Science
It is what we are all here to support, the reason for our very existence on this Harsh Continent. Yep, Science. Soooo, wazzat?
Lots of folks have asked about the science that is going on down here, why we have a research station in this inhospitable place. One of the nice things about living here is that I might eat dinner with an internationaly renouned film director, a leader in neutrino and sub atomic particle physics, seal biologists, sub-glacial geologists, vulcanoligists, and more. So, some about the specific projects?
Well, the marquee project this year was ANDRILL, a project drilling through the Ross Ice Shelf, sinking a shaft into the sea floor bed 1300 meters deep. That in addition to 80 meters or ice and 800 meters of ocean. They brought up sediment cores and analyzed them for all sorts of data, especially that which would describe the extent and behavior of the ice shelf and glaciers during different climactic periods in the earths history over the past 12 million or so years. About 80 folks here at McMurdo and another 2 dozen or so over at the Kiwi base worked on this project.
Other big ticket items: there were 3 Long Duration Balloon flights. These bad boys are filled with helium and sent into the upper atmosphere, standing taller than the Washington Monument when inflated. One of them carried ANITA, a neutrino detection array. One carried BLAST, a most amazing device that will survey star formation and new galaxy development in the outer universe. The third carried, ummm, I'm not sure actually, I think it carries some climate measuring equipment, but don't quote me on that.
Lots of different oceanic studies looking a life forms in the cold waters of the southern ocean, in particular how they respond to temperature change and are adapted to cold climates. Actually a lot of the science here is related to climate change and trying to create models that will predict how the world will look as it heats up. Global warming is accepted here as a reality well under way, not as a matter of political debate as in some other circles. Actually the implications and ramifications are pretty amazing, from increases in Alaskan storms and how that influences the birth of super-icebergs like B-15, to the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, as happened the last time the world got warm. B-15 you might recall was that ginormous berg that was several times the size of Rhode Island. It hung around McMurdo Sound for awhile and made life difficult here for several years, not letting the sea ice blow out and the ships in to station, or the penguins to open water for feeding. Thankfully B-15 has drifted away a bit this year and we all hope the sea ice will blow out for the first time in 6 years.
Anyway, there is lots more science about all sorts of things, much of it simple base line data stuff about critters and land (or ice) forms and weather that would be common knowledge or easily found in any encyclopedia anywhere else in the world, but is still unknown here in Antarctica. Ohh, and meteorites, there are meteorite hunters who scour the ice all over the continent looking for rocks. Because when 98% of the continent is covered with ice, if you find a lonely rock just sitting there with nothing else around, it is probably a meteorite, and it sticks out like a sore thumb. A sore thumb surrounded by a thousand kilometers of blank whiteness.
The main lab here at Mac Town is called Crary Lab; at the time it was built about 15 years ago it was the most expensive building in the world per square foot. I don't know what has since past it, but it is a cool place. There is an aquarium where several unique species of fish are held, a seismographer for measuring earth quakes that jiggles when a large truck drives by or someone slams a door too hard, there is a room for slicing rock samples and analyzing them microscopically, there are neutrino whatcha-gizmos and sediment squishers and super-magno-radio-gramographer-saurases and all kinds of stuff too sophisticated for the like of me. And a real time camera focused on the lava dome of Mt. Erebus, which is cool to watch.
So like I said, you never know who the person sitting across the table eating beef stoganoff might be. (We eat lots of beef stroganoff here) Most beakers (our name for science grantees) are unpretentious and hard working and excited to talk about their research. And most folks here are keen to hear about it, lot of nerds that we are. And with at least 2 or 3 science lectures per week offered either in Crary or in the Galley, we are fortunate to get the low-down straight from the horses mouth, so to speak. And it helps to feel connected to the science and hear the thanks of the grantees who come down for a week or a month or 3 months for their projects and leave. There time is so limited and the expense of their time and research so great and the season so short, not a moment is lost to cooking or doing dishes or cleaning or fixing stuff or anything else that might take away from their focus on research. That is why we are here, and while I never thought I'd need the praise of those scientists to feel gratified about my work (I take pride in my clean toilets without needing anyone else to say so, thank you very much), it does help keep morale up, to feel more connected to the greater mission and less connected to mop buckets and garbage bins.
