Saturday January 5th 2008 Collecting the pole compass early today marked the completion of what we are calling the 'eastern' CEAMARC sampling stations. The central and northern reach of our grid marks out the 'Climate of Antarctica and Southern Ocean' (CASO) stations which we will work through over the coming week before another CEAMARC burst to the west off Dumont d'Urville on the continent. As well as CTD sampling, the CASO team is gathering information on the speed and direction of water currents from polynya moorings. These Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers are deployed some 135 miles from the South Magnetic Pole but still fall within its influence, so a special "pole compass" is used as a kind of calibrator to correct their data. ...

Written 5 Jan 2008 3705 meters above sea level Maximum & Minimum temperatures: - 29 to - 37 °C We left the Pole of Inaccessibility this afternoon. For the first time during the expedition we are heading straight south. When we get close to the Pole we will have to make a 150 km detour due to two specially managed areas, one being a clean air sector and another a silent zone. Further, we will descend about 1000 meters between the Pole of Inaccessibility and the South Pole. Thus, we expect higher temperatures and more oxygen the coming days and weeks. The solar elevation will also change less and less as we approach 90 degrees South, thus the light and temperatures conditions will become the same regardless of if it is day or night. ...

Friday January 4th 2008 Four stations were sampled overnight and it's the Big Polychaete that has people talking around the breakfast table, as Martin reports: 'This magnificent bristle-worm (a polynoid or scale-worm) was about 9 inches (230 mm) long, 3.5 inches (90 mm) across, with scales more than 1 inch (24 mm) in diameter and weighed about 330 gm - at just three to the kilo this is by far the largest polychaete seen by any of the benthic ecologists on board.To top it off, the bristle-worms arrived complete with their own over-size parasitic nematodes (up to 4 inches long) infesting the space under the scales.' ...

Written 4 Jan 2008 3730 meters above sea level Maximum & Minimum temperatures: - 28 to - 38 °C The work at the Pole of Inaccessibility has been running smoothly. The weather has been very favourable with almost no winds and reasonable temperatures. What remains now is to install thermistors in the 90 meter bore hole and to drill another 30 meter ice core. It turned out that the satellite transfer of data from the automatic weather station does not work properly. Fortunately, the weather station collects data locally. - Jan-Gunnar Photo: Expedition members enjoying a visit t...

Press Release from RV Polarstern 04.01.2008 Antarctic biodiversity research hits Time magazine’s “Top 10” scientific discoveries for 2007 Time Magazine has recognised Antarctic biodiversity research in its Top 10 scientific discoveries for 2007. The discovery was reported in the journal Nature in May 2007. The researchers found over 700 new species of organisms, including isopod crustaceans, carnivorous sponges and giant sea spiders on the seafloor of the Weddell Sea off Antarctica, at bottom depths from 700 m to 6,000 m. The Nature paper on biodiversity and biogeography of the Southern Ocean deep sea was published by a team of 21 biologists. Right now, four of them are at sea off Antarctica on the German icebreaker RV Polarstern, conti...

Written 3 Jan 2008 3730 meters above sea level Maximum & Minimum temperatures: - 26 to - 38 °C Because of the rotation of Earth, the atmosphere is thinner near the poles than near the Equator and middle latitudes. This thinner atmosphere means high latitudes also have lower atmospheric pressure and significantly less oxygen than at the same elevation at lower latitudes. For example, we are now at 3700 meters above sea level, and this corresponds to more than 4400 meters (14,400 feet) in other areas of the world. Today we calculated the amount of oxygen we have to be about 53 % of that at sea level. It is like breathing with one lung, and feels that way too! We breathe like walruses after short walks, and gasp desperately for air when we are doi...

Wednesday, 2 January Today is the second day of the year, it is cloudy and the sun isn’t shining. It’s really a grey day... But I don’t mind!! Because I’m on one of the best scientific ships, the Polarstern, making my dream reality. This is my first cruise... and for me everything is new and exciting. I meet people from different countries, discover the German customs, get used to life on the ship, and of course learn all I can about my work!! On board I’m working with the AgassizTrawl (AGT), a spectacular gear that provides samples for people that work with severa...

Wednesday 2nd January 2008 The view from the porthole is overcast and dull. The rise and fall of the horizon through the window tells me that the trawl deck is closed. This is a chance to read in bed and I am immersed in an account of Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition, “Lady spy, gentleman explorer: the double life of Herbert Dyce Murphy”, by Heather Rossiter. In 1911 in the same month as we visit these latitudes, a ship, also called 'Aurora', was on a scientific quest. With just 0.04% of the continent edge ice-free, there was jubilation when the rocks of Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay and its...

Thursday 3rd January 2008 The sun is shining, the sea is flat and we have been back in action since 0500 working the eastern section of the CEAMARC sampling grid. From the bridge I drink in a rare pristine environment. I see two whales, some Adelie penguins and I am thrilled to glimpse the mighty Mertz one last time. Station 52 takes us to a point around about 17nm from the tip. The horizon is a distant but brilliant white scar with big tabular bergs jagging the horizon. Harvey Marchant is a marine biologist based at the ANU in Canberra. In front of us is his book ‘Antarctic Fishes’. Harvey says he’s not especially a ‘fish’ man but confirms that he is a trout fishing enthusiast and has an obvious appreciation of nature. ...

Written 6 January, 2008 3608 meters a.s.l. Maximum & Minimum temperatures: -29 to -35 °C Nearly all the way from Troll Station to the Pole of Inaccessibility we have driven along the crest of the continent. On this last leg towards the South Pole we have left the ridge and will gradually be descending to lower ground. This implies different patterns of winds and snow accumulation. We are starting to see the effects of this in the shape of rougher snow drifts and more sastrugi, so the ride is getting bumpier. However, there are positive side effects to this. One is that it is much easier for the drivers to...