november 28, 2004 a flight down memory lane

November 28, 2004Published during the austral summer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the United States Antarctic Program

During a flight commemorating the original flight by Admiral Richard Byrd over the SouthPole, Major Mark Doll, a pilot with the New York Air National Guard, looks out the window ofan LC-130 at the area where Little America once was. The edge of the Ross Ice Shelf and thesea ice in the area where Byrd established Little America in 1928 broke off and floated awayyears ago.

Photo by Kristan Hutchison / The Antarctic Sun

A flight down memory laneBy Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Though their route was the same,the crew aboard Skier 94 didn’t expectany of the hat-tossing and hurrahs thatgreeted Richard Byrd and his flightcrew after they flew to the South Pole75 years ago.

That’s the difference between beingthe first plane ever and the fourth planeof the day.

The ground crew fueled Skier 94without fanfare. A team of groundmechanics heated the props andengines, added fluid to the hydraulicsand ran through a maintenance check-list on the LC-130 flown for the U.S.Antarctic Program by the New YorkAir National Guard.

Byrd and his crew flew their FordTri-Motor on “a flight of discovery,and wanted to see things and recordthem,”Byrd wrote later.

Skier 94 was a cargo mission, sup-porting modern discoverers, who arelooking to the very edges and begin-nings of our universe. But it was also a

See Byrd on page 9

By Emily StoneSun staff

Iceberg researcher Doug MacAyeal figured he better act fast when the enormousberg known as B15 calved off the Ross IceShelf in 2000. He put a “rapid response”plan into motion, received an emergencygrant to study what was perhaps the world’slargest iceberg, got to use a Coast Guardicebreaker for three days with two heli-copters at the ready, and hurriedly putequipment on the iceberg to study it as itdrifted into the Southern Ocean.

Then the iceberg did a funny thing. It justsat there. And sat there. And even thoughit’s broken into several smaller pieces thatsway and shift some, for the most part, it’sstill sitting there.

As of this week, it looks like it might bethere a while longer. New global position-ing data and satellite images indicate thatB15a, which is the largest of the bergs thatbroke off the original B15 iceberg, mayhave grounded near Franklin Island, accord-ing to MacAyeal. It’s too early to tell ifthat’s truly the case. The berg could driftsouth again. Or, in the most alarming sce-nario to U.S. Antarctic Program planners, itcould move farther north and close off theopening into McMurdo Sound, preventingships from getting to the station to deliverfuel and supplies.

“This could be awesome bad news,” saidMacAyeal, who readily admits that he’s theonly person who is happy that the icebergs

Antarctic medicinegets an upgrade

page 7

A hair-raisingAntarctic tradition

page 4

I N S I D E

“It’s like datingin a bus station.”

Q U O T E O F T H E W E E K

—Man to a woman at the McMurdo Coffee House

See Bergs on page 15

Big bergs won’t budge

2 • The Antarctic Sun November 28, 2004

Matt Davidson

Cold, hard facts

Ross Island Chronicles By Chico

Wow! It says here Sir Edmund Hillarywill be visiting the Antarctic thisweek. Who the heck

is that?

Why, he’s the first creature toclimb the highest mountain in

the world.

What did he dothat for? Whatwas up there?

Nothing. He’s an adventurer. Heclimbed it because it was there.

And you say mygeneration ishard tounderstand.

The Antarctic Sun is funded by the NationalScience Foundation as part of the United StatesAntarctic Program (OPP-000373). Its primary

audience is U.S. AntarcticProgram participants, their fami-lies, and their friends. NSFreviews and approves materialbefore publication, but opinions

and conclusions expressed in The Sun are notnecessarily those of the Foundation.

Use: Reproduction and distribution areencouraged with acknowledgment ofsource and author.

Senior Editor: Kristan HutchisonEditors: Brien Barnett, Emily StoneCopy Editors: Karl Horeis, Wendy Kober,

Amanda Barnett, Rebecca HollobonPublisher: Valerie Carroll,

Communications manager, RPSCContributions are welcome. Contact The

Sun at [email protected]. In McMurdo,visit our office in Building 155 or dial 2407.

Web address: www.polar.org/antsun

Gobble, gobbleMcM Pole Palmer

Turkey: 549kg 181kg1 36kgFilet mignon: 181kg n/a n/aAsst. cheeses: 45kg 14kg n/aCranberry sauce: 91L 8L n/aMashed potatoes: 227kg 54kg 11kgSweet potatoes: n/a n/a 14kg Turkey gravy: 114L 15L n/aStuffing: 109kg 27kg n/aGreen bean casserole: n/a 3 pans2 n/aAsparagus: 91kg 18kg n/aPumpkins: n/a n/a 5kgDinner rolls: n/a n/a 5dznPumpkin pies: 120 18 var.3

Pecan pies: 46 12 var.3

Apple pies: n/a 18 var.3

Black forest cake: 320pcs n/a n/a

FYI: 1 kg = 2.2 pounds1Roast, smoked and deep fried2According to “Cookie Jon” they are complete with

mushroom soup and “crunchy little onions”3Five types of assorted pies made by volunteers

Sources: Palmer, Pole, McMurdo kitchen staff

November 28, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 3

By Brien BarnettSun staff

Some things just take time, even a couple thou-sand millennia.

A team of astrophysicists using a radio telescopeat South Pole Station wondered why some galaxiespumped out thousands of stars while other similargalaxies barely managed to produce two stars.

Results obtained in 2001 and 2002 using the 1.7meter-diameter Antarctic Submillimeter Telescopeand Remote Observatory, or AST/RO, at SouthPole Station revealed that over 20 million yearsmost galaxies probably experience sudden star-forming periods, or starbursts.

That conclusion — based on observations ofgalactic clouds at the center of the Milky Way, ourhome galaxy — is a significant discovery, accord-ing to Antony Stark, AST/RO’s lead investigator,and one of the authors of a paper published in TheAstrophysical Journal Letters last month.

“We’ve seen a kind of mechanism for star-bursts,” Stark said.

The mechanism that changes a galaxy from anoccasional star-former to a super-producer appearsto be found near the center of the galaxy when ahighly dense ring of gas is drawn toward the blackhole at the center.

AST/RO measured the density and temperatureof that ring. Stark said scientists found that as moregas is added to the ring it can reach a critical level, become unsta-ble and will form “a stupendously gigantic cloud.”

The mass of that gas cloud that is drawn by gravitational forcestoward the center of the galaxy will exceed the ability of the blackhole to consume it.

“It would be like trying to fill a dog dish with a firehose,” Starksaid.

The remaining gas is then dense enough that thousands of starsare born in a fairly sudden, or burst-like, manner.

“What we didn’tknow before was thatinstead of happeningonly in some galaxies, astarburst happens oncein a while to most galax-ies,” Stark said.

Stark predicts thenext starburst in thisgalaxy may come withinthe next 10 millionyears. But, no worries.At 25,000 light-years away, Earth is far enough from the center ofthe galaxy that the starburst won’t affect or even be seen by thethird rock from the Sun anytime soon. Although there is hope thatwith new solar systems, new Earth-like planets may also exist, thedata reveal that too many of the new stars would be rushing tosupernovae and exploding, thus wiping clean the slate for life.

The announcement of the discovery coincides with the begin-ning of the end of AST/RO, a project now in its 10th year. The tel-escope is housed in a once-elevated building that is becomingburied by snow and ice. But it still has a few milestones to reachbefore it gives way to a much larger telescope — dubbed theSouth Pole Telescope.

Scientists hope to get one good season for two instruments thathave been shortchanged the last couple years, as well as some

baseline readings on galactic clouds as part of a three-year proj-ect to look at star-formation in the galaxy.

The first priority is to get good weather suitable for makingobservations, and enough helium to cool two instruments exam-ining a specific part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The SouthPole Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer, SPIFI, and TerahertzREceiver with NbN HEB Device, TREND, are analyzing specif-ic, high-energy emission lines from parts of the galaxy. Last sea-son the supply of helium expired before skies were clear enough

for the telescope to get goodreadings. Within the last cou-ple weeks, fresh helium tankshave been flown to Pole andthe process of cooling TRENDhas begun.

Assisting the Spitzer SpaceTelescope Legacy ScienceProgram, a collaborative proj-ect, is the second priority forthe upcoming seasons.AST/RO will help by getting

baseline readings of interstellar gas clouds.“By applying all of our current observational methods in a

concentrated fashion, we may be able to make a significantadvance in our understanding of star-forming regions,” Starksaid.

With luck, AST/RO will operate into the 2005 austral summer,contributing a year’s worth of data to the three-year Spitzer proj-ect. It will focus first on the southern constellation calledChameleon.

“We’ll do the best we can in one year,” Stark said.

— Brenda Everitt contributed to this story.NSF-funded research in this story: Antony Stark, Harvard-SmithsonianCenter for Astrophysics, http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/ASTRO

Photo by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic SunThe AST/RO submillimeter radio telescope sits under its cover at South PoleStation. The telescope is in its 10th season of observation and is expected to bedecommissioned next year.

“It would be like tryingto fill a dog dish with afirehose.”

— Antony Stark, lead scientistfor the AST/RO project, on the

discovery of how star bursts form

AST/RO discovers starbursts in Milky Way

By Bill JirsaI’ve stopped shaving. Usually this would

mean an extended camping trip, a badbreakup, or unemployment, but this time it’sdeliberate. I haven’t let a razor touch mycheeks since I left Christchurch. For somereason shaving feels anathema to myAntarctic experience.

