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Hi everyone!
I have just embarked on a two month research cruise around the coast of Antarctica. Because I like to communicate, I've set up a blog where I can send email which can then be viewed by everyone! It's a little one-way -- I won't be able to see your comments and/or read email until I get back, but it'll have to do. I am participating in a research cruise as part of the US Antarctic Program on the Nathaniel B. Palmer (NBP) to coastal Antarctica. Hopefully I will post photos after we return. In the meantime, Laurie Padman's photos on previous Anslope research cruises should be pretty close to what we're looking at.
Cruise background and goals
The ...
Hello!
Word about the IPY site is starting to get around! We just received an extremely well-written and passionate note from one of our past participants.
A Battle with Nature
by Sharon Querido - SOI Antarctic past participant
In late August 2005, a horrible tragedy struck the nation: Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, Louisiana. As the police lost control, anarchy in its worst form began to rise within the area. Though many people believe lawlessness can only lead to chaos, I have experienced anarchy as a utopia. Antarctica, exempt from governmental control by any country through the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, has become a peaceful, international territory. In December of 2005, I was invited to attend an education...
The five members of the Svalbard Scientific Skiing Expedition, colloquially known as the “Frozen Five”, met in Grenoble last week for the final preparations before embarking on their 11 week voyage through the Arctic wilderness on the 29th March.
We’re a group of graduate students of various geosciences that met at UNIS in Longyearbyen during our diverse university careers. From March-June 2007, we will be skiing across the length of Spitsbergen, Svalbard’s largest island. The route, measuring about 1000 km, will take us over numerous glaciers, patches of sea ice and through the territory of the polar bear.
Through this expedition, we wish to share our passion for the Arctic regions with the general public and, in particular, high school students. Blo...
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Saturday, 10 February 2007 21:54
MATE Competition Update – 170 teams from 8 countries!
Written by MATE International ROV Competition
The 2007 MATE international competition is crossing borders in more ways than one. This is the first time that the competition has been held outside of the U.S.
It’s also the first time that the event will have such global representation. More than 170 teams from middle schools, high schools, home schools, colleges, and universities have registered to compete in either the international competition or one of the 14 regional contests that will feed into the international event again this year. Along with students from North America and the winners of the second annual Hong Kong Underwater Robot Challenge, the competition will welcome students from Scotland, Spain, Pakistan, Iran, and Japan.
What better way to help students prepare for the global workpl...
Last Saturday afternoon we passed 85 degrees north, the last circle of latitude marked on our chart before the North Pole. When plotting our position I had the impression of entering into a forbidden zone. This milestone is one that few vessels have passed before us, only ice breakers, Nansen on the Fram and the Russian vessel Sedov, and now Tara! And what a crossing of the line it was! Engulfed in the largest storm of the winter, with wind up to 60 knots from the south east, horizontal snow reducing visibility to nothing and the rigging on Tara resonating throughout the boat, we reached a speed of almost 1 knot. During the storm the barometer rose to 1040hpa with a rapid rise in temperature from -40?C to -15?C. For now our material on the ice has withstood the gale...
Hello! And a happy polar greeting to you all from the gang here at Students on Ice!
Thank you to IPY HQ for providing this opportunity for international youth to share their thoughts about the earth's polar regions and about the upcoming International Polar Year! This is a great site, with many amazing blogs!
Here at SOI, we have just wrapped up another exciting Antarctic expedition - you can view highlights from the trip on our SOI website. We have invited our SOI alumni to visit this site, to explore the other blogs, and post their impressions, hopes and memories of Antarctica here. Many of our alumni are busy with environmental issues - some polar, some otherwise - and we are encouragin...
Wednesday, 07 February 2007 08:38
Attack of the Iceberg: Royal Research Ship Discovery
Written by Glenn Stein
When the Discovery glided into the water at Dundee Dockyard on March 21, 1901, the air was crowded with the accompanying roar of cheers. The first ship built in Britain especially for exploration work was about to sail, and steam, into history. She was the principal vessel in the 1901-04 National Antarctic Expedition, at the end of which the ice sought to entomb her. The following years saw Discovery serving as a merchantman for the Hudson's Bay Company, and during the First World War as a supply ship. In 1916, she was sent south to rescue Sir Ernest Shackleton's men stranded on Elephant Island, but while at Montevideo, Uruguay, it was discovered that the Chilean naval vessel Yelcho had saved the marooned explorers.
Ominous events eventually beckoned ...
I've lived most of my life within sight of Mount Hood in Oregon. The last few years, for the first time, I've seen bare rock on Mt. Hood's upper slopes.
I began to wonder how life in Alaska would change if the snow went away. I watched films of the area to see how it looked, and read about dogsledding and Denali Park. Then I put my hero in a world that ours might be becoming.
In my story for Polaris, called Shining Field, Walt Ksiolik has an idea to replace some of the benefits of snow. But he finds that applying it in the field is a much different task than using it in the lab...
I enjoyed learning about Alaska as it is, and wondering how it might be. Can we find ways to make a good future there? That, for me, is one of the most co...
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I’ve been doing field work in Alaska since 2001, both for my PhD research and for my job as a Research Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Most of it has involved tromping through scraggly black spruce forests, which range from dry to boggy. While the wet, boggy sites are harder to walk around in, and usually have orders of magnitude more mosquitoes, they can actually be pleasant places to hang out (provided you’ve come equipped with the proper bug gear). The trees are sparse and small in stature, so the sunlight is bright and you can see quite a bit of the surrounding area. The variety of groundcover plants can be really interesting too – I particularly like the little sundews and red Sphagnum mosses.
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