1/19/2002, Meteorite Hills
So, we spent the afternoon packing up our camp a bit. We might have a plane come as early as tomorrow to begin taking us and our supplies (and our meteorites!!) back to McMurdo. However, we are just an alternate for tomorrow's scheduled flights, in case one of the primary flights can't fly because of something like bad weather at the field site. We are a primary flight on the schedule for Tues. afternoon (Jan.22). But as we've all come to know well over the last few weeks, you never can tell what the weather might bring. So, we'll just have to wait and see how it all works out...
Meanwhile, meteorites were inventoried and stored. Extra food was consolidated and packed. Snowmobile survival packs were organized and stacked. Flags were retied and bunched. Broken snowmobile parts were boxed. Snow was shoveled. And numerous other little tasks, that really went pretty quickly with 8 of us. We now have a nice pile of supplies waiting for a plane. All our tents are still up of course, including, amazingly, that determined little poo tent which continues to hang on by strings...
So, with this relatively easy day, I wanted to answer a few more of the questions we've received. We have really enjoyed getting comments and sharing our expedition through this website.
Is it interesting researching meteorites in Antarctica? What is the most difficult part of your job?
Well, I personally feel extremely lucky to be here. Antarctica is amazing and every time you round a corner you are reminded of that. I also think researching meteorites anywhere, not just in Antarctica, is interesting. Some of these are rocks that date back to the beginning of the solar system, 4.5 billion years ago. Some of these are rocks that came from deep inside asteroids large enough to have a core and mantle like the Earth. Some of these are rocks from lava flows on the Moon or Mars. To me, it doesn't get much more interesting than that!
As far as difficult, we have been out here at our Meteorite Hills camp for over 6 weeks. That is quite a bit of time. And I think though we've enjoyed our stay very much, we are all also looking forward to getting back to our family and friends.
What type of materials have been collected? I'm interested to know the composition of the materials.
Most of the meteorites we have found this season will probably be classified as ordinary chondrites. But don't let that ordinary fool you! These materials are some of our most primitive samples, dating back to when our solar system was just forming. They have, in general, a similar concentration of elements as the Sun. These meteorites may represent the building blocks out of which planets such as our Earth were formed.
However, you should keep in mind that it is difficult to positively identify the type of meteorite in the field. More detailed analysis is needed in a lab to do that. Along with the ordinary chondrites, we did find many other meteorite types. Some were guessed to be from melting on a large asteroid. Others are probably composed of iron and nickel and may represent the central core of an asteroid. But really, we have to wait for the meteorites to be properly examined in a lab before we'll really know what we've found this season. That proces will begin in late March, when the meteorites will arrive at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Do you get to keep a small meteorite as a souvenir of your adventure?
No. Absolutely all meteorite samples are collected and made available to the scientific community. Even small, seemingly common meteorites can tell us quite a bit about our solar system. And really, we all have plenty of photos and memories as souvenirs.
What a great post about MN, sad to say it arrived on a day when the temps are expected to reach 45F. True Minnesotans are really envious of your weather as WE HAVE NO SNOW and it hasn't gone below 0 once yet this winter.
Hmmm. Well, true Minnesotans may be envious, though I won't pretend to possibly understand that. Personally, I'm very much looking forward to some warmer weather and not having to wear 3 layers of clothing all the time. But then, I don't live in Minnesota...
And now, some questions and answers from Linda:
Is it night when we have day?
We are on the same time as Christchurch, New Zealand (where the International Antarctic Center is and where we were all issued our Extreme Cold Weather Clothing.) We are 3 hours earlier, but one day later than California. I really like the 24 hours of sunlight here!
Do you see any animals?
We are far enough inland that we do not see animals or birds here. A skua (kind of like a seagull) would be the only bird that would come around here. They are scavengers. When we get back to McMurdo Station, we might be able to see penguins and seals along the coast.
How do you eat?