Every guy must start a beard when hearrives here. As I looked around McMurdoas the season got into full swing, I saw manywhiskery cheeks and burgeoning beards.Remnants of sideburns, mustaches, andother former facial hair configurations suc-cumbed to the full Grizzly Adams.

My results, honestly, aren’t that impres-sive. I’m a slow beard grower, and I’mtempted to lie about the time it’s taken me toproduce the paltry fuzz on my face. I’ll like-ly concede to a goatee by Christmas: focusmy follicular energy where it will producesomething worth writing about. Forget thecallback from John Carpenter for “TheThing” sequel.

Obviously some people have beards yearround and they keep them on other conti-nents, as well. Why am I compelled to growa beard just because I’m in Antarctica?

When a few of us who had instituted arazor ban finally broke the silence, wecouldn’t clearly express what drove us.Granted, we’re guys, and getting us toaccount for our behavior is a good way tokill a conversation. After some fruitlessintrospection, warmth tends to be the pre-ferred explanation.

To bolster what I still suspected was arationalization of our collective indolence, Ie-mailed Will Silva, a (bearded) physician atPalmer Station. He couldn’t cite any jour-nals, but he did vouch for the warming prop-erties of facial hair.

“Clearly, beards help keep your facewarm in less windy cold by creating a par-tially dead air space,” he writes. “Theybecome even more effective once they iceup on the outside, leaving a heated dead airspace next to the skin.”

So it seems that the hair on a beard actslike the insulation materials in a downparka, and the crust of ice on the outsidewould serve like the Gore-Tex shell to keepthe wind from disturbing that insulated air.Silva offered a final bit of Antarctic advice:

“For greatest effectiveness however, wemust emulate the OAE’s of the Heroic Age:Big beard, with lots of last night’s (and lastweek’s) dinner, breakfast, and seal fat in it.”

After my exchange with Silva, I wasfeeling properly justified in abandoning myshave kit even though I work in the ITDepartment and can travel from bed tobreakfast to work and back without steppingoutside building 155.

Then I saw Cleve Cleavelin looking a lit-tle fuzzier than he did in the Denver officewhen first I met him.

“I look like an Ewok by the end of theseason,” he said when I commented on hishirsute face.

“Basically, I’m lazy.,” he said. Okay, Ithought. Here’s an honest man willing to setaside the need for rationalization.

When he told me his wife didn’t reallydig beards, something else dawned on me. Ifthe person you kiss won’t kiss you whenyou’re hairy, and you are going to Antarcticaalone for several months, it might be a liber-ating release from your shaving regimen.

Then I ran into Dan Naber and Don Jeter.They have long, beautiful beards. They werereturning from a year at the South Pole.These guys hadn’t seen a fresh vegetableuntil mainbody, and they certainly hadn’tshaved while they were living at 90 South.

“I worked outside everyday,” Naber said.“It’s definitely a warmth issue and I can feelthe difference when I shave.” His voiceemanates from a wave of red hair that cas-cades over his collar. I asked why he neededto grow it so long.

“Just for fun.” He speculated. “At thePole there is no convention. No one careswhat you look like. People do crazy thingswith their hair.” (He gestured to a fellow-polie in the dining hall with a mohawk.)

Don echoed the temptation to flaunt theconformity of the lower latitudes. “It’s mylong lost teenage rebellion I never had. I did24 years in the Air Force then retired andcame straight to the Pole. I haven’t shavedor cut my hair. Plus it keeps you warm andthe chicks like it.”

When I expressed incredulity on this lastpoint, Dan assured me that not all womendetest kissing a beard. “Being from Alaska,there are quite a few that go for the beards.”

I asked them if they plan to stay bearded.

Dan said he is heading to India, and the heatmight get to him. In 30 days Don will beworking at Pegasus runway, where he’spretty sure he won’t shave.

Finally, Marsha Kendall overheard someof my observations about guys and our pen-chant for beard growing in Antarctica.

“What makes you think y’all are the onlyones who stopped shaving?” she asked.

With a raised eyebrow I considered thatI’d been a bit too gender-centered and per-haps under all the ECW gear there wasanother kind of hair revolution going on.

Looking for the Antarctic connection, Iasked why she thought McMurdo hadinspired the no shaving policy. “My hairylegs are about as Antarctic as your East-vil-lage hipster beard,” she contested. I hadvisions of Bob Dylan’s peach fuzz circa1966, the kind of beard that doesn’t cast ashadow. So I’m not Grizzly Adams.

I’m not sure if I’ve cracked the mysteryof my compulsion to embrace my “mam-malian tendencies” as Karen Joyce refers toit. A beard can say a lot of things: “I wish Iwere an Old Antarctic Explorer,” “I’m vir-ile, vigorous, and potent,” or simply, “I’mletting myself go.”

But there’s something emphatic aboutthe polar extremes and beards. The essenceof Antarctica is wooly. It begs for theJeremiah-Johnson-gone-native look. Thehistory of Antarctic exploration was largelya masculine ordeal, and as the niceties ofmore civilized continents gave way to club-bing penguins to survive, the ritual of run-ning a razor over one’s face daily probablydidn’t seem so important.

In the 21st century in Antarctica, I eatfresh vegetables almost everyday. I read theNew York Times online. We have lots ofwarm water and disposable razors. Butnothing says, “Look ma, I’m freezing mybutt off in Antarctica!” like the beamingsmile behind an iced-up beard.


Perspectives Perspectives

Photo courtesy of Bill Jirsa / Special to The Antarctic SunBill Jirsa, a computer trainer in his first sea-son at McMurdo Station, now has a beard.

To Beard or not to Beard

Coffee, music and starsBy Brenda EverittSouth Pole correspondent

Life at South Pole Station is gettingbusier and more active as the season getsinto full swing.

Science at South Pole marches on.Antony Stark presented the SundayScience lecture, titled “Normal andAbnormal Star Formation.”

Stark is in charge of the AntarcticSubmillimeter Telescope and RemoteObservatory, AST/RO, facility at theSouth Pole.

The AST/RO group studies star forma-tion in the Milky Way galaxy at submil-limeter and near-infrared wavelengthswith radio astronomy techniques. (Seerelated story on page 3).

The pile of outgoing mail is gone andworkout and dance classes have started inthe gym.

Circuit training and weight classes arebeing offered in the workout room in theold dining hall.

In their off-work hours, Pole residentshave organized several clubs and other

activities, including a Scrabble tourna-ment, board game nights and band prac-tices.

There are plans for a new South PoleYacht Club, which will celebrate the artand lifestyle of sailing.

The Ross Island Yacht Club inMcMurdo has been a long-standing orga-nization. Now Greg Weber said it’s timefor Pole to have one. He is trying torecruit people for the club.

“The motivation for the club is to havea forum for people with boating interestto get together and share stories andideas,” Weber said. After all, we do liveon a frozen ‘ocean’ 3.2km deep.”

If there is enough interest, Weber saidPole residents might build an “ice boat” atthe South Pole by the end of the season.

The first Coffee House Open Mikenight was a big success with a lot of par-ticipation including several bands andsolo musical performances, magic tricks,jokes, and original prose selections.

A “command performance” of moviesfrom last year’s First Annual South PoleFilm Fest is eagerly anticipated, andwould-be moviemakers already are plan-ning for the 2005 festival, which will beheld in mid-January.

Plants take root in ‘estates’

By Kerry KellsPalmer Station correspondent

Because of strong winds with gusts thatreached 110kph this past week, PalmerStation now has open water. Previouslyblocked from reaching two sampling sites,the researchers have now managed to getto both sites during the past week.However, they are grounded again due tostrong winds. The birders had set up anambitious schedule for the islands ofTorgersen, Humble, Litchfield, Cormorantand Christine, but only made it to twoislands before the winds increased.

Christopher (Wally) Ruhland, co-principal investigator with Tad Day’s project, gave a science lecture based on one of his courses at Minnesota State University, Mankato, Minnesota. Titled,“Introduction to Plant Science: Photo-synthesis 101,” Ruhland described a typ-ical plant cell and the capture of solar energy in the reaction of photosynthesis.

Ruhland works with Day, principalinvestigator with a biology research

the week in weather


around the continent

SOUTH POLE

McMurdo StationHigh: 37F / 3C Low: 14F / -10CMax. sustained wind: 33mph / 53kphWindchill: -20F / -29C

South Pole StationHigh: -24F / -31C Low: -36F / -38CPeak wind: 29mph / 47kphMax. Physio-altitude: 3,304m

See Continent on page 6

Palmer StationHigh: 40F / 4C Low: 28F / -3CMax. sustained wind: 42mph / 67kphMelted precipitation: 7mm

Tom Woodsperforms at theSouth Pole CoffeeHouseOpen Mikenight. Theevent is apopularshowcasefor musi-cians andother talentedpeople atthe station.

Photo by Tyler Regan /Special to TheAntarctic Sun

Photo by Brenda Everitt / Special to The Antarctic SunAntony Stark explains wavelengths of light during the South Pole Sunday Science lecture.Stark explained new discoveries made using theAntarctic Submillimeter Telescope and RemoteObservatory, which he oversees at the station.

PALMER

project that studies the plants and soil ofthe Peninsula. Team members this year areSarah Strauss, David Bryant and MichellThomey.

This is the second year at PalmerStation in the three-year project. This pro-ject examines the alterations and respons-es of terrestrial ecosystems to short- andlong-term climate change.

The ecosystem studied includes nutri-ent pools, plants, litter and soils in com-munities dominated by vascular plants,defined as higher order plants with a vas-cular system for transporting water. Thegoal is to predict how long-term climatechange will affect ecosystem productivity.

