What’s different this year? A new drill hole and a new location (at the ANDRILL Southern McMurdo Sound (MSM) drill site), new drill and science teams (some returns, though), new expectations, new worries, new results… and a new job for me.
This year we are about 30 km from McMurdo station, so those of us working at the drill site live at a camp specially set up for this operation AND within 5 minutes walking distance of the drill rig (which is nice change form last year’s hour-long commute to the site!!)
The camp is great! Quite a set-up, overall, when I think of how most people do research here, and what a logistical nightmare living and working in Antarctica is. I will have some photos and stories about my ‘home-on-the-ice’ in a later posting (how come we DO have showers and washing machines even though we are sitting on 7 meters of ice and 400 meters of sea water?)
Aerial view of the drill rig (right cluster) and camp. Photo by Curt Lamborbard
The drill site location is beautiful. I did like the spot from last year, but this year’s views are just spectacular! We can see quiet a bit of Ross Island, where McMurdo station sits, and have great views of three of its volcanoes. We can see many of the volcanic cones that poke through the sea-ice here and there, we can sea large icebergs in the distance, at the sea-ice edge (were we are hoping to go sometime for a closer look), and we are near the Royal Society Range and its beautiful mountains and glaciers…
The SMS science team at McMurdo will be working at Crary Lab, like last year, studying every millimeter and many different scientific aspects of the core that comes up. There are about 43 to 45 people there, some are back from last year but most are new. I hope to go to McMurdo occasionally (I like living at the drill camp a lot more… I do not miss McMurdo’s ‘bureaucratic ways’) and spend some time there so I may get to know them.
There are 31 souls at the drill site… from 6 different countries! That makes for interesting interactions when living and working in tight quarters. A couple of the New Zealand drillers and core technicians from last year are back, but most are new to me. Most of the science team at the drill site was here last year: Cliff, Gavin and Diana will be working in the adjacent container and logging the core’s physical properties with a Multi Sensor Track. Our structural team will be logging and scanning the core fractures, and this year we also have new members: Tim Paulsen is back, but Simona Pierdominicci, a geologist from Rome, is new; she will be working on the day shift with Tim. Scott Drew (first time in the ice) is a fellow Ph.D. student at Ohio State and will be working with me on the always better, more fun night shift. Our ‘fearless leader’ Terry Wilson is not here this time, but is keeping a close eye on us! This year I will be logging the fractures (and other structures) in the core. Quite a step up from last year where I was scanning the core, but Terry and Tim have helped me a lot and I feel confident I can do this job.
I will be referring to my team members often and so here we are, inside our lab, a converted truck trailer. From left: Simona, Scott, myself, and Tim. Photo by Diana Magens