Field team moved camp / McMurdo Resupply all set!

A quick news update:  G097 field team have moved camp from Bird Bluff to Mt Avers.  The search for the buried fuel cache continues.  The lack of posts to the blog since that move is an indication that geology work is happening, in reasonable weather!!  Mike Brown and Christine Siddoway arrived in McM on Monday, set to work on cargo management  and completed required trainings, and presently are scheduled for a Basler flight to Fosdick Mtns on Monday.  However, there may be perturbations:  a "Blue Ribbon Panel" is here for an assessment visit to MCM, South Pole and other sites (requiring dedicated flights and staff support), and the Ice Runway will close on Friday, with operations to be shifted entirely to Pegasus Field that is one hour away.  Understandably, this is an enormous task that disrupts normal flight operations somewhat.  Watch for future posts to learn where things stand in another day!

Art of Science

Graphs are a scientist's canvas. Two graphs are shown above that depict relationships that are
most important to us in the Fosdick Mtns: geology and tea.
The left hand graph demonstrates an inverse exponential relationship
between the quantity of tea consumed by five persons and weather
adjacent to Bird Bluff in the Fosdick Mountains, expressed by the following
equation: C = (L+EG)/2.6 x e^(p-t+(2xws)) where C = tea consunption, L =
herbal tea quantity, EG = Posh tea quantity, p = barometric pressure in
inches of Hg, t = dew point temperature in degree kelvin, and ws = wind
shear in m/s. The line is a significant statistical fit of the
mathematical model with an r-squared value of 0.98 and Monte Carlo
analysis of the residuals indicates a gaussian distribution over >99.99%
of the data points.
The graph on the right is a summary of the data collected from the rock
face shown in 'The Pursuit of Knowledge' post and shows the amount of
dark rock to light rock. It is also exponential.
Inferences from these models can be drawn as follows: there is more dark
rock than light rock and the impending storm forecast for tomorrow will
result in an increase in tea consumption...

The Pursuit of Knowledge...

Science in action! Prof. Kakymchukky is measuring the thickness and
spacing of light-coloured layers in the rock face that represent
formerly molten rock which he finds really really interesting. The red
tape is marked and annotated for individual layers. A blue safety line
was placed to provide security and aesthetics for the otherwise dull
rock colours and to complement the red tape...

Bird Bluff Camp

Photos seem to be working - we have a new toy!

Here is a photo of our current location - sneaked up nice and close to
the windward side of the mountain a little East of Bird Bluff. In the
photo the team is driving away from camp off on their daily commute. The
line of little dots across the centre of the photo are the tents and
behind we have a big face of rock with 60ft ice cliffs towering above. A
very scenic spot we think, although not as scenic as the next campsite...

What people from Canadia do best...

Could someone comment on the last post if the photo posted and you could
see it? We'll get the comment here and then we know it's good :-)

If so, just in case it's working (we have time on our hands today and
that last one took almost 15 minutes to send!) here's another of
Professor C. Kakymchukky doing his Canadian thing - travelling to the
rock on his ice skates.

Photo! Kakymchukky Crag of Doom

Well, it's time to put our satellite phone modem to the test. Time to
try and send a VERY TINY photo that should post on the blog. As it's so
small you'll have to work a little with the description here...
Danny The Brave walks across the Bird Bluff ice skating lake towards the
Kakymchukky Crag of Doom in the background, with the big phat wind scoop
on the left of the photo. It was a beautiful, blue sky windless day.
Today is nothing like that at all.

