Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 20:51
Forums
Glacial History in Antarctica

Hi! Hows it goin in Antarctica? Well i have a few dumb questions for you(;

  1. Could learning about these Glacier Erratics help us with the big issue of global warming by showing us what happened in the past???

  2. Do you have special pjs to keep u extra warm?

  3. How do you keep up with bathing and cleansing, do you have face wipes, dry shampoo, or anything?

  4. Are you and your team becoming friends, or is it strictly science, no fun talk or anything? haha

Thanks, Kelsi Portz

Fri, 01/14/2011 - 10:13

Lesley Urasky

Kelsi,
Wow! Lots of great questions (there's no such thing as a dumb question)!
1. One of the key concepts in geology is that the "Present is the Key to the Past". This means that processes we observe happening today can be assumed to have happened the same way in the past. If this is true, then we can also take reconstructed events from the past and apply them to processes today. By looking at the rate of retreat of glaciers that feed into the Ross Ice Shelf along with other data from scientists also working down here, we can potentially project Antarctic glacial retreat into the future. Data that John Stone collects can be combined with climate data derived from ice cores from the same time period. Scientists can then make a correlation between today's climate and current glacial movement, and then using computer models, make predictions for the future.
2. No, I don't have special pj's to keep me warm. I usually just crawl into my sleeping bag with some of my clothes still on. I take the felt liners out of my Sorel snow boots and hang them in the top of the tent to dry overnight and change my socks into dry ones. The damp socks go into my sleeping bag with me to dry out overnight. Depending on how "warm" it is, I may take off my polar fleece and only sleep in my long underwear; if it is colder, I'll sleep in more clothing. I always sleep with my hat on as well.
3. Cleaning has been a huge change. Some people bring baby wipes into the field. There are a couple of companies that make bathing wipes specifically for camping (they're much sturdier than baby wipes and slightly more moist - which means they go much further), and I use these every 2-3 days, depending on how cold it is in the tent. I only have enough clothing to change into new, clean sets on a weekly basis, so often bathing wasn't as much of an issue. I did try the dry shampoo, but my hair never really felt clean after using it, so I gave that up. It really hasn't been too bad, although after four weeks of not washing my hair, it is beginning to drive me crazy.
4. My team and are becoming friends in a more professional way. Now that we're not in the field, and are simply waiting to get back into McMurdo to fly home, I am seeing a different side of them. While in the field, they were very serious and focused on their work. This, after all, is how they make their living, and they have such a limited amount of time to collect everything they need for the rest of the year's worth of work. For many of them, each opportunity in the field is another piece of their life's work, so they are all business in the field.