Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 05:47
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Human Impacts in Antarctica 2011

Michelle,
Our 1st period class has several questions: How did you feel when you went inside the Ob Tube? (Brooke M.)

Were the seals loud? (Caeden C.) What do you think the seals were saying? (Joohi)

Have there been signs of human interaction hurting the environment in Antarctica? (Adrienne M.)

What was the most frightening expeirence you have had? (Nolen C)

What has been your favorite part of the trip so far? (Cary A.)

What inspired you to start this trip? (Raazia K.)

Do you sleep in a tent or a dorm? ( Jake )

What is the most rare thing you've seen? (Rebecca)

what was the speed and size of the sea angles? (Henry B.)

What was the coolest part of Antarctica you have seen? (Nima)

What other creatures have you seen in Antarctica? (Brooks B.)

What is your favorite place in Antarctica? (Matthew J.K. C.) Is the HCMS flag in Antarcticta? (Drew B.)

Fri, 12/02/2011 - 10:39

Michelle Brown

Hello Hill Country Middle School Students!Thank you for the wonderful questions! I hope you are all doing well and
look forward to meeting you when I return! Here are my responses to
your questions:
Brooke: Going inside the Ob Tube was an amazing experience. I was a
little nervous at first, since the climb down was pretty tight, but once
I was at the bottom, I was enveloped by a beautiful blue underwater sea.
I was fascinated by the sea angels swimming all around me. I wish I
could have stayed in there longer, but other people were waiting to come
down to see too, so I had to leave.
Caeden: The seals were VERY loud! It was a strange experience because
some of their grunts and groans sounded almost human. It was a very
noisy place. My favorite sounds that they made were the clicking and
squeaking sounds that hopefully you could hear in the video. Those
sounds weren't as loud though.
Joohi: I sat down and just watched and listened to the seals for a good
hour trying to figure it all out! It was hard to know what they were
saying, but there was a mother seal who started moving away, who would
turn around and make a sound, and then her pup and another seal, which
might have been another one of her pups, would follow her. Sometimes
the pups would yell back. I felt like she was saying: "come on kids!"
and they were saying "we're coming!", but it's hard to tell.
Adrienne: Great question! The reason I love your question especially is
because it is connected with my research here. From the 1950s to the
70s, and even the 80s and 90s a little bit, people here didn't treat the
environment as well as we do now. They would throw trash and old
equipment into the bay here, and sewage would just flow right into the
ocean. We think this may have caused harm to the organisms down there
and we are sampling the sediment in these sites to better understand if
the pollution is decreasing or staying the same.
Nolen: Luckily I haven't had too many frightening experiences down here
yet. However, I did go on a ski trip and it got really windy and it was
hard to see. Since I was on a glacier, I was afraid that I might fall
into a crack in the ice without knowing it. That was kind of scary!
Cary: Hmm.. it's hard to pick just one experience, so I'll give you a
few! I was able to go snowmobiling around the sea ice, which was really
cool! Also, I was able to spend a day out with Weddell Seals which was
incredible. My favorite moments here are when I get to stop and take in
the amazing scenery and realize that I'm in a remote and untouched place.
Raazia: I have wanted to go to Antarctica ever since I received a
postcard from a good friend who came down here to study the volcano, Mt.
Erebus. I couldn't imagine what it was like here and had to find out
for myself!
Jake: Right now I sleep in a dorm. That's because I'm here at McMurdo
Station. In mid-December I'll be flying to the South Pole, and then out
to a remote site, where I'll sleep in a tent! We'll see how different it is!
Rebecca: The rarest thing I've seen... hmm. There are a lot of rare
things to see here, from crazy vehicles that work in the snow to seals
and their pups seeming perfectly content in freezing temperatures. A
pretty rare thing to see is a huge C-17 plane landing on sea ice!
Henry: The speed of the sea angels were pretty slow. The video I show
you is shot in real time. I didn't measure the distance and time, but
you can get a sense from watching them move. The Antarctic pteropods
are larger than most of their warmer-water relatives. They are about 5
cm tall and I'd say 2 or 3 cm wide.
Nima: The coolest thing I've seen so far is either Mount Erebus (a gian
volcano which often has smoke coming off of it, or it forms these
strange clouds called lenticular clouds). Being around all the Weddell
Seals was pretty cool too.
Brooks: I have seen sea stars, sea spiders, worms (polychaete worms),
sea cockroaches, the sea angels, of course, Weddell Seals, skuas, and
some other marine organisms whose names I didn't catch. I'm hoping to
get to see penguins before I leave!
Matthew: My favorite place so far is Hut Point. It is right by the
dormitories but you feel like you are away from the center of town and
really in Antarctica. There are typically seals lounging on the sea ice
below the cliff and there's a statue of the Mother Mary to commemorate a
navy officer who died in the ice. Also, it is where Discovery Hut is,
which was built in 1902 for Scott's first expedition and remains frozen
(literally) in time!
Drew: Yes! The HCMS flag is alive and well in Antarctica! I keep meaning
to take a photo of it out by the "Welcome to McMurdo" sign, but I'm
really excited to bring it to the South Pole and get a photo. I'll try
to take some shots of it soon to prove to you it's here!
Thanks for the wonderful questions and keep them coming!
Sincerely,
Ms. Brown