A Propane Holiday

This morning a moderate wind whips the flags outside the cooktent as I
write. The wind is a constant sound in the Fosdicks and Antarctica.
Perhaps because we've enjoyed so many near-windless, bluesky days, the
fates have decided it is our time to get blown around a bit. As Tim
mentioned in his previous post, we've been waiting for a big storm that
was forecasted, but hasn't yet appeared. The weather isn't good enough
to move camp, and not good enough to work, but it feels a little guilty
not being totally pinned down by a "proper storm," as Mountain Tim would
say (Tim Burton that is, as opposed to "Science Tim," who is Tim Ivanic,
the geologist) and just have a wee bit of wind. That said, with our
binoculars I can see the 10 miles across the Belchen Glacier, on which
we are camped, to the Phillips range, and there are large clouds of
blowing snow, which means there are high winds in the area.

So back to the topic of guilty pleasures, yesterday was the traditional
American day to celebrate Thanksgiving, and that we did, to the best of
our ability in our meager camp. Our feast last night was orchestrated by
Chez Tim (Mountain Tim), hmmm, how to describe such delights...

It all began with a raid of the "baja" box, code language here for
booze. We began with gin and tonics with "Jesus Ice," which is ice from
a local glacier, termed Jesus Ice because the ice might be 2000 years
old. Yummmy yum yum! Then we moved on to Sparkling White (not Champagne
which science Tim reminds us must be from the Champagne region in
France). In the background DJ Phat D was blaring a variety of tunes
including JBizzle (James Brown) and Professor Chris Kakymchukky's fav,
Katy Perry. We have frequent inpromptu dance parties here, but as the
8x16 kitchen tent has little extra room for dancing, we usually dance in
place, or "in situ." Plenty of space for shakin the hips.

The first proper course was a group appetizer, "tim's special spicy
shrimpy nubbins," which was served in a fry pan on a rox box and we all
ate collectively with forks. I just learned last night that in fact we
british Americans (or North Americans, I should correct myself to
include Prof Kak in this count) use our utensils improperly while
eating. The British, who apparently do everything with a bit more class
and charm than us, do not shovel food into their mouths with an upturned
fork, but rather turn it upside down and place carefully picked bits of
food onto their delicate and sophisticated palates with their left hand.
What a caveman I've been my whole life! That story reminds me that our
trip is as much a cultural exchange as it is a science expedition since
we have one American living in the US of A (me), one American living in
Australia (the illustrious Dr. Fawna "Rock Hammer" Korhonen), one Brit
living in Australia (resident artist Dr. Tim Ivanic), one Brit living in
Britain with a French girlfriend (Timmy B), and one Canadian living in
Maryland, near Disneyland). Displaced peoples we are.

The next course, of course, was the main course, which in traditional
American style, was a bunch of things heaped on to one plate. Chez Tim
baked us each two rosemary and sundried tomato whole wheat rolls, from
scratch, which we used to slop up the homemade Cornish Game Hen gravy,
which Tim (of course) made from the drippings of the Cornish Game Hens,
which were baked in one of our TWO metal box stove top ovens. All of
this was accompanied with boiled mixed veg, Gratin Dauphinoise (cheesy
garlicky taters...) from-the-box stuffing, and freshly opened canned
cranberry jelly. Lets just say that Chris and I (the basler boys) had to
play the "big spoon" game at the end, in which each person has a big
spoon and must eat up anything remaining. Neither of us could move off
our respective asses to help with dishes, as our stomachs were
completely full and it would have been dangerous to move.

In perfect fashion, the next two courses were red wine, which a tipsy
Fawna excitedly produced after her mid-meal voyage to the poop tent,
where we keep all booze, of course. I'm not sure if she went to make
more room for dessert or just to get booze, but in the end we all got
more of the vino, so thats all that mattered.

Earlier in the eve, I made the short journey to the freezer box,
unburied it, and removed the pint-sized milk carton of completely frozen
"eggs". I proceeded to hacksaw, woodsaw, and hammer a portion of the
frozen yellow stuff into submission so that Chez Timmy could thaw them
for necessary inclusion in his "Goat Cake" (a reference to a sad cake
made last year at Simple Doom that unfortunately tasted like Goat).
Fortunately it tasted like it should, blueberry and topped with homemade
cream cheese, lime juice and sugar frosting.

