Category Archives: McMurdo 2011 field season

In thirty minutes we will catch a ride to the airfield for our flight back to McMurdo.  It’s a good day to fly home, warm with a clear sunny sky.  It’s hard to believe how nice it is after yesterday, … Continue reading →

Made it! We had great weather Friday and no trouble reaching Taylor Glacier. The whole Taylor Valley is a remarkable place, but it was really something to stand on top of the glacier itself and take it all in. The … Continue reading →

Shelly and I completed our last round of sampling at Tent Island yesterday. Normally we get a bit of wind protection from the island but not this time, it was possibly the coldest we’ve been in the field on this … Continue reading →

The last few days have been fast and furious as we try to wrap up our sampling program. We fly back to New Zealand in exactly one week which means that time is quickly running out! Fortunately we’re getting close … Continue reading →

The weather finally cooperated with us and we made it out for our reconnaissance flight on Saturday. We even managed to bag a couple of samples along the way. After spending the last 8 weeks on the south side of … Continue reading →

The weather’s still playing tricks with us. We were supposed to fly to Taylor Glacier today, high in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, to sample more glacial ice. It looked hazy all morning but flights were still heading out. Our flight … Continue reading →

Monday was a spectacular day and we had no trouble getting out to collect samples on the Wilson-Piedemont Glacier. WP is a broad coastal glacier at the northwestern most extent of McMurdo Sound. Because the wind often blows from the … Continue reading →

The helicopters started flying last Thursday and with their support we’re getting back on track with sampling. Friday we made it back out to Tent Island for our third sample there. It was great to make the trip in less … Continue reading →

The dive team showed us this video that they took recently. It illustrates a couple of really interesting aspects of the relationship between sea ice and seawater. The stalactite-like projection extending down from the bottom of the sea ice is … Continue reading →

Here’s a short YouTube video of the penguins we saw yesterday.  The sound comes on about halfway through for Shelly’s highly effective penguin call.