The researchers have set up an area forthe soil and plant experiments behind ourstation called “Sun Devil Estates,” a namederived from the Arizona State Universitymascot. They have a collection of 10- to13-cm thick, round cores of plant and soilcalled microcosms.

The two plants they are studying are ashort, native grass commonly calledAntarctic hair grass and a moss-like plantwith white flowers called Antarctic pearl-wort. About 240 microcosms from lastyear are slowly emerging from the wintersnow cover; both species were collectedlast year from local islands. The cores nowgrow in plastic pipes under manipulatedenvironments. Three types of environ-ments are created.

Heaters are used to increase the envi-ronmental temperatures for some of thecores, as if they were affected by globalwarming. Ultraviolet B absorbing filtersare placed over another set of core sam-ples to emulate different levels of ozone.Another group of cores will receive extrawater to mimic greater precipitation.

When the wind speed slows and it is

safe for boating, the next step for Day’sgroup will be to sample natural communi-ties on a few local islands, especiallyBiscoe and Limitrophe islands. Theseislands have plots in which snow accumu-lation and snow melt are manipulated.Because later snow melts can exhaust theplants and cause them to perish, Day andhis group will closely monitor the plotsthis season and next season. Their researchcould give a picture of increased globalwarming in the Antarctic Peninsula of thefuture.

Last Sunday, before the wind speedpicked up again, the birders attempted toboat to Torgersen again but their plan wasthwarted by sea ice. Maria Vernet’s andHugh Ducklow’s groups were able to getto one sampling site for water columnsampling. Wildlife viewing was possibledirectly from station as a small pod of orcawhales chased seals and penguins inArthur Harbor to our north for a couple ofhours. The station now prepares for a two-day weekend to celebrate theThanksgiving holiday.

Nathaniel B. Palmer

Compiled from reports by Karl NewyearThe Nathaniel B. Palmer battled high

winds, poor visibility and heavy ice condi-tions for several days in the Ross Sea. OnNov. 17 the satellite images revealed theresearch vessel was on the edge of animpressive cyclonic storm creating hurri-cane-force winds out of the southeast.Heavy ice kept the waves down, but theship couldn’t progress toward its nextsampling station, and for a while was actu-ally drifting in the wrong direction,“which is rather frustrating,” wrote marineprojects coordinator Karl Newyear.

The ship headed east in search of

thinner ice seen on one of the satelliteimages and by Nov. 20 broke through intoa more open area east of Cape Adare.

“The excitement was palpable as wereached the core AnSlope study area atlast,” Newyear wrote. The researcherswere able to finally take more samples fortheir research of the flow of cold, denseshelf water across the continental slopeand into the adjacent deep ocean. This fluxis important in the formation of Antarcticbottom water and is balanced by onshoreflow of warmer water from deep and sur-face layers.

“Despite a slowly falling barometerwe’ve enjoyed beautiful sunny weatherand views of the mountains,” Newyearwrote.

Fighting the ice and stormy weatherused more fuel than had been planned, soonce the NBP no longer needed to back upand ram forward through ice, two of theships’ main engines were shut down Nov.22 to conserve fuel.

By then, the NBP was in calm watersand researchers were trying an extendeddeployment of the Vertical MicrostructureProfiler at the sill of the DrygalskiTrough. The winds were light and vari-able and the weather was pleasant, thoughovercast.

Continent6 • The Antarctic Sun November 28, 2004

From page 5

What interesting Antarctic fact have you learned?

“The South Pole(ice) moves about30 feet a year.”

Jonathan Graca,McMurdo

cargo handler, Hood River, Ore., second season.

“It’s the highest,driest, windiest,

most remote, lastplace.”

Tom WoodsSouth Pole

utility worker, Bozeman, Mont.,

first season

“Leopard sealswill eat almostanything, includ-ing boats.”

Bill Hance,Palmer

Sat. Comms. tech.,Elko, Nev.,first season

SHIPS

Photo by Kerry Kells / The Antarctic SunSun Devil Estates at Palmer Station is hometo plots of plant samples.


By Brien BarnettSun staff

Dr. Christian Otto put away somepapers after seeing the last of his patientsfor the day, his ninth day of work in a row.

The patients who visited the office thatTuesday in early November had beenattended to and sent on their way. He andhis wife and fellow physican Dr. RebeccaComley had swept the floors, emptied thewaste baskets, sorted and put away thelaundry, tidied the instruments and turnedoff unneeded lights.

“It makes you appreciate a real hospi-tal,” he said, with a look that revealed howtired he was and how much he wished hecould transport a full support staff to thePole right then and there.

Otto and Comley had been swampedfor more than a week as about half the sta-tion’s 220 residents stopped in to reportcold-like symptoms. A few were experi-encing headaches, fever, muscle aches andextreme fatigue — signs of somethingmore severe. Swab tests on two patientsperformed at the clinic indicated influen-za, but were sent to Christchurch, NewZealand, for confirmation. They heardback several days later and weren’t sur-prised at the news: influenza type A.People who had passed rigorous physicalexaminations to be at Pole had beenknocked off their feet by one of theworld’s most common viruses.

From the day they suspected the flu, thedoctors and station management wereworking to contain the outbreak. A highemphasis on vigorous personal hygieneand a near ban on handshakes were someof the steps taken to break the transmissionof the virus around the small station.Prescription and over-the-counter drugs,such as ibuprofen, were provided to relievethe symptoms for many. The very ill wereasked to remain in bed and doctors, kitchenstaff and friends made arrangements toprovide them meals. As of last week, theoutbreak mostly had subsided.

It’s not the first outbreak and it won’tbe the last, but what was different this timewas that the new medical center at the ele-vated South Pole Station gave the doctorsand their patients room to work and recov-er. It opened earlier this year.

Inside Pole MedicalThe initial waiting area at the medical

center is a dim entryway. It’s not darkbecause it has to be. It’s dark because it’scomfortable. Light spills from the left,emanating from a room filled with cabi-nets, drawers, a computer, microscope and

other instruments. It’s in that room — theoffice more or less — that the virus wastagged and bagged.

From the entryway, the view into themedical center through oval windows inthe two swinging metal doors is surreal, asif one is aboard a spacecraft and about towitness an alien autopsy. Once the doorsare open, fluorescent lights bring a senseof warmth to what is now obviously afunctional and interchangeable set of threemain rooms connected by a white tilefloor. It looks clean, sterile and roomy.The latter quality is what most distin-guishes the new medical center from itsformer boxy home under the Dome.

The high-tech monitors, defibrillatorand recovery beds brought from thecramped confines of the Dome medicalcenter, now coordinate within an institu-tional and functional design. A mobilelighting unit casts bright light on theexamination table in the middle of theexam room.

A fourth room in the main area servesas a private examination room. With pri-vacy an important aspect of medicine —and nowhere more important than a small,confined community —- the new examroom is a blessing to the doctors andpatients.

“It is a pleasure to treat patients in thenew clinic,” Dr. Otto wrote in an e-mail tothe Sun. “It is an open-concept clinic thatallows for easy flow and movement of

clinic equipment.”The whole experience is part of the new

station experience and the maturity of theAntarctic medical system, said RonShemenski, the U.S. Antarctic Program’smedical director based in Denver.

“There is more room for organization,”Shemenski said. “The lab area is bigger …and there is a window.”

TelemedicineArguably the most significant advance-

ments have been in telemedicine, whichuses communication devices from tele-phones to satellites to help treat patients.

“Our ability to diagnose and treat awide range of illnesses and injuries is oneof our greatest assets,” Dr. Otto, at SouthPole station, said. “This is a consequenceof both our onsite medical resources andour telehealth capabilities, which are sec-ond to none on the continent”

A contract with the University of Texasat Galveston allows Antarctic doctors tohave access via a satellite link to the medicalschool’s collective expertise of primary carephysicians and specialists. The systemallows a doctor at McMurdo Station, SouthPole or Palmer Station to consult directlywith a physician at the university hospital,either by telephone or on camera.

“Palmer Station in winter is more iso-lated than Pole.” Shemenski said. “If we

Medical centers vital part of U.S. stationsNew, roomier clinic at South Pole Station passes first big test in treating flu outbreak

See Medical on page 8

Photo by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic SunThe main examination room at the South Pole Medical Center in the elevated station hasmore room than when it was under the Dome. It includes a small area for dentistry.

have to evacuate, we have to get a ship in.”Dr. Will Silva, who is in his seventh

week at Palmer Station, agreed. “With a minimum transit time of some-

thing like eight or 10 days roundtrip thatmakes us feel way out on a limb,” he said.

Silva is a veteran of the program andspent several seasons at the South Pole. Hesaid that during his first season at Pole in1997, the idea of telemedicine was simplyin the early stages. By his second tour in2002-2003, he found the new telemedicinecapability helpful.

“I made extremely good use of it duringmy second Pole tour,” Silva said. “It wasquite a critical capability in sorting outseveral situations.”

Since the system was created aboutthree years ago, Shemenski said theGalveston hospital has become an organi-zation that knows the Ice and its uniquephysical demands.

“We’ve brought people here to seewhat it’s like,” he said.

Next year, the main network hub atRaytheon Polar Services Company head-quarters in Denver will upgrade the sys-tem to accomodate four simultaneous con-nections. That will allow station physi-cians, doctors in Galveston and programmanagers in Denver and Washington,D.C., to discuss specific cases andAntarctic health care issues together. Thatshould improve communication and speedservice to patients, Shemenski said, espe-cially in emergency cases that may requiremedical flights out of Antarctica.

