2 October 2014 Sunny skies and smooth seas today

Layers of sediment visible from the seismic
Journal Entry

Great Day Today## Today was a day of running the seismic line. Lots of computer work, decoding data, and looking at some amazing pictures of stratified sediments a kilometer thick, thirty kilometers wide, under three thousand kilometers of ocean. Pretty amazing technology The equipment is working

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2 October 2014 Sun and Earth CHALLENGE ANSWERS

Sun and Earth
Journal Entry

September CHALLENGE ANSWERS Earlier this month I challenged you to correct my mistakes about the Sun and Earth. Click here to see the earlier post or if you’d like to take the challenge now. … I

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1 October 2014 The seismic is deployed

Sunrise over the Southern Ocean
Journal Entry

Morning everyone, it is another glorious day at sea. Hip hip hooray, the seas have calmed and at 4:30 this morning the crew was out and about, the scientists were out and about, and the seismic is now in the water. For well over an hour, lines were checked, connections secured, and two towed

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30 September 2014 Meet the Chief Scientist

The mountains of South Georgia
Journal Entry

Calm Seas and Polar Profiles Much of my past research experience has been in the Bering Sea, mostly summer and fall, with fine weather. The Southern Ocean is very different and as it is spring we have had some amazing seas and weather. I can't explain it, being at sea, the waves, the wind

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29 September 2014 Another day at the office

South Georgia
Journal Entry

In a word, wow! Today started with a glorious view of South Georgia. The sun was shining, the sea fairly calm, and the science party a go for GPS. Decisions were made, the zodiac was loaded, and by 6:30 am the science party was: two marine techs from the vessel and four scientists. Similar to

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29 September 2014 And they’re off!

Ms. Bolton’s 2nd grade class
Journal Entry

And they’re off! The postcards and flags that is! Tremendous thanks to those of you who participated in the Postcard Challenge and Fly a Flag Challenge. I thought I’d let you know that most of the postcards and all of the flags are on their way to Antarctica! Hurray! But before they were sent

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28 September 2014 Rough Seas

South Georgia Island
Journal Entry

8 on the Beaufort Scale, and then some! At 4:45 this morning I hopped up ready and raring to go! I must not have been paying attention to the motion of the boat, for when I reached the bridge prepared to photo document the first zodiac ride to Bird Island, it became obvious that there would be no

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28 September 2014 Outreach Activities

Explaining Bunny Boots
Journal Entry

Outreach Activities The last few weeks have been a whorl-wind of visits to classrooms and libraries across the Sacramento area. My goals is to share the upcoming expedition with my community members. It's been really fun to show people where I'm going and what we are going to be doing. Both

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27 September 2014 My first iceberg!

Tabular ice berg
Journal Entry

Thar she blows, my first iceberg! Location: Long -54 degrees 1.84 Lat -38 degrees 42.3 Temp: -1.6C Windchill: -18C Today started like any other, a bit anticlimactic as we are still transiting. In case I have forgotten to explain; transiting is basically traveling from one location to

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26 September 2014 Magnetometer what?

Helo Deck on the Palmer
Journal Entry

I miss google I am an addict without her fix, I can not tell you how much I miss google. Almost every bit of scientific data I share with you takes me hours to decode. Yes, I have a forestry degree, and yes I teach science, but this level of geology and technology is way out of my league. Do you

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