We cook with a lot of butter and eat just about anything you find in a freezer case: scallops, shrimp, steak, chicken, mixed vegetables, potatoes. Sometimes we fix pasta, soup, stirfry, quesadillas. Dinner is fixed on two Optimus camp stoves in the vented tents (which also provides the heat.) Lunch is quick foods: mixed nuts, dried fruit, beef jerky (lots of it), chocolate bars (lots of them), and granola bars.
1/18/2002, Meteorite Hills
Today was to be our penultimate day in the field, however, in the Antarctic things can change quickly and thanks to the Great Skidoo Rebellion we probably will not be venturing far tommorrow. It began innocently enough with a few clangs and clatters as we trundled our way out into the field along the Sastrugi Road. Within an hour, however, we had eleven broken sets of boggie wheels on our snow mobiles. Despite regularly tightening bolts and constantly monitoring our mounts for flipped wheels the 700+ miles of smashing over the ice and concrete-like sastrugi have finally exacted their toll. The same constant juddering that has shattered the steel axels of the boggie wheels has also left our bones and muscles feeling bruised and torn, and in the last week at least has made it increasingly painful to get out of our sleeping bags in the morning.
Snow machines with broken boggies are about as useful as a white pony in the Antarctic (not one of Scott's best ideas). The problem we faced today is that we had only one spare set of boggie wheels and fixing the skidoos has involved some imagination. The critical wheels are the front and back ones and so we spent well over an hour undoing bolts and swapping wheels with bare hands in the freezing wind. The repairs, however, did good and at least got us all back to camp. By the end of the day we still have a full complement of snow machines. However, most of these could only be driven safely by my mother (p.s. glad you're out of hospital mum!).
Today was actually a difficult day for other reasons than the skidoo rebellion. There's a strange conflict of emotions at the end of a season with people torn between the magnificence of their present and the familiarity of their future. We've been in the field now for 6 weeks, living in tents in which water left in a cup will freeze, where washing is almost an impossibility and warmth is as fleeting as the cold numbness that is a familiar friend. We all are looking forward to the small luxuries of life such as showers and indoor toilets. I will definitely be spending several hours in a warm cubicle in McMurdo with a newspaper (the Guardian) and a big smile. There are of course other things we are looking forward to. All of us have people we care about and miss that we have not seen for what seems like forever and we all hope to see them soon. All of us are wondering whether the life we left will be the life we return to. The answer will in this case be yes, in truth it will only ourselves that has changed, almost impreceptibly, but slightly changed as it is.
Despite the yearning for home there's something here that makes it bitter to leave. This is such a majestic desolation. Today I stole a few minutes concentration from the hunt to look around me and set to memory all that I could see and feel about being in the most remote of all places on Earth on a summers day in the year 2002 with my new friends eagerly scouring the ground around me. When ever I want I will be able to close my eyes and I'll be able to feel the razor bite of the breeze blowing down the ice slopes. Even if I never am able to return to this continent again I will still see the glimmering of the Sun reflected on the blue ice, contorted almost like a stormy sea that has been frozen in the instant that it enveloped the nunataks. It was said by a far wiser man than me "Bitter sweet feelings, heck, you can even enjoy those if you try". Thanks Ralph, that will have to be my epitaph.
1/17/2002, Out and about Meteorite Hills
We awoke this morning to spectacularly beautiful weather -- a cloudless blue sky and just a breath of a breeze. To John, this signaled a chance to do some reconnaissance of new territory to the East/South East beyond Score Ridge. He had his eye on a valley between Haskell Ridge and Colosseum Ridge. Jamie summed it up best: Road Trip!
We all tightened down our skidoo boogie bolts, strapped down extra fuel cans, skis, and boggies to the machines, and started off on our big adventure full of excitement. The only things between us and our destination were the dreaded, massive frozen snow waves called sastrugi.