The rest was history. We got more drunk, played some cards, shook some
tailfeather, and went to bed good and early in tradional fashion.

I'm still not hungry.

Crying Wolf?

Fosdicks is famous for the weather. The Great Storm of 2006 as
previously mentioned is infamous at Mcurdo and most people who have
worked with the program since have heard of it. Stories have been
recounted, exaggerated and told many times. The forecast at the time
was for 50-60 knots and they were getting gusts of more like 120 knots.
Fully loaded and fuelled skidoos weighing 400kg were blown across the
snow, tents were damaged or destroyed and things got hairy-scary.

After recent experience of the forecasts, we're wondering whether the
Fosdicks are starting to Cry Wolf. "You should experience 30-35 knots of
wind" turns into 13-15 knots. Today, forecast was 40-50 but we're
getting up to 20 max so far. The forecast this morning for Sunday is
for it to blow up to 75 knots - that's more than 80mph. If it doesn't
happen again and we only get 30 will we start to ignore the forecast?

Perhaps the Fosdicks are playing a game, who knows? Perhaps the
forecasters are nervous from the 2006 experience and always overestimate
so we are always prepared? (although the thought of a nice 50 knot blow
is mischievously exciting in some ways...) Perhaps our planned position
in a sheltered spot is actually reducing the winds at camp a lot? Who knows.

Only one way to find out, "Hurry up and wait" That's what we'll do.

Hurry up and wait...

Christchurch: Perimeter RISING!

The citizens of Christchurch have experienced tens of thousands of earthquakes over the past year, with three major, damaging events, as follows:  M7.1 Darfield earthquake on 09/03/2010, an M6.2 event on 02/21/2011, and an M6.0 event 06/13/2011 (UTC).  There has been terrible devastation of downtown businesses, apartments, and historic buildings.  Demolition is underway over a large sector of the central city that is termed the Red Zone.  Usually busy downtown thoroughfares (the "one way system") have only a solitary car passing every now and then.  The center city is fenced off, and there are cranes and bulldozers everywhere.  Around the perimeter of the red zone, though, there are the beginnings of renewal... and seriously THE most art-y and uptown use of shipping containers ever seen!

The Arts Centre

View of Christchurch Cathedral

Lorry headed out of Red Zone, driving along Armagh Street toward Windsor Hotel...

 BUT AROUND THE PERIMETER, IT IS CHRISTCHURCH RISING!!

 

Steadfast sign for Windsor Hotel, still standing... and a new building under construction on the former site of the Windsor Annex.

This building is being fitted with a shining, burnished, copper roof!!

The Cashel Mall has a new look -- this is going to set off a circum-Pacific container architecture craze !

In Christchurch: "Clothing Issue"

The US Antarctic Program provides top-to-toe clothing according to sound practices of layering.  Here is long-time USAP employee Marlene McLennan to give the run down:

There on the board is the lineup of clothing from outer to inner.

Mike McElroy checking on flight status no doubt.

The team, getting ready to handle exchanges. Warehouse is pretty empty. Lots of clothing in use out there!

A cross-warehouse view of Doug Wiens making a request:  BearPaw mitts, please!

Routing -- CONUS to MCM

Travel from "CONUS," continental USA, to McMurdo Station...


Mike Brown from  Washington Dulles, C. Siddoway from Denver International Airport... we met up in LAX and embarked on the 12h 45 m trans-Pacific flight to Auckland.   Three of us beakers wound up in sequential aisle seats:  Mike Brown 25D, Christine Siddoway 26D, Doug Wiens 27D.  Think of that -- at a slightly slower time of the season than late October when we ordinarily head down...

As expected, the Auckland airport did not disappoint in its ability to serve one mighty fine, foamy, fern-patterned Flat White.

