One Last Great Trip by Heli - The Little Dry Valley

Hi Grade 1's. This is what happened on Thursday - I got to go on my field excursion to check out the geology and the rocks that would have made up the sedimentary rocks that we were drilling. We were very lucky as the weather was not that good but we managed to find a break when the sun came out and it did not look like the weather would get bad. Flat Stanley and I got up at five so we could be ready to call you on the telephone, and then we waited around for the word 'GO' and we raced down to the helicopter pad. Eight of us squished into the back of the big helicopter, it is a good thing that Flat Stanley was so flat already! Here is Thomas G. showing off in his crash helmet.

There were a lot of interesting things to see - the next two pictures are some patterns on the sea ice and on the ground that were very strange.

The first stop on our excursion (Note to my 4th year undergrads in geophysics - No this is not geological boondoggle just so you have it straight :)) was the Miers Valley -also called the 'Little Dry Valley' because, well, it is not as big as the other dry valleys! These are incredible places. There were two glacier tongues coming down from the mountains and one could see that a little bit of water had flowed from them down to a frozen lake below. But otherwise it was just wind blown sandy material and rocks. There was no wind and when the helicopter stopped it was incredibly still. The group of us went for a hike up the mountainside to see what we could see.















It is hard to see how big everything is - can you see the group having lunch on the hill by the glacier? Here are some more rocks - this is a big piece of granite about 2 m long that has been carved by the wind. How long do you think that would take? Such wind carved rocks are called ventefacts.








We then got back into the helicopter to go visit a small volcano that makes up one of the Daly Islands. We could see it as we approached. Flat Stanley - why do you get to sit up with the pilot - that is not fair!! Where is your helmet too!













Here are some other neat rocks - these are volcanic rocks and you can see all the little holes in them that are caused by hot gases that escape when the magma gets close enough to the surface. This really black rock is called a 'basalt'.
We then visited a glacial moraine that sticks out of the sea ice but the weather started to get bad again so we had to head home. It was a great day all in all.