Last Night at the Rig - To the Ross Sea

Hi Grade ones - it is my last night at the rig - our work is all done - so we made some time to go out to the edge of the ice right up to the Ross Sea! And guess what we saw: Penguins, lots of penguins. We saw mostly Adelies but also a couple of big Emperors! We rode the snow mobiles out from the rig over the thick old ice and then right onto the new ice which was only about 20 cm thick. It is strange ice because it is salty. Can you see the Ross Sea just beyond the ice. This picture is nearly at midnight




Guess what else we saw - big fat seals too. They are not at the ice edge but they stay by big fractures in the ice where they can make holes that they can slip into the water. I think that this may have been a mother seal because I could hear something from the hole first, then the mother jumped into the hole and they were gone. She was very big - more than 2 metres long!




Flat Stanley - get out of the hole!!! That is not for people but for seals! That water is also -1.8 degrees Centigrade - you will get hypothermia! Come out quick and get some hot chocolate and chocolate bars! Did you bring your dry socks too! Grade ones - it is very good that you put a plastic wrap on him otherwise he would really freeze on the snow mobile trip back to the rig!

The First Hydrofracture in Antarctica!!!!!!

Here it is - a picture of a hydraulic fracture - we did the very first one on a whole continent!!! I will update this soon with more information. Here is the team that helped - they put me in the front. We also may have a world record for the number of fractures carried out in one borehole for stress measurement (20 fracs!). Three important people could not be in the picture - Rich Jarrad from U of Utah, Terry Wilson from Ohio State both of whom made this all happen (and wanted to be here but could not be) and also Hedley the sparky who was in bed at the camp. This team had Kiwis, Germans, an Italian, Americans, and of course Flat Stanley and I from Canada. This was about midnight and we were pretty tired after working for maybe 48 hours or so. Flat Stanley was a great help - he did our sleeping for us!

Logging of the Borehole

Hi - I am catching up on my blog. We have been pretty busy for the last while. The drillers hit just over 1000 m deep early last week so they shipped us back out to the rig for the geophysical logging. Flat Stanley thought we were crazy as there were no trees to cut - but this is a different kind of logging in which different kinds of instruments are put all the way into the borehole to tell us different things about the rock - such as how magenetic the different rocks are, how much they weigh, and how fast sound goes through them. The instruments are called tools and they are lowered into the borehole using a big long wire rope using the winch in the picture. It was brought by the Thomas's all the way from Germany. The neatest tool is called the borehole televiewer and it makes an image of the borehole using ultrasound just like is done in the hospital. Here is a picture of some of the borehole inside - Flat Stanley - get out of the borehole - the pressure is too high there! You can see a lot of cracks that we can use to help us know about the rock.

This time was very busy - it was about 78 hours (more than 3 days) straight. We would take turns sleeping and working at the bunk house by the rig. Here are the four of us at the end of the 78 hour period - everyone is very happy - the logging was very successful and lots of good data was acquired.

Now they begin some more coring with a smaller core size called 'NQ' - this is basically for the experiment that I have to do in a few days. I hope they get a couple of hundred metres more of the borehole for the 'fracing' experiments - will keep you up to date.

Sad thing - I have not seen any penguins again - they joke out here that it is because Flat Stanley and I are out here now.

Monster Issue Solved!

Look what turned up today! An Adelie Penguin! So, that is what the monster was . This one was checking us out - they are very curious and they are also not afraid at all. They likely do not have any real enemies out here on the ice (but they probably have to watch for seals and orcas when they go swimming - one website says that they push one of their unlucky friends in first to see what happens before they jump in themselves!)

Flat Stanley - get away from the penguin - you are not supposed to bother them and you could get in trouble! Of course, they can bother us as much as they want!








The penguins here are likely on their way (maybe a bit lost too) to the big 'rookeries' which are not too far away. Right now the females should be laying eggs and then the mother and the father will take turns watching the eggs while the other parent goes for food in the ocean. They have to walk all that way. Right now the rig is about 8 km to the ice edge.

The shipped me back to McMurdo. I caught a ride with Hedley (the 'sparky' or electrician on the rig team) in a Haglund. This cost me nothing - but if you go to the Antarctic centre in Christchurch they will charge you a lot to go on a short ride!

Monsters???

Hello Grade 1's - Look what I found today. This a picture of the snow with strange tracks in it - what could have made the tracks?? It must be a strange creature as it looks like it was walking as shown in the picture above. Then in the picture below it looks like it went sliding on its belly (Flat Stanley is pointing out the belly track between the two arrows - can you see if if you look very closely?) and pushing with its claws. Could it be a monster or some kind?? I hope I get to see it - let me know what you think could make those tracks. They are right by the rig.

Out at the rig - some sights (but no penguins yet)

First day at the rig - I actually got the computers to work (thanks Len and Luke back at the U of A). I figured out the hydraulics and checked out the rest of the equipment. We are waiting for a new container to arrive from Scott Base so we can set up a lot of the equipment. But, some other things happened. The ice divers came out to try to fix the balloons that lie under the ice along the drill rig riser. This helps to support the rig. The ice is a bit more than 7 metres thick here. So think about that - the diver has to jump in the hole in the ice and drop through that much ice into what is called the platelet ice at the base. Then they have to swim through that in the dark (the light does not make it through) in the extreme cold of the water (-1.8 C).




Another interesting sight in the sky - some very unusual ice crystal halos. The one on the left was opposite from the sun - it is likely what is called a Parhelic cirle. The rainbow like one was nearly straight up - and it may be a Circumzenethal. Apparently these are not seen very often.
Check out the website http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/spanti.htm for more information.

Out to the rig again - but this time in the heli!

Hi All - Finally, I am out to the rig to get going on setting up the equipment for a few days. But, I got very lucky - I ended up taking the helicopter out (Bell 212) for the short (~15 minute) ride for the daily core run.

Here again is yet another picure of Erebus on the way - at least it is a bit clearer. The wind blown ice shows some interesting patterns too.










Most of the day shift was already asleep by the time I got there - but Jono found me a bunk at the camp and off to bed. The camp mostly consists of a number of containers that have been set up. The containers and tents on the left have the kitchen, the dinner room, the lounge, and the shower and the laundry. As well the water comes from a reverse-osmosis process of the sea water. The containers on the right are the sleeping accomodations - they are basically bunks (there are 5 in my container). It is about 500 metres from rig.

Good news - there have been penguins around!!! They told me that an Emperor penquin was checking out the camp - so hopefully I will get to see them. Apparently we are only 8 km from the ice edge.