Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 12/06/2008 - 07:57
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Erebus Volcano Antarctica

Dear Mr.Wood,

Once you are at the top of Mount Erebus will it be hard to walk in the snow? Are you going to collect the volcanic bombs while you are in the middle of your expidition, beginning, or  at the endwhen you go and collect all the sciesmographs? Can you take a picture of a bomb if you see a fresh one? If the camera that is at the top of the crater, then how come it never gets hit by one of the bombs or of lava? Does Mt. Erebus shoot out a lot of lava or does it just erupt small amounts? Hope you answer soon! Bye! Hope the weather stays nice.

                Sincerely,

                Cynthia Phan

            (1st period and homeroom)
 

Sat, 12/06/2008 - 15:52

John Wood

Cynthia,We reached the top of Mt. Erebus yesterday!  What a wonderful sight.  It's colder up here and the air is a lot thinner, so it's harder to breath.  Walking through the snow can be more difficult but the snow up here is very dry and hard so most of the time walking is ok.  When we were at the Fang camp I recorded the sounds of walking in the snow.  I think it sounds really cool.  We went out this morning to install some of the seismometers.  Each station should take about 15-20 minutes to put in.  But with the cold and the wind and sometimes having to dig into the hard ice, we were only able to install 4 stations in a little over 3 hours.  We were all very cold when we went back to the hut for lunch.  I will do most of my collecting after we install all of the stations.  We are trying to get them all in by the 24th of this month.  I will take pictures of any fresh bombs that I see.  The camera went out maybe because it was hit by a bomb.  We will not be up there for a while so we are not sure.  Erebus erupts just a little each day so only small amounts come out.  Well the weather is getting worse so we have to decide if we will try to install more stations this afternoon.  Say hi to everyone for me.
Cheers,
Mr. Wood