“We’re always looking for tests andequipment that can extend treatment onthe Ice,” he said. “We want to know whenwe can safely treat people and when tomedevac … without risk to patient orcrew.”

Then there can be situations a polardoctor might never expect to encounter.

The summer season at McMurdo beganin earnest in October. During the earlydays of the new season, a resident cameinto medical seeking treatment. The ail-ment turned out to be malaria. The diseaseusually associated with jungles instead ofice caps may have been too out of place tosuspect, but the patient had recently trav-eled to an area where the disease was pre-sent. A blood test confirmed it.

“You don’t expect to get tropical dis-eases in Antarctica.” Shemenski said. “Butthis is a very mobile population.”

The technology of everyday emergencyrooms can be found at each U.S. station.The program staffs each of the three clin-ics on the continent with at least one doc-tor. McMurdo Station has several, alongwith a dentist, who also visits South Poleoccasionally. Aboard research vessels,

emergency medical technicians offer basicmedical care. Along with personnel, cameimproved technology. Beyond high-techhookups, the program makes use of every-day emergency room tools, from credit-card sized swab tests to defibrillators.

“There’s been a gradual improvement,not drastic changes,” Shemenski said. “Aschanges became available, we began toincorporate them.”

Shemenski hires doctors based on twocriteria: qualifications and experience.He said he gets a stack of letters fromphysicians interested in coming to theIce, but picks from those who are inactive practice with at least three to fouryears of experience and who haveworked in demanding emergency room orsimilar situations. For example, bothSilva and Otto have worked on the Ice inthe past.

Physicians who are hired spend abouttwo weeks training on equipment that adoctor doesn’t typically use, such asanalysis tools, radiology instruments andeven dentistry.

Those at McMurdo Station also train touse the pressure chamber in case underwa-ter divers need it. But the program primar-ily relies upon past experience, Shemenskisaid.

Palmer readyPalmer Station has the same capability

for telemedicine and advanced care thatPole and McMurdo do. However, most ofthe cases Dr. Silva sees at the AntarcticPeninsula station are for aches, pains,lumps, strains, rashes — what Silva calls

“pretty low-grade, walk-in clinic type ofstuff.”

Because of the long evacuation time byship, the emphasis is on taking precautionsand keeping safe, Silva said.

This is his return trip to the station andits revamped clinic.

“It’s really sweet to work in the newmedical facility at Palmer,” Silva said.“When I was here in 1999 it was underconstruction and was tiny with no equip-ment. This facility is big enough and it isjust crammed with equipment.”

McMurdo keeps paceThe McMurdo clinic sees more

patients over the course of a season thanany other station and has nearly out-grown its building. Shemenski saidplans — though still in the preliminarystages — call for moving McMurdo’smedical clinic across the road intoBuilding 155. That is the central build-ing in town and the location of thekitchen, dining hall, finance and humanresources department and other stationservices.

Two reasons to move into Building155, Shemenski said, would be toincrease clinic space while keepingessential services close to one another.

To ease the crunch in the meantime,current station doctor Gregory Zaar hasbrought back the use of appointments inaddition to walk-in hours to manage thenumbers of people seeking treatment.Shemenski said such steps will keep themedical center effective and ensurepatient privacy until it can find newquarters.

Medical8 • The Antarctic Sun November 28, 2004

From page 7The new medicalcenter at SouthPole has room for two beds, monitors and otherequipment.

Below left,theoffice includes a computer andmicroscope.

Below, the viewthrough the door-way of the clinic.

Photos by Brien Barnett, The Antarctic Sun


AntarcticAviation timeline

1902, Feb. 4Capt. Robert Scottascended 244m/790ftover the Bay ofWhales in a tetheredballoon.

1912Douglas Mawsonbrought the winglessbody of a Vickersmonoplane toAntarctica as an “air-tractor sledge” afterthe aircraft was dam-aged in Adelaide.

1928, Nov. 16Hubert Wilkins andpilot Ben Eielsonmade the firstAntarctic flight in anAmerican LockheedVega from a 730mbeach runway onDeception Island. Amonth later they flew1,000km along thepeninsula.

flight down memory lane, following the path Byrdtook to the Pole when he opened the way forAntarctic aviation and research.

“That’s the reason why we’re here and that’s thereason why they were there,” said Major MarkDoll, pilot for the flight. “The conquest ofAntarctica by air, exploration, science, increasingman’s knowledge of Antarctica’s influence on therest of the planet. That was Byrd’s goal for theexpedition.”

In the cockpit, Doll and copi-lot Marc McKeon agreed to leavethe autopilot off. They’d fly thisone the old-fashioned way, trad-ing the controls as Bernt Balchenand Harold June, Byrd’s pilot andcopilot, had done. NavigatorVinnie Wilson did his part, plot-ting their course using coordi-nates Byrd jotted down duringhis original flight and navigatingwith a sextant, as Byrd had. ButWilson had the backup of naviga-tional technology Byrd neverdreamed of, as well as weather reports and maps.

“Byrd had no way of knowing what the windsare. I have that advantage,” Wilson said.

Byrd flew into uncharted territory, in a plane atenth the weight of the modern cargo plane. Themaps Wilson checked still bear Byrd’s mark in thenames along the way: Mount Balchen for the pilot,June Nunatak for the copilot, and McKinleyNunatak for the aerial mapper, Ashley McKinley.Byrd had been the navigator and the expeditionplanner.

TakeoffSkier 94 rumbled as the engines started, settling

into a gentle vibration like the belly of a purringcat. The pilots pointed the plane onto the runway, asmoothed white surface stretching out on the seaice. The bluish Transantarctic Mountains sped byto their right and in seconds Skier 94 was up,orange airfield buildings shrinking into toy boxeson the wide, white carpet.

Marc McKeon steered away from the southward

path that planes usually take to the Pole and insteadveered east, along the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.Byrd had come through the dark waters below withtwo sailing ships in 1928 and three planes in theholds — a strange overlap of ancient and moderntechnologies. Flight was still new and uncertain,something to be proved, and Byrd believed explor-ing the Antarctic by plane would further not onlyscience, but the future of aviation.

“The idea was to get up and fly,” Doll said. “Anairplane back then was a newinvention. It gave them theopportunity to get up off theground.”

The ice shelf was shaped dif-ferently then. Large chunks ofice have broken off into the seasince Byrd saw it. The massiveAntarctic ice sheet constantlyoozes toward the sea. The iceshelves have a natural cycle ofgrowing and breaking to stay atequilibrium. In 2000, a slice ofthe Ross Ice Shelf the size of the

island of Hawaii cracked off, broke in half, andlodged at the entrance to McMurdo Sound. Severalmore have joined it there, diverting the normalflow of water, wind and sea ice. This logjam ofisland-sized bergs hid under low clouds as Skier 94flew along the edge of the ice shelf.

As they neared the area where Byrd’s men hadbuilt a cluster of wooden buildings called LittleAmerica, Skier 94 droppeddown for a closer look. Abay curved back into the ice.Wind tossed white sprayalong the dark water whereLittle America had oncebeen. Skier 94 tipped a wingand circled. The flight crewcraned forward to look.

“It’s gone.”“Somewhere at the bot-

tom of the South Pacific.”

Byrd From page 1

See Byrd on page 10

The crew of a flight commemorating the first flight over theSouth Pole peer out the window at the open water where LittleAmerica once was.

Photos by Kristan Hutchison / The Antarctic Sun

The Ford Tri-Motor Byrd flew over the South Pole.

Little America as it looked in 1929.


Skier 94 turned south at 1:30 p.m., followingthe ghost of the Floyd Bennett, which had lifted offat 3:29 p.m., 75 years ago. The Floyd Bennett flewso low Balchen could follow the dogsled tracks leftby a geological party going to the base of theTransantarctics. From Skier 94’s altitude, risingback to 5,300m, even the heavy tractors and trail-ers of the South Pole traverse were a mere blip onthe radar screen.

Had Byrd been there to glance over the cabin ofthis modern machine, he would have beenimpressed with the amount of space inside. Evenwith three sled frames taking up the space of afamily car, the loadmasters had room to pace in thehold. The sled frames would be used at the SouthPole to pull heavy drilling equipment into place forthe IceCube project, which is creating the world’slargest neutrino detector by implanting instrumentsdeep in the ice.

The Floyd Bennett had noroom for extra cargo, being tightlypacked with a sledge, sleepingbags, cans of gas, food and sur-vival gear until there was scarcelyroom for the four men to move.Skier 94 also is a flying survivalkit, with stoves, ice saws andsledgehammers tucked away inthe walls. A stack of large duffelbags held extra clothing and sleep-ing bags for each person on board.The gear gets used a couple timesa year, on average, when flightsare diverted because of weather.

“It’s easy to get complacent,because our planes are very reli-able, very comfortable,” said Doll.“But you still have to face the

harsh reality of flying over the coldest, windiestcontinent.”

While Byrd had worn a cumbersome fur parkathroughout his flight to keep warm and Balchenlanded with frostbite on his nose, the Skier 94 crewsat comfortably in their flight uniforms, withoutcoats. Instead of shouting and passing notes, asByrd had done, they conversed comfortablythrough the headsets over hot coffee andmicrowaved pizza.

Below, sastrugi-strewn ice flashed by. Byrdcompared his speed to Amundsen, who waspleased to make 40km per day, while the FloydBennett averaged 144km per hour. Skier 94 beatthem both, clocking 480kph most of the way.

The “Hump” appeared, where the ice surfacelifts from near sea level up the glaciers and theTransantarctic Mountains to the Antarctic Plateauat 2,800 meters.