The other MOST enjoyable experience at Auckland airport is the footpath between the international and domestic terminals.  I am very fond of these trees.  This is the first time have seen these 'old friends' in bloom, despite the fact that Metrosideros excelsa with its crimson flower is a beloved part of  New Zealand's Christmas traditions!

Pohutukawa in bloom

Here we are in the check-in line for the JetStar connection to CCh...  happy to have a stopover en route to the Ice, but with a bit of trepidation wondering what we will find in dear Christchurch, the city so wracked with earthquakes during the past year!

One or two astrophysicists became evident to us once we caught our connection from Auckland to Christchurch, and then a few more at the baggage claim in the city.... an opportunity to become acquainted with such acronyms as BICEP, BLISS, CIBER and so on; and to get an update on the CMB and the latest best determination for age of the Universe, at 13.7 Ga.

 

http://science.jpl.nasa.gov/projects/Boomerang/

Getting ready for departure - "second team"

The date arrived for "the PIs" to depart USA and begin the journey south into the austral Summer.   Not sure how Mike Brown managed things, but Christine had the SPSC working for her at home, just as RPSC is working on behalf of G097 and all the science groups, from Denver and on the Ice.

Word has it that Chris Yakymchuk brought his skates to the Fosdick Mtns and has had the "leisure" (ha, I'll bet) to cut his blades into the blue ice by Bird Bluff...  what better reason to put mine into the bottom of my cargo bag?

If not now, when?

Yep, they're sharp.

A small selection of 'summer reading' for those stormy days...

The SPSC.  Siddoway Polar Support Corps.

Cache? What Cache?

Think back to the classic film Thelma and Louise. Now drop the
temperature 45 degrees C and increase the amount of clothing to a snug 6
layers. Replace Thelma with Danny and Louise with Tim and let them drive
off into the sunset (sundip... it's 24hr daylight here at the moment) on
their skidoos, GPS in hand and hot flask under the seat. Romantic eh?

Their mission - to check out the route to the cache that was left last
year and to find a new campsite ready for the move this week. After a
geology day, they disappeared off in the evening light, perfect for
spotting crevasse shadows and for romance... ahem.

The route planned using our high resolution satellite pictures turned
out to be great - sneaking between crevasse fields on solid snow,
getting to the cache site after around 90 minutes. The cache was put in
last year by the airplanes and consists of 30+ drums of aircraft fuel
and a bunch of our kit including the floor for our cook tent, skidoo
fuel and enough cookies to last 6 people 6 weeks.

We plugged in the coordinates on our GPS units and drove to the site to
find the flags left last year marking the cache. What did we find?
Nothing.
Zilch.
Nada.
Rien.
Diddly Squat.

We rang camp and checked the coordinates and then carried out a grid
search on skidoos to find the elusive flags.
Nothing.

Oops. Now all we can do is check with the pilot from last season that
the coordinates are right and then send Chris out to use his big
canadian probe to see if he can find the right spot. If not we will
have to move to plan B. And we will have to come up with a plan B too.

Oh well, nothing there that's essential for us so not a problem at the
moment. And the route was good. And we have found what is probably one
of the most spectacular campsites in the world. Now we just have to
wait for the great storm of 2011 that's forecast for tuesday to do it's
thing and we can move on...

Day of Rest

After 7 days straight of Geologising the local rock, today is the first
day with unworkable weather. Well-earned rest and catch up of
geological notes, needed sleep and hot, tasty baking means that we are
ready for more tomorrow - although the forecast isn't too good for the
weekend for the moment. Moderate winds around 20-30mph which is nothing
special, and nothing compared to past weather systems here, but with
snow added in it makes what is quite stationary work pretty uncomfortable.

Danny and Tim had also planned to recce the route to our fuel and stuff
cache that was left last year but with no contrast and snow this isn't
possible. As much as we trust our amazingly detailed satellite
pictures, we need good contrast to check out new routes so we can see
the crevasses and check anything suspect out before driving over them
with 300kg skidoos and heavier sledges! We rope the unit of skidoos and
sledges together to offer a little extra protection, but avoidance is
better than dealing with a crevasse fall on a skidoo.