Lots of folks have asked about the science that is going on down here, why we have a research station in this inhospitable place. One of the nice things about living here is that I might eat dinner with an internationaly renouned film director, a leader in neutrino and sub atomic particle physics, seal biologists, sub-glacial geologists, vulcanoligists, and more. So, some about the specific projects?
Well, the marquee project this year was ANDRILL, a project drilling through the Ross Ice Shelf, sinking a shaft into the sea floor bed 1300 meters deep. That in addition to 80 meters or ice and 800 meters of ocean. They brought up sediment cores and analyzed them for all sorts of data, especially that which would describe the extent and behavior of the ice shelf and glaciers during different climactic periods in the earths history over the past 12 million or so years. About 80 folks here at McMurdo and another 2 dozen or so over at the Kiwi base worked on this project.
Other big ticket items: there were 3 Long Duration Balloon flights. These bad boys are filled with helium and sent into the upper atmosphere, standing taller than the Washington Monument when inflated. One of them carried ANITA, a neutrino detection array. One carried BLAST, a most amazing device that will survey star formation and new galaxy development in the outer universe. The third carried, ummm, I'm not sure actually, I think it carries some climate measuring equipment, but don't quote me on that.
Lots of different oceanic studies looking a life forms in the cold waters of the southern ocean, in particular how they respond to temperature change and are adapted to cold climates. Actually a lot of the science here is related to climate change and trying to create models that will predict how the world will look as it heats up. Global warming is accepted here as a reality well under way, not as a matter of political debate as in some other circles. Actually the implications and ramifications are pretty amazing, from increases in Alaskan storms and how that influences the birth of super-icebergs like B-15, to the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, as happened the last time the world got warm. B-15 you might recall was that ginormous berg that was several times the size of Rhode Island. It hung around McMurdo Sound for awhile and made life difficult here for several years, not letting the sea ice blow out and the ships in to station, or the penguins to open water for feeding. Thankfully B-15 has drifted away a bit this year and we all hope the sea ice will blow out for the first time in 6 years.
Anyway, there is lots more science about all sorts of things, much of it simple base line data stuff about critters and land (or ice) forms and weather that would be common knowledge or easily found in any encyclopedia anywhere else in the world, but is still unknown here in Antarctica. Ohh, and meteorites, there are meteorite hunters who scour the ice all over the continent looking for rocks. Because when 98% of the continent is covered with ice, if you find a lonely rock just sitting there with nothing else around, it is probably a meteorite, and it sticks out like a sore thumb. A sore thumb surrounded by a thousand kilometers of blank whiteness.
The main lab here at Mac Town is called Crary Lab; at the time it was built about 15 years ago it was the most expensive building in the world per square foot. I don't know what has since past it, but it is a cool place. There is an aquarium where several unique species of fish are held, a seismographer for measuring earth quakes that jiggles when a large truck drives by or someone slams a door too hard, there is a room for slicing rock samples and analyzing them microscopically, there are neutrino whatcha-gizmos and sediment squishers and super-magno-radio-gramographer-saurases and all kinds of stuff too sophisticated for the like of me. And a real time camera focused on the lava dome of Mt. Erebus, which is cool to watch.
So like I said, you never know who the person sitting across the table eating beef stoganoff might be. (We eat lots of beef stroganoff here) Most beakers (our name for science grantees) are unpretentious and hard working and excited to talk about their research. And most folks here are keen to hear about it, lot of nerds that we are. And with at least 2 or 3 science lectures per week offered either in Crary or in the Galley, we are fortunate to get the low-down straight from the horses mouth, so to speak. And it helps to feel connected to the science and hear the thanks of the grantees who come down for a week or a month or 3 months for their projects and leave. There time is so limited and the expense of their time and research so great and the season so short, not a moment is lost to cooking or doing dishes or cleaning or fixing stuff or anything else that might take away from their focus on research. That is why we are here, and while I never thought I'd need the praise of those scientists to feel gratified about my work (I take pride in my clean toilets without needing anyone else to say so, thank you very much), it does help keep morale up, to feel more connected to the greater mission and less connected to mop buckets and garbage bins.
posted by Jared | 11:39 PM
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