It’s a sad day here at Palmer Station, as 18 of us meet in the galley at 0800 hours for our redeployment meeting, which means filling out paper work about our departure from the station. I cannot believe that my 3 ½ weeks here will be over in exactly one week and some of my fellow travelers have
Marine sciences are not the only source of science here at Palmer Station; we have a mysterious building on campus referred to as the TERRALAB. I ventured up to that building today to talk with Dr. Bouvard Hosticka. He came down on the same cruise as me and will be leaving when I do. Dr. Hosticka is
This is Ukpik Nest 2 (or "The Nest") where I am staying this week. From the outside, it looks a bit like storage containers on stilts. On the inside, it's quite nice. Here's a quick tour. I have a room that I don't spend a lot of time in. Because I haven't totally acclimated to Alaska time yet, I'm
My First Day In The Field We were able to go out to the field to set up the tracks for the MISP (Mobile Instrumented Sensor Platform). This included digging out the cables to the towers and pounding in the rebar that got pushed up out of place when the active layer of the permafrost refroze. We
Ice is a medium that nearly everyone is familiar with. We put it in drinks, skate on it for hockey and scrape it off our windshields in winter. Ice can be turned into sculptures and can even make for some fantastic winter scenery. Ice can also turn into a kaleidoscope of color and patterns under the right circumstances. Science
It is not all about science here at Palmer Station, and that's because it is the smallest station that the United States mans in Antarctica, only 44 persons max. McMurdo has over 1000 people and South Pole over 140 in the summer, and both of those stations get much more support staff than we do at
Towering giants dot the landscape around Palmer Station; they are beautiful to look at but rather saddening to think about why so many icebergs are out in the boating area. Looking at what is sticking up out of the water, it is amazing to think that around 90% of an iceberg is still under water
Good Morning From Utqiagvik! I woke up this morning on the northern most point of the United States. How cool is that! Of course, since my body clock is still 3 hours ahead of everyone else, I thought I'd write about my journey here. I left Oklahoma City Will Rogers Airport June 4th at 6:00 AM
Follow that krill! Or where have all the penguins gone? All ecosystems rely on producers for all the energy that will flow through each trophic level. So the largest animals in a food chain are reliant on the smallest organisms. Phytoplankton and their blooms follow the sun and the sun is quickly
"Packing is my pet hate." -Seal (musician) Today's journal entry was inspired by questions from Piedmont students Marley Mooney, Sarah Stetz, Kendal Morris, and Bradley Karibian. They all wanted to know what I would wear and did I have to buy anything special. I really didn't buy that much, it