Almost finished in this area, we have a few more days to do here before
moving to camp two - near Mount Avers, 20km or so along the range to the
west. Moving camp is not a quick or easy affair, it will involve one
recce and at least two fully loaded journeys to move everything we need
to the new site. We have to dig out our 5 tents and buried food here
and then dig them in again at the new site. Digging the tents into the
ground a little offers a lot more protection from the wind when it comes
than piling snow on the valences - added snow is much more likely to
blow away than the ground surface itself. Hopefully.

So here we are, sitting in the endurance tent, Chris measuring bits of
tape, Fawna about to wash her golden locks of hair, Danny in his scott
tent "reading", Tim I eating cheese and Tim B typing. Another hard day
at the office.

An artist is at work, to capture and communicate Antarctica

 Colorado College student Elle Emery interned at Polar Geospatial Center last summer (see prior post and FIRST post in this blog) and is using orthorectified imagery and digital elevation models to render two of the Marie Byrd Land volcanoes in 3D.  But that is just part of Elle's senior thesis!!  As well as a geology major for her bachelors degree, Elle is working on an art minor -- using the volcanoes as the central element of her senior portfolio in printmaking.  We've captured some of the initial steps in the process in photos (credits to Mary Ourisman!) and will provide some updates as her work develops over the coming weeks.

These are lino prints... etching is next.

>>  Thanks to CC faculty Kate Leonard and Jean Gumpert for inspiration, access to studio, and training. <<

Then there is always the VIRTUAL Antarctica...

Thanks to the Polar Geospatial Center, we have satellite imagery coverage of western and central Marie Byrd Land, where we work in Antarctica.  Some of the scenes are suitable for use as stereo pairs from which the landscape evolution can be mapped.  Two CC students, Elle and Ashley, did internships at University of Minnesota and they learned the computation techniques well.

Ash Contreras and Elle Emery working on satellite imagery at PGC.

Oblique perspective view of Mt Murphy. A high resolution scene with new DEM of a subregion, overlain  upon LIMA and RAMP.  Elle calculated this one and is at work on both scientific and artistic renderings of the volcanic peak.

  WorldView commercial imagery provided by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to the Polar Geospatial Center

Meanwhile, our friends in the dynamic geospatial team at PGC are wondering:  "Where's Brad??" "When is Brad going to get home??"

Last but not least, the one, the only, the Emperor of the Virtual Polar Universe... Paul Morin!!

Meanwhile, back in the OFFICE...

  WorldView  imagery provided by the Nat. Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to PGC

But what goes on back at the office, while the field team is at work on the actual ROCKS that record crustal differentiation upon the ancient Gondwana margin??  (They are at Bird Bluff, pictured to left.)















1/ Working to finish up a new paper about use of hafnium and oxygen isotopes from zircon, for a new view of sources for granite magmas and for information about geochemical processes in effect in the Fosdick migmatite-granite complex...  Chris Yakymchuk is first author on the work!

2/ Figures, tables and final revisions lead to a lot of email between authors. This is a screen shot of just five of 55 emails that came in between 6 and 10:30 on Sunday evening.

DEM of flank of Mt Siple, computed by Elle Emery.

3/  Beating our heads against the procedures for computation of digital elevation models from stereo imagery.  Here is a pretty good and awfully terrible result from a ~8x15 km region!  The scenes with rock + ice coverage and topo relief give us headaches. The tetrahetralated regions are not good.  A lot of "handwork" needed to interpolate and smooth through those regions so as to better represent the landform.  So-- rock exposures are tough and glacial surfaces are oh, so much better... unless you are a geologist and you want the rock DEMs to be perfect!

We are underway!

Greetings earthlings, this is the Fosdickans calling from Planet
Fosdick. This place was a galaxy away for more than a year until
finally our craft made a bumpy landing onto the strange surface here
that we call "snice". And it is. Very.