For Byrd, this was the riskiestpart of the flight. Without maps orknowing the height of the glaciers,he had to choose which way to go.He chose the Liv Glacier and bare-ly made it, having to toss all theirsurvival food through a trap doorto lighten the plane and allow it torise over the “Hump.” Theycleared the pass by just 150m.

“If you’re shaving your perfor-mance margin that thin, you’re real-ly, really pushing it,” Doll said.

Already at 5,500m, Doll lookeddown at the path Byrd had taken.The peaks that had been aboveByrd’s wingtips were low bumpsand the bags of food bursting open

1929, Nov. 28-29Navigator RichardByrd, pilot BerntBalchen, copilotHarold June and pho-tographer/aerial map-per Ashley McKinleyflew over the SouthPole in a Ford 4-ATtrimotor. The 2,600kmroundtrip flight took 18hours 39 minutes. Byrd’s expedition hadalso been using aFokker Universal anda Fairchild, all on skis,to explore, survey andsupport field researchin Antarctica.

1934Byrd returned to LittleAmerica with a twin-engine Curtiss-WrightCondor T-32 biplane,Fokker F-14, FairchildPilgrim and Kellettautogiro, the prede-cessor to helicopters.The first autogiro flightwas made Sept. 1.After making 10flights, it crashed onSept. 25.

1934Lincoln Ellsworth andBernt Balchenattempted to cross thecontinent in a ski-equipped NorthropGamma, but failed.

1934The British GrahamLand Expedition useda deHaviland FoxMoth aircraft, alongwith a tractor and dogteams, to survey thewestern side of theAntarctic Peninsula.The Fox Moth couldbe fitted with skis orfloats, depending onthe situation. The firstflight was Jan. 2,1935.

1935, Nov. 23-Dec.15Lincoln Ellsworth andpilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon crossedAntarctica in aNorthrop Gamma 2Bfrom Dundee Island tothe Bay of Whales,about 3,400km. It took14 days.

Byrd From page 9

Photo by Kristan Hutchison/ The Antarctic Sun


See Byrd on page 11

Navigator Vinnie Wilson uses asextant, as Byrd did.

Richard Byrd named these brown ridges on the Liv Glacier the June and McKinley nunataks for the reliefpilot and mapper during the first flight to the South Pole 75 years ago.

November 28, 2004 The Antarctic Sun •11

Pilot Mark Doll didn’t mind abreak in his routine, even if itmeant a 650km detour on theway to the South Pole.

For him, it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience apiece of aviation history. As theflight started, he read navigatorRichard Byrd’s description ofthe original flight aloud to thecrew over the headset. It’s astory Doll has read many timesbefore. He recently completed apaper on the development ofskied aircraft and is a flightinstructor for the aircraft.

Doll was born to it. His fatherwas in the same New York AirNational Guard unit for 26 years,the 109th Airlift Wing. Dolljoined in 1992 and has flown tothe South Pole more than 100times since.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind mission,a one-of-a-kind airplane,” Dollsaid. “This is really the last placewhere airlift is somewhat uniqueand rare, and to be part of thecrowd that gets to fly these isreally a privilege.”

In Antarctica, Doll is an expertat making the first landing at asite, said fixed-wing coordinatorJoni English. That’s allowed himto see most of Antarctica from

the air, and be the first personever to land in some areas.

“When you do an initial put -in, you stop the airplane, open thedoors, step in the snow andyou’re it. You’re the first guy,”Doll said. “That’s a unique expe-rience.”

As a pilot who has often beenthe first to land or take off fromremote sites, Doll has a specialappreciation for what BerntBalchen, the pilot on Byrd’sflight, accomplished.

“He’s really the one who flewthe airplane and kept Byrd out oftrouble,” Doll said.

Flying in snow has particularchallenges, Doll said. It’s easy tolose all depth perception and theconditions change quickly.

“In snow, it’s completely dif-ferent at every camp,” Doll said.“Every day changes, it can evenchange hourly just by the way thewind and the sun and the cloudsare warming up the snow, blow-ing the snow or even the way thecamp personnel are grooming thesnow. It’s always a challenge tofigure out the best way to get theairplane air-borne.”

Doll has visit-ed the Floyd

Bennett, the Ford Tri-Motor Byrdflew to the South Pole, severaltimes at the Henry Ford Museum.

“It was kind of remarkable tosee a plane that has been to thePole and back sitting in a muse-um in Michigan,” Doll said. “It’sjust amazing they got the airplaneout and it’s still very well pre-served in a museum.”

1938-39“Schwabenland”expedition, a secretmission for the ThirdReich, uses twoDornier Super Walflying boats to photo-graph 250,000sq. kmof Dronning MaudLand in Antarctica.

1939-1941U.S. AntarcticService Expeditionunder Richard Byrdestablished LittleAmerica III andused a Curtiss-Wright Condor andBeech Staggerwingto explore the MarieByrd Land coast.The expedition alsokept a Barkley GrewT8P-1 two-engineseaplane on theship and a secondCondor at a base onStonington Island.

1947Operation Highjumpbrought 23 aircraft,including six C-47cargo transports. TheC-47s took off fromthe deck of the air -craft carrier USSPhilippine Sea onJan. 29 and flew960km to LittleAmerica — the firsttime a large transportaircraft operated onwheel-skis. Theplanes were used totake 70,000 aerialphotographs formapping. Byrd madea second flight overthe South Pole in aC-47 on Feb. 15.

1947, Dec.“Operation Windmill”used ship-based heli-copters to put surveyteams at key pointsalong the coast.

1955, Dec. 18-20 Seabees built thefirst sea-ice runwayat McMurdo, laternamed WilliamsField, for a construc-tion driver who died.

on the ice below would have been specks.Tossing anything was out of the question on the

modern flight. A different philosophy engulfs theAntarctic now, one of environmental stewardship.Since 1959, a treaty has protected the continent.The pristine snow plateau is just as Byrd had seenit.

“A white desolation and solitude disturbed bythe sound of our engines,” he’d written. “The Polelay in the center of a limitless plane. No mountainswere visible.”

For Byrd, that had been the end of the story:“One gets there, and that is about all there is for thetelling. It is the effort to get there that counts.”

Not so anymore. A collection of black spots onthe horizon grew swiftly into a collection of build-ings and scientific instruments. Doll landed Skier94 smoothly on the groomed snow runway in frontof the new South Pole station, something Byrd didn’t consider. The first landing at the South Polewaited until 1956, when Gus Shinn landed the ski-

equipped C-47 Que Sera Sera there.“I kind of wonder why Byrd didn’t just touch the

skis down,” Doll said. “If I was there, I would havebeen tempted to do it, just so you could come backaround, take a picture of your tracks in the snow.”

South Pole crews unloaded the sleds forIceCube and fuel. The fuel will help run everythingon the station, from labs monitoring the air andozone for signs of climate change to the construc-tion equipment building the new station.

Delivery made, Skier 94 again followed Byrd’slead and, as he had written, “We put the Polebehind us and raced for home.”

No hat-tossing awaited the modern crew, no tri-umphant ticker-tape parade, but a warm dinner atthe end of a days work.

Byrd From page 10

Pilot with a view of the past


Major Mark Doll pilots an LC-130over the site of Little America.

Doll will give a talk on Byrd’s historic flight, includ-ing pictures from the recent commemorative flight,at 8:15 p.m. Monday in the McMurdo dining hall.

The Floyd Bennett, the Ford Tri-Motor that was thefirst plane to fly over the South Pole, in the HenryFord Museum in Michigan.

Photo by Mark Doll / Special to The Antarctic Sun


1956C-124 enteredAntarctic service.

1956, Oct. 31Gus Shinn landed theQue Sera Sera, a C-47, at South Pole.(Story this page)

1956, Nov. 20A C-124 makes thefirst Pole airdrop ofequipment and mate-rials to buildAmundsen-ScottSouth Pole Station.

1957Short gravel runwaybuilt at Marble Point,in conjunction with afeasibility study, sitesurvey and site inves-tigation for a conven-tional runway.

1957, JanuaryA Lockheed pressrelease announcedthe first flight of thewheel-ski equippedC-130 aircraft fromthe factory in Georgia.

1957, Oct. 15Pan Am WorldAirways Stratocruiser,the first commercialflight, lands atMcMurdo. The flightwas a military charter.

1958C-121 enteredAntarctic service.

1958First nonstoptranscontinental flight,by a DHC-3 Otter.

Jan. 1960Twelve ski-wheel C-130Ds deliveredbegan flying inAntarctica.

By Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Flying over the South Pole was just the beginning.Eventually, somebody had to land.

During Operation Deep Freeze in 1956, Americaplanned to build a research station at the South Poleas part of the International Geophysical Year.According to the plan, the station would be accessedand supplied by planes, though none had ever landed

there.“We didn’t really know what the

surface would be like,” said Gus Shinn,the first pilot to land at the Pole. “Wedidn’t know whether we’d start littleearthquakes or whether there’d be hol-low areas or whether the surface wouldbe too soft.”

On Oct. 31, 1956, they decided tofind out the only way they could.

“My boss just said, ‘Your crew will make theSouth Pole flight.’ The next morning at 0200 I wasawakened with the message, ‘South Pole flight take-off at 0800.’ And that’s the way it was,” said Shinn,now 83, from his Florida home.

Unlike Byrd, they did little to prepare for contin-gencies. They didn’t pack extra food or survival gearbeyond the old World War II gear they were wearing.

“I was like Lindbergh. We were going fromMcMurdo to Pole and back to McMurdo. I didn’tgive any thought that we’d have any trouble at all,”Shinn said. “No one was prepared for any real prob-lems.”