The first problem happened right away when Cari's skidoo was seemingly swallowed by a massive sastrugi pit. The ski cracked and Jamie had to tow the machine out. The ski was replaced and we continued on, following John's circuitous route through the rough snow. Cari said she had to do some serious 'off-roading' to get back onto John's track! A little further along, we saw Matt stuck behind us. While his ski was being replaced, Cari and Nancy began to create a new musical production (in the grand Harvey style) appropriately called, "Miss Skigon."
We had been out for one hour and had progressed only a quarter mile from camp. John finally said to us quietly, "Change of plans." The sastrugi had been too much to handle today. We made an immediate right turn and headed back to our ice fields for the remainder of the day.
The lack of wind and clouds made the Sun feel especially hot, so hot that the temperature (which was probably in the lower 20s F) felt like the balmy 80s. Everyone peeled off layers of clothes after lunch. We found four meteorites. May this magnificent weather hold as we head into the last few days of this incredible field season.
1/16/2002, I'll bet you can all guess by now...
Greetings from yet another tent day in Meteorite Hills! Yesterday around 1:00 PM, a large snow storm rolled in and put a slight damper on the beautiful weather we were having. Some of us had even been riding around finding meteorites without our hats and facemasks on! Imagine that. The temperatures were high (15 F or so), the sun was out and there was no wind. We were loving it. We had finished searching the meteorite-less basin we had been working in and had moved into an area with some space rock action. This storm brought a quick end to that fun. We had to put our hats and masks back on as the wind picked up out of the north - yes, the north, which is definitely not our usual wind direction! In blew a blinding snow storm that dropped an inch or two of snow and erased all surface definition from the path we were trying to drive. It was an interesting ride home with not a few spinouts and slides! Of all nights to plan a luau dinner, we had chosen last night (during the sunny and warm portion of the day when it seemed appropriate). We went ahead with the plans in an effort to ask for mercy from the Hawaiian sun gods (with the help of Linda our resident Hawaiian). There were no grass skirts or coconut bikinis, but we did have a yummy pineapple chicken stir fry (also thanks to Linda - and Nancy). Mahalo Linda!
John came around this morning and said something to the effect of "it's a little windy out here and there is a little bit of blowing snow so we'll hold off for a while." Maggie and I both rolled over in our sleeping bags and caught a couple more hours of shut eye. Our aching, snowmobiling bodies were pretty thankful. What John had not bothered to tell us was that we were going to have a little surprise when we woke up and finally went outside! Maggie opened the flaps later only to find that the door was completely buried in snow! No exaggeration. We could only see light through about an inch of space at the top of the door! The rest was a wall of snow. See the top photo above! We dug ourselves out and have had to dig out a couple of times since! Its not snowing anymore, though, just lots of blowing and drifting. The wind from the south has once again picked up and fought back against the snowstorm from the north and it unfortunately seems to be gaining strength. We are all familiar with the signs, at this point, of what the first day of a three-day wind storm feels like and unfortunately - it feels about like this! The sun gods gave us some sun, but they couldn't do much about the wind.
We only have 3 working days left in our season, we've driven 705 miles since the beginning of the season (before you ask, YES, my skidoo registers miles not kilometers) and though we reached our team-chosen goal of 300 a couple of days ago (we're currently at 317), we would like to get out and find some more (don't worry Gretchen - it won't be 1200)! But if worse comes to worse, we've all still got plenty of fuel, plenty of food (though we are running out of butter - something anyone who has been here before knows is a crucial cooking staple) and plenty of games and books to keep us busy. We'd just rather be able to spend our last days in Antarctica looking at the scenery and for meteorites - not at the insides of a yellow Scott tent!
In the meantime we've also provided the answers to last week's little "match up the faces with the names" game. Some of you did very well while some failed miserably...certain husbands couldn't even identify their wives (Steve) or mothers their daughters (Mrs. Chabot) or friends their friends (Maddalena) - but we forgive you all as it took us a long time to figure out who we all were, too! The things we come up with for entertainment - yours and ours.