After the put in of our opener - the gay tribute band "The Basler Boys"
two saturdays ago, the main act arrived on stage two days later and the
field gig began. Two LC130 flights later, we had dropped our 5
fosdickans and 9500lbs (around 4500kg) of cargo on the ground
(literally, being combat offloaded off the back of the LC130 at speed)

This place is legendary - the great storm of 06 has gone down as the
biggest in recent history - tents were mostly destroyed and skidoos
blown "like bingo wings" across the snow several hundred metres away
from camp. The field safety team at McMurdo still use the bent snow
pickets as a demo of what can happen in "Annarrdicka". On our second
night the wind picked up and the paranoia followed. Fawna thought that
her guy attachment had ripped out and Danny didn't sleep a wink as he
thought we were all going to die. On realising that this was merely 20
knots, and the only thing blowing across the snow was..er..fawna's
orange bag and some snow, then people relaxed and realised that maybe
the great storm was but a one off. So far.

Since then the weather has been nothing but dingle (the British term for
bluebird) all round. No clouds, no wind, just plain, glorious sunshine.
Brilliant.

After four days of intensive fieldwork we have begun to unravel the
mysteries of the elusive Fosdick Mountains. Today we abseiled (rappelled
for Americans...) down some precipitous rock faces to measure layers of
metamorphic gneiss while enjoying the low cresting sun across the
horizon. Chris even managed to sneak a quick skate in across the blue
ice after lunch. We are adapting to camp life with cooking, washing(our
dishes, not our bodies) and eating voluminous quantites of cheese in
order to become as voluptuous as possible. Tomorrow marks day 10 in the
Fosdicks and we are looking forward to more geology, more adventures and
more cheese. Cheers!

Getting down to WORK!

Good news to report:  the second cargo flight by LC130 also arrived to the Fosdicks, so all of the field gear and supplies (expeditionary in quantity) are now in the field, and all that remains is to get down to business!  The Herc took off back to McMurdo:  

Thank you, ANG109th! for the successful put-in.

Now it's down to business with cargo: loading/unloading sledges and moving from landing site to a location next to the OUTCROPS!

Then settling in to eat and rest...  but of course the sun doesn't set.

...the view forward from a loaded sled.

LC130 Landing, Put-in Accomplished, and Bird Bluff Awaits!!

Good news!!  The team is IN the field!! IN the Fosdicks!!

The LC130 put in to the well-scouted Bird Bluff landing site went through!!  The team is united in the field with just one more LC130 cargo flight to go.  The rocks are in reach and the work can get underway!! (that is, after setting up tents, moving cargo from one pile to another, making a cargo line that won't get utterly buried by snow when we get our first "blow," schlepping fuel drums around, getting organized for skidoo/sled travel to the outcrops (~3 miles from landing site), and (the ever-present) continuing to take hourly weather obs that will be provided to Raven Ops in preparation for the cargo flight due to come in tomorrow!!  Go, team.

Here is a sat image map (PGC-generated) that shows approximate landing site and not-approximate GEOLOGY study sites.  Bird Bluff, Mt Colombo, Mt Richardson and more, all within reach!

Look at the weather!!  With Chris and Danny taking weather obs on a day like this, there was no holding back the ANG109th.  They went in for the landing, offloaded cargo and remainder of the field team (Fawna and two Tims!) and headed back to MCM. The second put-in flight with remaining cargo, a skidoo and fuel will come tomorrow!!

Now its time for camp set up and cargo management.  In sunshine?  Are we sure that this is the Fosdicks??

bye, bye LC130. It's up to us, now!!  (See? Herc in sky, above skidoo.

Bird Bluff awaits -- much good to do there!!  (photo credit: Joe Harrigan in 2005, for G088)

Such as cordierite...beautiful euhedral crystals in granite.  Aaaaaah.