The attitude matched the plane’s name, Que SeraSera, Spanish for “what will be, will be.”

The C-47 took off with 16 jet-assisted take-off(JATO) bottles attached to the bottom to help it takeoff at the South Pole. It flew up the BeardmoreGlacier, climbing from sea level to 3,000m.

At the pole, they circled, searching out the bestplace to land. Without a groomed runway, the emptyplateau was scattered with frozen waves of sastrugi.Shinn aligned the Que Sera Sera with the sastrugi and

eased it down.“It was a normal landing,” he said. “The surface

was very firm.”The shock was stepping out into –58C. All the

cameras froze except one the navigator kept tuckedunder his clothes.

The crew spent 50 minutes on the ice, whichturned out to be too long. The skis had frozen to thesurface. Shinn fired three JATO bottles, but nothinghappened. He tried again, this time with the remain-ing JATO bottles, and the plane staggered into thethin air.

The plane had difficulty with the altitude, about3,000m above sea level, and the extreme cold. Theflight instruments were sluggish. To top it off,between the blast of ice crystals outside and frost onthe windshield, the pilots’ visibility was zero.

“All these problems were unexpected, so we werereally lucky to get away with it,” Shinn said. “Youwouldn’t do that now. You know better.”

They made it back anyway, for a roundtrip of 13.8hours including the stop at the Pole and another torefuel at Beardmore Glacier. The lesson learned wasto wait for warmer weather. The next landing at thePole wasn’t until November 20, when the tempera-ture was up to -40C.

“That’s really what laid the groundwork for whatwe do today,” said pilot Major Mark Doll, who fliesLC-130s for the U.S. Antarctic Program.

Many more flights followed as the station wasbuilt and supplied. Shinn landed at the Pole 17 moretimes over two years.

“It became quite easy. We got so we could fly aroundtrip without having to stop for fuel,” Shinn said.

Shinn still visits the Que Sera Sera sometimes, atthe Naval Aviation Museum near his home inPensacola, Fla. The plane lost a wing and a rudder inHurricane Ivan in September.

“It’s like visiting a cemetery,” Shinn said. “It’s oldand it’s decrepit and the cockpit is chock-a-blockwith old instrumentation. I wonder how I ever got inand flew it.”

First touch down at the South Pole


The new South Pole station as seen from the cockpit of an LC-130.

An LC-130 at the South Pole.Photo by Kristan Hutchison / The Antarctic Sun



Before aviation could really take off inAntarctica, the planes needed to improve.

Richard Byrd flew to the South Pole in aplane made of corrugated aluminum, with wood-en skis attached to the bottom.

“There was no insulation. It was just a loud,noisy, cold, drafty airplane,” said Major MarkDoll, an LC-130 pilot for the Antarctic program.“Those airplanes back then were very light-weight, fragile by our standpoint.”

For the time, just 26 years after the Wrightbrothers first lifted off at Kitty Hawk, the FordTri-Motor was an advanced aircraft. But its topspeed was the same as the slowest speed formodern LC-130s and it barely gained enoughelevation to climb to the Antarctic Plateau.

“They did a good job with that old Tri-MotorFord,” said Gus Shinn, a pilot who came downwith the next generation of planes, the C-47“Gooney Birds,” also called DC-3 Dakotas bycivilian airlines.

In the 18 years since Byrd’s first flight, avia-tion advanced enough to allow for the first large-scale aerial expedition to Antarctica, OperationHighjump. The C-47s the Navy brought downwere the first large transport aircraft to operateon wheel-skis. The ski position could only bechanged by moving a pin on the outside, but theC-47s had a larger cargo capacity, longer rangeand internal heating.

“It was a huge leap in technology,” said Doll.In 1947, Shinn and Byrd rode down with the

planes on the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Seaand walked the decks together, but never spokeabout the first South Pole flight. They were bothmore interested in the flight at hand, the firstattempt to launch C-47s off an aircraft carrier.

“We didn’t know whether we’d get off thedeck or not,” Shinn said from his home in

Florida.Byrd was in the first plane to take off the deck

on Jan. 25, 1947, and Shinn followed soon after.Shinn flew C-47s again eight years later, as

part of the U.S. science program’s OperationDeep Freeze during the InternationalGeophysical Year. He was the first to land at theSouth Pole and the ability to fly there made itpossible to build Amundsen-Scott South PoleStation. South Pole and McMurdo stations haveoperated ever since, relying on the regular flowof flights all summer.

“We depended on those flights for our mail orour freshies. We hated to see a flight turn backwith mail on it,” said Billy-Ace Baker, who wasa radioman at McMurdo Station for 14 seasons,from 1962 to 1980. “We also hated to see a flightcome in if it didn’t have mail on it.”

There were still a lot of risks involved. The C-47s were stretched beyond their limits, andcarrying so much weight that occasionally thelanding gear collapsed, Shinn said. The white-on-white Antarctic landscape can also fool theeyes, causing pilots to lose depth perception andfly into the ground. In early years, the planes didaerial surveys, trying to fill in the blank areas onmaps without flying into the mountains theywere mapping.

“It was a unique time,” Shinn said. “We lost alot of airplanes and we lost some people and Ihope we learned.”

At that time, many science parties had to tra-verse to their research sites. That took a lot oftime, limited how far they could go, how longthey could spend in the field and was sometimesdangerous, said Billy-Ace Baker.

“It was weeks,” Baker said. “Things hap-pened, but they did it.”

The plane that became the standard for theU.S. Antarctic Program, the LC-130, appeared

See Planes on page 14

1962Turbine helicopters(UH-1) entered Antarcticservice.

1966USAF began C-141flights to McMurdo.

1967, June 18First winter flight toMcMurdo by Lan C-130.A second one was flownon Sept. 2. The “Winfly”became a regularlyscheduled event.

1967, Dec. 2Last C-47 flight, fromHallett Station toMcMurdo.

1973Inertial navigation sys-tem introduced, whichgives precise position,distance, speed, track,heading and coursedeviation.

1973DHC-6s used by U.S.Antarctic Program.

1979 Nov. 28Air NZ DC-10 crashedon Erebus, killing 257.The tragedy disruptedplans to commemoratethe 50th anniversary ofByrd’s flight over theSouth Pole.(Message on page 17)

1987DC-4 flew to Patriot Hills.

1989, OctC-5 flew fromChristchurch toMcMurdo.

early 1990s GPS, global positioningsystem, came into use, providing bearing, track,ground speed, distance,estimated time to destination or waypoint,and course deviation.

Photo by Kristan Hutchison/ The Antarctic Sun

A cargo handler guides sleds containing materials for an astrophysics project at South Pole Station ontoan LC-130 plane at the annual sea ice runway near McMurdo Station.

Planes make Pole science possible

14• The Antarctic Sun November 28, 2004

2004, Nov. 17A routine cargo flightto the South Polediverted 650km off-course to follow theroute taken byRichard Byrd 75years ago, makingthe trip in a third thetime with fuel tospare to keepAmundsen-ScottSouth Pole Stationrunning

Timeline sources:Mark Doll; Billy-AceBaker; Gus Shinn;Notes on AntarcticAviation by MalcolmMellor, CRREL;Readers DigestAntarctica; PolarAviation edited by Lt.Co. C.V. Glines;Antarctica AnEncyclopedia by JohnStewart; Moments ofTerror by David Burke;Gateway to the Ice byTony Phillips; 20 Yearson the Ice edited byBilly Blackwelder;Americans in theAntarctic 1775 to 1948by Kenneth Bertrand;US Army Report ofOperation Highjumpedited by Paul Siple.

on the ice runway in 1959. The LC-130 is thelargest plane to be fitted with retractable ski-wheels, and probably will remain so, according toa report by Malcolm Mellor of the Cold RegionsResearch and Engineering Lab, who called it thebasic workhorse of Antarctica. The Navy flewthem for the Antarctic program until 1999, whenthe mission was turned over to the New York AirNational Guard.

“The big progress was made when the LC-130scame in,” Shinn said. “It’s amazing what you’redoing down there now.”

The LC-130 can carry about 12,700kg of fueland cargo to the South Pole, nearly twice the totalweight of Byrd’s Floyd Bennett.

“In combat, you can put more on this aircraft.,”said loadmaster Randy Powell. “But the penguinsare not rebelling.”

Now the LC-130 can take researchers to other-wise unreachable sites, like the Pine Island glacierwhere aerial geophysical surveys by smaller TwinOtter planes will allow glaciologists to map thebase of the ice field. That’s just one of the 22 sci-ence groups being served this season in the deepfield, said Joni English, fixed-wing coordinator.

LC-130s will probably remain the mainstay of thefleet, since skis for a larger plane would be cumber-some, Doll said. There also isn’t much demand forlarge planes on skis. Greenland and Antarctica arethe only places with large enough expanses of opensnow to operate the LC-130s. Doll guesses the nextimprovements will come in other areas, like runwayconstruction and weather forecasting. Significantprogress in those areas has already made flying saferand more reliable, including the ability to compactsnow into a solid pavement at Pegasus Runway. Thehard surface allows wheeled planes, including largecargo planes, to land at the runway for more of the

season.But no technology will remove the basic chal-

lenge of polar flying — the weather. Even with theadvances in weather forecasting, a couple LC-130flights each year run into unexpected storms asthey approach McMurdo, forcing them to divert.

“The environment we fly in today is the same asthey flew in back then. We have better training andbetter equipment, but we’re still performing thesame mission,” Doll said.

The flying season is still limited by the temper-ature. The hydraulic fluid thickens below -50C.The fuel gels at -58C.

