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Today we were blessed with an absolutely beautiful day. The sky was crystal clear with an intense blue, and the Sun was shining as brightly as it is possible from Antarctica. Temperature was near freezing, but with the Sun and the calm air the weather felt incredibly mild. I started my day bright

It seems that we are going to stay in McMurdo until Saturday, so we decided to do some sightseeing in and around town. Around 3:00 pm I went out with James, Sam and Elisa and walked over the road that leads to and from the McMurdo airfield, down to where land meets the frozen ocean. The whole round

As expected, we finally catched the airplane that would take us back to McMurdo Station on the coast of Antarctica. We knew that an airplane from McMurdo had taken to the air at 9:00 am and was already on our way, with an expected arrival time around noon. At its arrival, newcomers to the South Pole

Science on the Ice### The last section of camp is the area where most of the science at WAIS Divide has taken place. It consists of the Arch and two tents. This area is the farthest from town, about a quarter mile walk along the power lines. ## The Arch ## The Arch was constructed in 2005-06 to

Today's post will again be a photojournal. Our flight to McMurdo was cancelled, but it seems likely that we will fly tomorrow. Since today could be my last full day at the pole, I wanted to share a beautiful picture of the IceCube team that was taken at the ceremonial South Pole. Throughout the last

All about the WAIS (not the treble)!## ### The Science of Wais Divide ### About 11-12 years ago, a group of scientists, including Erin Pettit (my lead researcher for Velvet Ice), first came to scope out the site for drilling a WAIS Divide ice core. An ice core is basically a round column of ice

Today will be my last full day at the pole, if our flight is not cancelled. We are set to leave tomorrow, either very early in the morning or later during the day. We still do not have any certainty and need to remain flexible, as Antarctic travel depends strongly on weather plus a large number of

The Paleo-Climate Record ### The neat thing about ice is that it is one of nature's best preservatives. Think about your refrigerator at home... we put food in the fridge and keep it cold because it lasts longer, right? We put food in the freezer and keep it frozen because it lasts way longer

Today's post is going to be a photojournal. After a week at the pole, I finally had a chance to obtain a few decent pictures at the geographic South Pole. There is one major reason this delay: weather. Even as the South Pole enjoys mostly clear weather, we had five days in a row of total or near

All about the WAIS (not the treble)! ## ### Stratigraphy ### In the summer at WAIS Divide, temperatures hover around -10C/14F, more or less. In the winter here, temperatures drop down to -50C/-68F. At temperatures that low, it is actually too cold to snow! So most of the snow that falls in