Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 12:48
Forums
Glacial History in Antarctica

While collecting your data, has this experience been harder now that you are more separated from others, and other resources that may be key? Does the weather effects from Antarctica make collecting data more challenging?

Fri, 01/14/2011 - 10:10

Lesley Urasky

It's amazing how much we, as a modern society, have come to rely on readily accessible data. There have been many instances when I've wanted to do more research for a question or on a journal topic, but don't have internet to quickly find information. As for collecting data, the majority of the work will be completed back in the lab at the University of Washington, so the isolation doesn't really affect us.The weather has made collecting samples more challenging (at least for me). John Stone has been down here for several seasons and is more acclimated to spending long days out in the wind and cold. Rawlins, Wyoming is so very windy, and I am used to being outside doing things in the wind. The primary difference here is that I'm not used to being outside in the cold and wind for hours (10-12) at a time. Also, at home, when I'm out in the wind and cold, I know I can always go inside at any time to warm up. Here, we may be up to 5 miles from camp and still have fieldwork to complete by the end of the day; the only opportunity to warm up is to sit inside a tent heated by a Coleman camp stove.