The cold, dry weather also causes constantmaintenance problems as seals contract and crack,causing leaks, said Chief Master Sergeant DaveWilloughby, superintendent of maintenance. Thesix LC-130s fly about 3,000 hours in each six-month season, and the maintenance crews see thewear and tear.

“In a short period of time, we do an awful lot offlying,” Willoughby said. “That wreaks havoc withthe equipment and people both.”

The maintenance crews have to fix the planesoutside in the same weather.

“You can’t work very well without gloves,” saidMaster Sergeant Chuck Shannon. “That’s whatslows everything down a little. Nothing seems tomove easy in the cold — equipment or people.”

The next improvement in Antarctic transporta-tion may bring the U.S. Antarctic Program full cir-cle, back to the ground. Now the South Pole tra-verse is testing the concept that cargo could behauled to the Pole by tractors reliably enough tofree-up more LC-130 flights for other needs.

“The surface traverse that they’re working on isprobably going to be the next big step, frankly,”Doll said.

Planes From page 13

Model Ford Tri-Motor DHC-6 LC-130Nickname Tin Goose Twin Otter HerculesYear introduced 1926 1965 1958Maximum weight 6,803kg/15,000lbs 5,670kg/12,500lbs 70,307kg/155,000lbsLength 15.3m/50ft 3in 16m/52ft 30m/97ft 9 inWingspan 22.55m/74 ft 20m/65ft 40m/132ft 7inCargo capacity n/a 11cum/384 cu ft 107cum/3,782cuft Power 2 x 222hp, 1 x 525hp 2 x 1,240hp 4 x 4,590hpCruising speed 145kph/90mph 248kph/154mph 462kph/287mphMaximum speed 259kph/161mph 296kph/184mph 602kph/374mphRange 1,700km/1100miles* 1,448km/900miles 3,379km/2,100milesMaximum altitude 3,700m/12,000ft* 7,620m/25,000ft^ 10,700m/35,000ft^Passenger capacity 8 19 94Roundtrip flight to Pole 18 hrs. 39 min. 9 hrs. 6 hrs.

* as Byrd’s plane, the Floyd Bennett, was configured ^with oxygen

THEN & NOW


are sticking around. This gives him and histeam more time to collect data on themovement and characteristics of giant ice-bergs. In the meantime, the icebergs arehelping to cause a buildup in the sea icenear McMurdo station. The icebergs havealso damaged penguin colonies nearby,and may be affecting the seal populationsas well.

MacAyeal, a professor of GeophysicalSciences at the University of Chicago, leftMcMurdo Station last week after workingsix weeks to put instruments on the vari-ous icebergs. He and his team now haveseven GPS and weather monitoring sta-tions, and four seismometers in the field.They hope to learn more about what caus-es icebergs to calve; how and why theydrift (or don’t drift, as the case may be);study what happens when the icebergswarm; and learn why they are producingpreviously unknown tremors that arepicked up on seismometers as far away asTahiti.

Situation hereMassive icebergs are part of the natural

cycle of the Ross Ice Shelf. The shelf push-es forward toward the sea, and large ice-bergs must calve off every 50 or 100 years.Otherwise the shelf would reach to NewZealand by now, MacAyeal said.

B15 broke off the Ross Ice Shelf alongwith the smaller, but still enormous, C16 inMarch 2000. When the full B15 calved, itwas nearly 10,850-square kilometers, orroughly the size of Jamaica, and was thebiggest recorded iceberg in the world. B15a,the largest intact piece, is more than 3,000-square kilometers.

This is the first time scientists have beenso well positioned to study giant bergs,because these ones are hanging out so closeto a large station.

B15a moved 32km north between Nov.13 and Nov. 23, according to the mostrecent data MacAyeal had. But the shiftnorth isn’t the most interesting change. Thegiant berg also rotated counterclockwiseabout 18 degrees. This means that it’s nowon the west side of Franklin Island for thefirst time. While it was east of the island, itwas blocked from moving much farthernorth.

If B15a moves in precisely the right waythrough a gauntlet between Franklin Islandand nearby shoals — which MacAyeal saysis unlikely — it could keep moving northright up to the Drygalski Ice Tongue andeffectively block off the opening toMcMurdo Sound.

“It’s like the key has turned and can fit inthe door,” he said.

MacAyeal said it’s more likely that B15ahas gone as far north as it’s going to go fornow and that its north end is grounded on ashoal. This leaves room for ships to get intoMcMurdo Sound this year.

The bigger problems could come nextyear, MacAyeal said. The bergs have beenacting like a breakwater, blocking the nor-mal wind and water currents from sweepinginto McMurdo Sound with their full force,so the sea ice has been building up each year

Bergs From page 1

See Bergs on page 16

Elizabeth Traver and Mac McKeel set up a seismometer and solar panels on the giant iceberg C16, with the slope of Mount Erebus in thebackground. Doug MacAyeal's group of scientists put equipment on the icebergs that will help them track where the bergs drift.

Photo courtesy of Doug MacAyeal / Special to The Antarctic Sun

The colored overlay shows B15a and B15jas they were on Nov. 23, superimposedover the berg’s positions on Nov. 9.

Satellite image by Jessica Walker / Special to The Antarctic Sun

instead of breaking up. The grounding ofB15a will only compound this, MacAyealsaid. National Science Foundation officialshope the bergs will float away and stopcausing problems.

“I don’t think it’s going to go away,”MacAyeal said.

This is not the iceberg’s northernmostjourney. It’s been farther before, but on theeast side of Franklin Island. MacAyeal saidthat at a pace of more than three kilometersa day, this was one of the iceberg’s fastestperiods. The other two were during themajor May storm that swept throughMcMurdo and after a 2002 earthquake inPeru.

The secret life of icebergsWhen MacAyeal raced out to B15 in

2000 to put instruments on it, he thoughthe’d quickly learn what makes icebergs drift

north and what happens to

them along the way. Instead, he’s learned alot about why icebergs don’t move.

The strong winds that rip across the con-tinent come from the south, so he figuredthe bergs would be pushed north. It turns outthe icebergs are sensitive to tiny dips in thelevel of the ocean.

The ocean is like a golf ball with littledimples caused by changes in barometricpressure. There is a dimple just off RossIsland where the bergs are sitting. MacAyealsaid that as little as a 25mm slope changeover 100km would be enough to counter theeffects of wind on a giant berg.

“The icebergs say I’d rather fall into thislittle dimple and I don’t care what the windsare because I’m so big,” MacAyeal said.

The winds won’t be able to move the ice-bergs until they’ve broken up into smallerpieces, he said.

MacAyeal and his team have put GPSand weather monitors on many of the ice-bergs to be ready when they do move.

One of the things he’s most inter-ested in is how the bergs react towarmer weather.

“I think a little piece of Antarcticadrifting north would tell us whatwould happen here if it gets warmer,”MacAyeal said.

Scientists got a glimpse of this inJuly from satellite and space station

pictures of two icebergs off the coast ofSouth Georgia Island. One of the ice-

bergs collected meltwater in pondson top, while the other was at anangle that allowed the meltwater to

run off into the ocean. The one withthe ponds suddenly shattered. The other

stayed intact.Glaciologists think that water filled in

surface cracks in the iceberg. Becausewater is denser than ice, it acted like asteel wedge and eventually shattered theiceberg. This could have caused the sim-ilar, spectacular disintegrations of iceshelves along the Antarctic Peninsula,

such as the 3,000-square kilometersof the Larsen B Ice Shelf that shattered

in 2002.Tracking the icebergs as they melt

could have a side benefit, MacAyeal said.There is a huge shortage of fresh water in

the world. Perhaps these melting bergscould somehow be harvested for their water.To make his point, MacAyeal calculated thatif B15 were sold on the freshwater market inthe arid Middle East, it would garner $320 billion. Of course, getting it therewould be a problem.

MacAyeal wants to get a glimpse not justof an iceberg’s death, but also its birth.

A “baby tooth,” as MacAyeal calls it, issticking out at the edge of the Ross IceShelf. It’s the only part that didn’t fall offwhen B15 and C16 calved, and should bethe next to go. The scientists, with help frommountaineers and equipment experts on sta-tion, put GPS and weather monitors on thepiece, hoping to learn what causes the shelfto calve and create an iceberg — whether itis a storm, an earthquake, a tsunami, orsomething else they haven’t thought of. Theteam also positioned a camera to look intothe large rift in the ice where it will calve,which they will be able to monitor online.

The scientists had a successful six-weekvisit this season and were able to put alltheir instruments into place. They willreturn next year to continue their work. Theinstruments should last about 10 years —plenty of time to record the drifting of thebergs, as long as they start drifting.

“We’ll have a whole armada of icebergsthat are prepared to be observed as they driftnorth,” MacAyeal said. “We hope they don’tjust sit here for 10 years.”

NSF-funded research in this story. Doug MacAyeal, University of Chicago,http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/iceberg.html


Bergs From page 15

Mystery TremorsThe giant icebergs sitting at the edge

of McMurdo Sound aren’t just floatingaround idly. It turns out they’re makingmusic together.

Or at least what sounds like musicon a seismometer. Seismometers inTahiti started picking up unusualtremors in 2000, at the same time thatseismometers on Mount Erebus startedpicking up equally unusual signals.Iceberg researcher Doug MacAyeal andthe seismologists have now determinedthat the tremors are coming from theicebergs when they bash against eachother.

In order to learn more, MacAyeal’steam put seismometers on three of theicebergs and on the “baby tooth” that isgetting ready to calve off the Ross IceShelf. This will help them understandwhat’s happening inside the bergs.MacAyeal said the friction between twobergs as they slide against each othermight be causing one to resonate like acello that has a bow drawn across it.

