06:41
Forums
Antarctic Weather Stations

Hello from Class 2 (Blanco Middle School) on Tuesday 15th Jan.

We read this last week's journals today, and have a few questions.

1.  What is the lat and long for weather station Mary?  We couldn't find it on our maps.  Is it a new one, or just further out?

2.  The two weather stations that you mentioned you were going to visit, then the flights got cancelled, what are they called?  Did you ever get to them?

3.  6 million gallons of fuel seems a lot to be delivered at one time.  Are there special storage requirements due to the cold and pristine environment?

More later.

Ms. Perez

Tue, 01/15/2008 - 12:11

Kirk Beckendorf

Great questions!!!Mary was one of the two stations that we didn't make it to the other day and the other was Schwerdtfeger at 79.9 South and 170 East. Mary is fairly close to Schwerdtfeger at 79.3 S and 163 E (close to where Scott died). Yesterday (the 15th) we went to both of them.
I am not sure how much different the regs on storage are than anywhere else, however each tank is surrounded by a large levee. I'll see what else I can find out. There are also fuel lines running the two miles over to Scott Base and on out to Willie Airfield. The lines are above ground, the ones to Willie are just laying on top of the ice, I would imagine that there are lots of regs on that. Fuel and chemical leaks are a huge concern here. Just filling up a diesel tank on the Pisten Bully is done with caution. You do not top off the tank and you wipe the nozzle with oil absorbant  towels when you are through, so that no leakage occurs.
It's great to hear from you!!
Mr. B.