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.

Back in McMurdo for a Few Days

Things have been rather slow - we are just waiting to go - and I will likely head out to the rig tommorrow or Tuesday. But here are a few sites around McMurdo from the bit of hiking we did. Flat Stanley came along too - he needed some exercise after eating all those cookies last week. Here he is jumping up and dow with the two Thomas's when we reached the top of Ob Hill (about 230 m high).

Observation Hill - this is a hill right next to McMurdo that we are allowed to climb to see the view. At the top of Ob Hill is a cross that was erected in 1912 by the party who found Scott's team. Scott and his men tried to be the first to make it to the South Pole but they were beaten by Amundsen. They then perished on the return journey. They walked all the way to the South Pole from here but they apparently became trapped in a blizzard before they could get back to their large cache. Their records and pictures actually survived. There are lots of good websites that talk about this story - and of other early explorers such as Shackleton and Amundsen.



Here are a couple of views from Obs Hill. The one of the left is back towards Erebus again (I cannot take enough pictures of it) - but unfortunately it is covered at the top by clouds.The next one shows the direction towards the ANDRILL rigsite - but it is too far away to be able to see the camp unless you have some binoculars!





If you look very closely you can see the temporary sea ice runway with four large propeller planes down there. If I am lucky I will get to go to those mountains one day for a field trip to check out the source of the different rocks.





Finally, here is a picture of what some of the ground around Obs Hill looks like - you might think you were on Mars!

So, this is likely the last post till I go to the rig - maybe tommorrow! Then things will be very busy.

Out to the ANDRILL rig - finally!!

Hi - Big day. After the morning meeting we looked at the weather and decided to go out to the rig. Eight of us got our ECW gear on and hopped in two of the Mattracks for the long (~ 2 hour) drive out (about 38 km from McMurdo) on the sea ice. It was cloudy still and a bit windy so Mount Erebus (the volcano) was looking ominous. When we leave we have to call in on the radio to say 'MacOps, MacOps, this is vehicle 157 driver Blank (Leslie Blank was our driver) loaded with 4 souls, enroute to ANDRILL site, ETA of 13:30, contact Laura at extension 1234 beeper 4567'. Then they tell us it is okay to go. If we do not call back to say we arrived they will immediately begin the SAR (Search and Rescue) operations - so it is very important to call so you do not get into trouble!





Finally, the drill rig appeared. It is difficult to see as it has a white shroud which does not stand out from the snow until your are close. We pulled up and finally got out to stretch after our long trip.


Everyone was pretty busy. A core was just being retrieved from the earth (about 550 m below the sea floor which is about 400 m from the ice surface). The core is a cylinder of the rock that has been cut - it is about 3 m long.

Here is an interesting piece of core - it may not look like much but it is a certain kind of rock that tells us that at the time it was put down the earth had to be cold and that ice covered the sea here. The name of the rock is called 'diamict'. But it is also interesting to my colleagues and me because of the long fracture in it - I know you may think I am crazy but that fracture tells us a lot about the forces (stresses) in the earth (for the academics see Li and Schmitt, 1998 :)).
Up inside the rig to see. Oh Oh - Andrew - get that pipe wrench out of your ear - you should never stick anything in your ear!! (Actually, Andrew is trying to listen for two small clicks made when the core barrel locks into place after falling nearly 1 km down through the drilling pipe! If he does not hear the clicks then that can be a problem as the core may not be cut properly and lost. These guys are scientific drillers - they are not paid by the foot as most drillers in the oil or mining industry would be - they are paid to get complete sets of core or else the project would be a waste).

We then had a big discussion of how to proceed. In such projects one can never know for sure what will happen and so one has to keep in mind how to best proceed. It looks like I will be here till the end now as I do not think that I can carry out the hydraulic fracture in some of the rocks which are too soft that they recently went through (Cheryl will be sad but my grad students are happy I expect). This picture shows Alex Pyne (the rig engineer) discussing the various options and using the kitchen steel wall as a blackboard! We made plans for me to go out to begin setup early next week assuming more of the equipment arrives (it should at 2:00 am tonight on the scheduled C-17 flight from ChristChurch).


Finally, just before we returned to McMurdo, the helicopter came out to pick up the core. They had not been able to for awhile due to the bad weather. Flat Stanley - get away from the rear blades - that is the most dangerous place you can stand!!! and the pilot will soon tell you to get away.







One final note - all you tech types born in the later part of the baby boom will very likely be familiar with our hero - Tom Swift Jr (well, actually the new Tom Swift Jr.) Remember old Tom - he was a gadzillionaire youth who made lots of great inventions as he basically had most of the military/industrial complex at his disposal - well, this is what it seems like being at McMurdo! Eat your heart out!



Li, Y.Y., and D.R. Schmitt, Drilling induced core fractures and in situ stress, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 5225-5239, 1998

Stuck in McMurdo Still

Hi all - we tried to go to the rig yesterday (Tuesday) and also again today (Wednesday) but the wind is too strong. No flights can get in or out either. So, a few things around here. We get our food at the 'Galley' (it used to be run by the Navy). The food is pretty good although it would be good to see something fresh - that will likely not be for awhile as other things will have priority when the planes can get down again. There are 4 meals a day - the last one is called 'midrats' which is at midnight - it is for the people who are working the night shift.



Basically, you can eat all you want. For lunch today I had a chicken burrito. Wednesday is also cookie day and the baker makes fresh cookies - Hey - Flat Stanley - don't be such a pig! Just take one cookie at a time! They also have a soft ice cream machine here - but it is so popular that they have to put a lock on it between meals!





Here are a couple of my colleagues in our little office at Crary Labs at McMurdo - the two Thomas's (Dr. Thomas Wonik and Thomas Grelle) both from Hannover. They have brought all of their geophysical logging gear from Germany to use when the coring is done. They sent two Thomas's so we only have to learn one name, that is very convenient. Can you believe I have to work with these guys :) - this is what they do all day! They kick back with Flat Stanley :) Now I better run before they catch me - but .....
Thomas (on the right) has been here before on a drilling project about 8 years ago so he will be very good to have around.

Oops - when I was running away look what I ran into - a CONDITION 2 storm, lucky that I ran to my dorm because as soon as I got there they made it CONDITION 1 which means that you are supposed to stay where you are and not even leave the building. All travel out is strictly forbidden as people can get lost in the blowing snow very easily (of course this is what Alberta can look like too sometimes in our worst blizzards). At least it is not so cold - only about -15 C with maybe -30 windchill, for babies after our survival course. Let's hope the weather is better tommorrow so we can go out to the rig.