Calling all photographers - we want your thumbnails! Poles ApartCall for submissions PDF We are looking for your thumbnails, but before inflicting any bodily harm, bear in mind that we are looking for thumbnail images. Are you interested in helping to build a legacy for this fourth IPY? Have you taken digital photographs that tell the story of your work, or more generally of polar science? Please consider submitting them to the IPY-endorsed exhibition Poles Apart // Pulling Together, a project that celebrates IPY contributions to the global good. It only takes a few minutes to make your submission of thumbnail images, to be considered for this exci...

From October through December of 2008, the Offshore New Harbor Expedition will seismically image sediments located below the sea floor in the New Harbor area of Antarctica that were deposited when the Earth was transitioning from a Greenhouse World (>34 million years ago) to an Icehouse World (34 Ma to Today). This project is part of the ANDRILL Program (ANtarctic DRILLing), a multinational initiative with the objective to recover stratigraphic core records for the use of interpreting Antarctic's climatic, glacial, and tectonic hi...

Call for submissions POLES APART // PULLING TOGETHER Call for submission (PDF) POLES APART // PULLING TOGETHER is an educational photo exhibition that will honour and celebrate the contributions of polar science research to the betterment of society globally. The exhibition highlights achievements in Arctic and Antarctic research of the International Polar Year (IPY). It will feature in international venues beginning in February 2009. Concept The exhibition connects the science research in two of the harshest environments on Earth, the Arctic and Antarctic, to the social and cultural response to climate change in t...

By Louise Huffman, ANDRILL Coordinator of Education and Outreach During survival training known as Happy Camper School. ANDRILL (ANtarctic Geologic DRILLing) is in Antarctica for the second back-to-back drilling season. It is a multi-national science research team drilling rock cores from the McMurdo Sound area. With each new meter of core recovered, the scientists are working to unlock the climate secrets stored there. By understanding past climates, they hope to fill in missing pieces of the climate puzzle that will help us explain the rapid changes around the globe we are experiencing tod...

Submitted by Cristina Millan on November 12, 2007. Most people’s idea of a drill rig is that of the giant off-shore oil platform we are used to seeing in movies and in the media. The ANDRILL rig is nothing like that… This one is small, at least as rigs go, and can be put up and taken down in just a few days with a small crew. It is pretty compact and maneuverable, which were the main specifications when it was commissioned. It can be moved easily from one place to another, and is transported on skis almost everywhere within the continent, on roads that are groomed by bulldozers on the sea ice and on top of the ice shelves. ...

Submitted by Cristina Millan on October 20, at 2am: I already said this year's location was beautiful but at night... there are no words to describe it. All photos below are from different days and different times throughout the night. Pretty soon we will not have this colors anymore, but for now... we have this! And there are no camera tricks! I took this photo of Mt Discovery (one of the many volcanoes nearby) a few nights ago, around 2 in the morning. It was bitterly cold but we all bundle up and went out for the show: Mt Erebus at 4:00 am two days ago. Early dawn: ...

By Louise Huffman, ANDRILL Coordinator of Education “Little” ANDRILL is about to leave us—probably as early as Monday, October 22, 2007, depending on weather. ANDRILL (ANtarctic geologic DRILLing) this year has two projects on the Ice, and they both have teachers involved in research immersion experiences. “Little” ANDRILL is actually the Mackay Sea Valley Seismic Survey (MSV) and “Big” ANDRILL is the Southern McMurdo Sound drilling project (SMS). Eight ARISE (ANDRILL Research Immersion for Science Educators) participants have become close friends as we have traveled and worked together over the past few weeks. ...

Submitted by Cristina Millan on October 14, 2007. For a few hours early on our second night [of drilling at ANDRILL] we went to the ice edge, just 8 km from the drill site. It was really special! Not only because of the views and the beautiful dusk colors, but also because of the penguins that hang out there. We approached the edge carefully, watching for signs of thinned ice, and saw a few Emperor penguins lounging around in the distance. As soon as we got off the skidoos a group of 10-12 penguins ran towards us to check us out. We stood still and got our cameras ready. I thought they would move away once they got close, but instead they came even closer…I could almost touch them. ...

By Cristina Millan, sublitted October 13, 2007: Many projects in Antarctica are 24/7 operations, and ANDRILL is no exception. We take advantage of the 24 hours of continuous daylight at this time of the year. (Well, there is a short 'night' period between midnight and 3 or 4 in the morning, when the sun goes down a bit but never really goes under and so it looks like dusk. This is getting shorter every day and soon the sun will be all the way up and move in a tight circle above.) It makes for an exhausting working season but it also is much more efficient. Night view of Mt. Erebus as seen from the drill s...

Cristina Millan writes: 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...