20 November 2015 A Sunny Day in Winter Quarters Bay

Anemone with plastic
Journal Entry

Research Update We are out on the sea ice again today, collecting sediment samples from our last seafloor sampling site by McMurdo Station: Winter Quarters Bay. The divers, Steve Rupp, Brenda Konar and Terry Palmer collected cores and a few organisms that were at the site. Then the research team

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19 November 2015 GEOTRACES Cinema: Ice Sampling

Drilling Core Sample @ North Pole
Journal Entry

TODAY’S JOURNAL: In today’s GEOTRACES Cinema installment I have a few videos showing some of the aspects of ice sampling that we conducted on our expedition. The first video shows many of the steps taken to characterize the sea ice at each ice station. It was filmed at the North Pole on 7

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19 November 2015 A Dirty Job

Tomato and PistenBully
Journal Entry

Research Update Today we collected sediment samples from the seafloor in an area with a polluted past: the sewage outflow site. Our divers collected sediment and organisms at three seafloor depths: 120 feet, 80 feet and 40 feet. We started out in a dive hole farther out on the sea ice at the 120

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18 November 2015 Seafloor Sampling

Terry Palmer, Brenda Konar and Steve Rupp in the dive hole
Journal Entry

Research Update With our dive holes drilled, we spent the day collecting more sediment samples from the seafloor. We collected samples at the same location as yesterday, at Cape Armitage in McMurdo Sound

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17 November 2015 Drilling Holes and Diving

Michelle and the Sea Star
Journal Entry

Research Update Today a drilling team came out and drilled diving holes in the sea ice so Terry and the dive team could collect sediment samples from the seafloor. In the afternoon, a shelter was put over one of the dive holes and Terry and the dive team collected samples. ### Mail for Me! This

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16 November 2015 Arrival Heights

Sampling at Arrival Heights
Journal Entry

Research Update This morning our team made sure our soil sampling plan is accurate. Andrew Klein and Carl Green also made sure the GPS was working. Terry Palmer did a proficiency dive, making sure he felt comfortable collecting sediment samples underwater. In the afternoon, we collected sediment

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15 November 2015 Another Day of Rest

Shuttle Bob
Journal Entry

Time to Take a Break After an exciting week going in the Ob Tube, conducting water quality measurements, helping out with another biology project and collecting sediment samples near a penguin colony, I was relieved to have a day to just relax. I spent the morning talking to my family on the

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14 November 2015 Penguins at Cape Bird

Two Adelies
Journal Entry

Research Update We just got back from Cape Bird on the north side of Ross Island where there are fewer human impacts, and therefore is a great control site for our sampling. We found out we were going this morning and soon were flying out in a helicopter over the island. ### A View of the Island

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13 November 2015 Water Monitoring and Sea Urchin Larvae

Sea urchin larva
Journal Entry

Research Update The helicopter gods did not smile on us and we will not be heading to Cape Bird today. Luckily, there is still plenty to do. Today Terry Palmer, Carl Green and I will go take water monitoring samples in nearby dive holes. Andrew Klein and Steve Sweet are busy arranging sampling

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12 November 2015 The Check Out Dive

Steve and Terry and the Ob Tube
Journal Entry

Research Update Our research team is preparing to collect samples. If all goes well, we will head out to Cape Bird tomorrow to collect sediment samples at a control site. This is especially exciting since Cape Bird is near an Adelie penguin rookery. To prepare, Steve Sweet labeled sediment jars

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