New Year, New Science
Happy New Year from Rothera! I hope you are all well.
So far, 2006 in Antarctica has been flying by in a rush of beer, boats, ice and unusually, lots of science.
Rothera brought in the New Year with a concert in the sledge store, played by the base's very own band Tepid Stan and their unnamed support. Most of the band are winterers who only learnt to play their instruments (stop sniggering at the back!) during the long dark Antarctic winter, but the quality of rock-punk-postpunk-guitarledindierock was extremely good and we all did lots of jumping around and sweated our beer out. New Years Day was beautiful and so, as is often the case on Sundays, I went skiing then lounged around on the slope (we call it Vals) with a beer as snowboarders flew past.
The New Year really got started on Monday when Claire and I hit the lab to do our first seawater sampling and photochemistry experiments. I went out into the bay on the little orange rib called Discovery to help with the first depth profile CTD and Niskin casts on Wednesday. The water here is a perfectly flat steely mirror, complete with beautiful reflections of the surrounding mountains and ice cliffs. It is littered with strangely sculpted icebergs that range in size from shoe box to house (plus garden) and have a pale electric blue glow above the water but turn greener like Cambridge blue beneath it. While collecting our water, we were suprised and amused by a new Adelie penguin crew member who popped out of the water and made itself at home on our boat. We also saw the spout and fin of a Minke whale as it passed by.
On Thursday night, Claire and I persuaded Soup, currently the only field assistant on base, to take us to a crevasse on Stork ridge. I found myself abseilling through a small hole in the snow into an icy cavern, about 30 to 40 m deep and filled with slowly dripping icicles. We stood at the bottom of this immense crack in the glacier, against a back wall of completely clear ice, and looked around in awe - it was really an amazing space. Blue light filtered in to light up arches and stalactites of ice stretching away in both directions, asking to be explored. It was still and quiet, punctutaed only by dripping water, and had a timeless and ethereal feel, something like a natural cathedral. The climb back up the ropes to get out was definitely worth it.
As I've heard its been rather chilly at home, I thought I'd say a little about the weather here. It is not as cold as many of you imagine; I think temperatures are typically between -3 and +3 degrees Centigrade and it is not uncommon to see the more hardened inhabitants wandering around or even skiing in shorts and t-shirt, although I tend to wear a coat outside. The weather changes from day to day, when it is windy it feels cold, but sometimes the sky is clear blue and the sun feels very warm (for some unfathomable reason these are known as 'dingle days' in BAS speak).
Incase you want to know more about day to day life at Rothera, I've added a link to Keith Weston's blog. Keith is another UEA scientist working down here, and his blog is primarily for school children, but has lots of pictures of our buildings, people, vehicles, tag boards, etc. Look in the December archives for a photo tour of base.
Well I think that's it for now. Apologies for the lack of individual emails recently, I will try and reply to you all soon. As ever, thinking of you all and hope 2006 has started well for you.
Lots of love
R x
So far, 2006 in Antarctica has been flying by in a rush of beer, boats, ice and unusually, lots of science.
Rothera brought in the New Year with a concert in the sledge store, played by the base's very own band Tepid Stan and their unnamed support. Most of the band are winterers who only learnt to play their instruments (stop sniggering at the back!) during the long dark Antarctic winter, but the quality of rock-punk-postpunk-guitarledindierock was extremely good and we all did lots of jumping around and sweated our beer out. New Years Day was beautiful and so, as is often the case on Sundays, I went skiing then lounged around on the slope (we call it Vals) with a beer as snowboarders flew past.
The New Year really got started on Monday when Claire and I hit the lab to do our first seawater sampling and photochemistry experiments. I went out into the bay on the little orange rib called Discovery to help with the first depth profile CTD and Niskin casts on Wednesday. The water here is a perfectly flat steely mirror, complete with beautiful reflections of the surrounding mountains and ice cliffs. It is littered with strangely sculpted icebergs that range in size from shoe box to house (plus garden) and have a pale electric blue glow above the water but turn greener like Cambridge blue beneath it. While collecting our water, we were suprised and amused by a new Adelie penguin crew member who popped out of the water and made itself at home on our boat. We also saw the spout and fin of a Minke whale as it passed by.
On Thursday night, Claire and I persuaded Soup, currently the only field assistant on base, to take us to a crevasse on Stork ridge. I found myself abseilling through a small hole in the snow into an icy cavern, about 30 to 40 m deep and filled with slowly dripping icicles. We stood at the bottom of this immense crack in the glacier, against a back wall of completely clear ice, and looked around in awe - it was really an amazing space. Blue light filtered in to light up arches and stalactites of ice stretching away in both directions, asking to be explored. It was still and quiet, punctutaed only by dripping water, and had a timeless and ethereal feel, something like a natural cathedral. The climb back up the ropes to get out was definitely worth it.
As I've heard its been rather chilly at home, I thought I'd say a little about the weather here. It is not as cold as many of you imagine; I think temperatures are typically between -3 and +3 degrees Centigrade and it is not uncommon to see the more hardened inhabitants wandering around or even skiing in shorts and t-shirt, although I tend to wear a coat outside. The weather changes from day to day, when it is windy it feels cold, but sometimes the sky is clear blue and the sun feels very warm (for some unfathomable reason these are known as 'dingle days' in BAS speak).
Incase you want to know more about day to day life at Rothera, I've added a link to Keith Weston's blog. Keith is another UEA scientist working down here, and his blog is primarily for school children, but has lots of pictures of our buildings, people, vehicles, tag boards, etc. Look in the December archives for a photo tour of base.
Well I think that's it for now. Apologies for the lack of individual emails recently, I will try and reply to you all soon. As ever, thinking of you all and hope 2006 has started well for you.
Lots of love
R x
posted by iodinegirl at 11:57 AM
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