The edge of B15a as seen from a helicopter flying over C16. B15a is the largest of thebergs that split off the massive B15, which calved into the Ross Sea in 2000.

Photo by Emily Stone / The Antarctic Sun

From left, graduate student Kelly Brunt, scien-tist Doug MacAyeal and graduate studentMarianne Okal put a seismometer in placeinside a snow vault to learn more about why theiceberg is creating tremors.

Photo courtesy of Doug MacAyeal / Special to The Antarctic Sun

By Emily StoneSun staff

The Mount Erebus volcanologiststhought it was curious when their instru-ments started picking up continuous groundvibrations, called harmonic tremors, in2000. These types of tremors are usuallyassociated with highly active volcanoes,and are rarely observed at Erebus.

A Crary Lab technician at McMurdoStation suggested that perhaps the tremorshad something to do with the enormous ice-bergs that had fallen into the Ross Sea ear-lier that year.

“We said, ‘ah, that’s a stupid idea,’” saidPhil Kyle of the New Mexico Institute ofMining and Technology. Now, he wisheshe could remember which tech said that, sohe could apologize. It turns out the guy wasright.

Scientists now believe the large B15 andC16 icebergs, and the smaller ones theyhave since broken into, could be having apronounced effect on Erebus.

Erebus used to have small eruptions twoto six times a day, fairly consistently since

1984, Kyle said. “Then those little eruptions moreor less stopped,” he said.

The harmonic tremors start-ed at about the same time.

The scientists speculatethat when the bergs

hit Ross Island orcrash into each

other theyc r e a t e

vibrations. Those vibrations mobilize thegas inside Erebus’ magma and force it outthe crater in small bubbles.

Richard Aster, another of the Erebus sci-entists, explained that Erebus’ eruptions arecaused by huge gas bubbles that reach thesurface and then explode.

“You have to have the ability to growthese large bubbles,” he said. The icebergsare largely suppressing this.

Iceberg researcher Doug MacAyeallikens the bergs’ action to burping a baby toprevent a bigger “eruption.” Kyle comparesit to tapping the side of a glass of soda orchampagne and watching the bubbles floatto the surface.

Aster demonstrated on a computer whatthe harmonic tremors sound like when arecording of the ground’s motion is playedat an increased speed. They resemble whalecalls, or sometimes the pings of sub-marines, punctuated with occasional short,horn-like blasts. What’s causing these nois-es in the icebergs remains largely a mys-tery, the men said.

No one has studied this type of interac-tion between volcanoes and icebergsbefore, they said.

They were lucky, Kyle said, that they setup six new, highly sophisticated seismome-ters on Erebus three years ago.

“We had this whole network of seis-mometers to study Erebus,” he said. “Theirony of the whole thing is that all we’vedone is monitored the icebergs.”

NSF-funded research in this article. Phil Kyle,New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology,http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/Erebus/erebus.html


Erebus and the icebergs

To our friends, hosts, and colleaguesin New Zealand:

Antarctica is often called the "HarshContinent." At their worst, its condi-tions are unimaginably severe. Even atbest they can stress both body andmind.

In the face of such unrelenting hard-ship, what keeps those who work theresafe and secure — and adds immeasur-ably to their peace of mind — are thebonds between people and amongnations in the face of common adversi-ty. Perhaps nowhere else in theAntarctic are those bonds forged soclosely as between the Americans atMcMurdo Station and their Kiwi neigh-bors "over the hill" at Scott Base.

Twenty-five years ago this month,on November 28, an Air New ZealandDC-10 crashed on nearby MountErebus. None of the 257 passengers andcrew aboard survived the crash.

The tragedy resonates through theyears for the families of the passengersand crew, for all those on Ross Islandwho responded to that terrible event,and even for the New Zealander whohas no personal connection.

We wish them all some measure ofpeace from the passage of time.

The thoughts of the men and womenof the U.S. Antarctic Program are withall who gather to commemorate thistragedy and all who reflect alone on itsaftermath. Americans, and New

Zealanders, too, who still work inAntarctica, have very personal memo-ries of those heart-wrenching days andweeks in 1979.

I am equally sure that many atMcMurdo Station on November 28 willpause to look over at Mount Erebus,with a plume of volcanic steam risingskyward from its peak, and reflect onthe loss.

Like you and like them, we have notforgotten. My thoughts are with you.

Statement by Dr. Karl A. ErbDirector

National Science Foundation'sOffice of Polar Programs

Message from the director on the anniversary of Air New Zealand crash:

Iceberg C-16 extending back toward Ross Island. Photo by Emily Stone / The Antarctic Sun


From rock to ice, from mapmaker toglaciologist, from support staff to Ph.D.candidate, Kelly Brunt has made theswitch.

She took the familiar flight to McMurdoStation in October, but someone else wassitting at the desk on the second floor of theCrary Lab where Brunt had worked for fouryears as the Geographical InformationSystems specialist.

One of the best parts of her job had beenworking with scientists from all disciplineswho needed something mapped. That’show she met Doug MacAyeal, a glaciolo-gist studying the massive icebergs loiteringat the entrance to McMurdo Sound. Shestarted tracking the icebergs’ movementsfor him in 2000.

“Kelly has lots of initiative and duringthe years when she was the GIS person shewould sort of anticipate what the next ques-tion would be,” MacAyeal said. “I immedi-ately realized she was someone, like somany people here, who had a lot of self-starting ability.”

MacAyeal asked Brunt if she’d consid-ered going back to school for a Ph.D., butshe was too involved in her job at that time.For the next two years she continued tohelp MacAyeal and other researchers. She created a bathymetricmap of the area around the icebergs to help determine if they werelikely to ground and mapped the drifting of the Ross Ice Shelf forthe South Pole traverse. She wanted to go beyond plotting pointsand start to understand the phenomenon she was watching.

“I was watching the icebergs day-to-day more than anybodyelse. Did I understand what the heck was going on? No,” Bruntsaid. “It’s pretty much like the guy that stands guard over theparking lot, sees all the cars coming in the parking lot, sees all thepeople coming into that parking lot, but he doesn’t understandwhat goes on in the parking lot.”

The icebergs were going nowhere, and after a while Brunt feltthat she was too. As she was looking around for something new,MacAyeal called again.

“He said, ‘hey, I just got more funding and I need a grad stu-dent. What do you think now?’”

After visiting him at the University of Chicago, Brunt quit herfull-time position with Raytheon Polar Services in Denver andmoved to the Windy City.

“I want to keep using gray matter and I think this is the way todo it,” said Brunt, who came to McMurdo as MacAyeal’s gradu-ate student this season. She quickly made herself an essentialmember of the team, MacAyeal said.

At one point MacAyeal had the wrong coordinates for a newiceberg. Brunt caught the mistake and fixed it the night beforethey were supposed to fly there. Brunt was in charge of trackingthe details of their field work. She also became the morale leaderfor the team.

“She was the one who would always ask, ‘Are you OK?’”MacAyeal said, and made sure that everyone on the team was.Once she earns her degree, which she hopes to do in four years,

MacAyeal expects her to become anexcellent teacher and field researcher.

“She’s born to this,” he said.Brunt already has an undergraduate

degree in geology from SyracuseUniversity and a masters in geophysicsand paleomagnetism from theUniversity of Montana. Before comingto Antarctica, she worked for threeyears in Anchorage, Alaska, doing GISand aereomagnetic work for the U.S.Geological Survey.

Despite all her hard work, Brunt maybe best known at McMurdo for herbirthday. No matter what the date, whenBrunt walks into a room there’s achance people will chime into a chorusof “Happy Birthday.”

The joke started her second season,on her actual birthday, Oct. 26. Her co-worker, Chuck Watkins, started thesong in the dining hall at just the rightmoment to get everyone singing. Peoplereturning their dishes turned around tosing. Diners at the back of the roomstood. As the short song echoed off thewalls, Brunt grew redder and redder.Watkins thought it was so funny heprompted the singing several times thesame week in the Coffee House, thenexpanded to other locations.

Since then, Brunt’s been sung to more times than she canremember, at meetings, meals, and once by an entire section ofsports fans at Coors Field in Denver.

She no longer blushes, but it still brings a laugh, which is akinto breathing for Brunt.

“Most people have to rev up to a smile. My system idles onlaughter,” Brunt said.

She tends to get other people laughing, too. In past years sheperformed as a member of the McMurdo improvisational theatergroup and in the Women’s Soiree.

“This is such a safe, coddling community it makes stuff likethat easier,” Brunt said.

It was in the Soiree three years ago that she went on stagealone, with a guitar, and kept the audience entertained for 10 min-utes just talking about her hometown in Connecticut.

“Most people just remember the guitar and that I didn’t playit,” Brunt jokes.

Though she now has a condo on the south side of Chicago, shestill wears her Hartford Whalers hat and considers Connecticuthome.

“I’m finding as I get a little bit older, the more you travel themore you see and the more you see of the world the more youlearn about yourself,” Brunt said. “Once you learn about yourself,typically what that brings you back to is the people who mean themost to you, and for me that’s family.”

When the iceberg B15 first broke and filled the news, she tookumbrage that her home state was used as a size comparison. Thenext time a big iceberg breaks off, she hopes to be qualified todefend her state against those who would compare it to a floatingpiece of ice.

“Connecticut is bigger than the bergs,” she said. “If I don’tdefend it, who will?”


Prof i le Mapping out a new life

Photo courtesy of Doug MacAyeal / Special to The Antarctic SunKelly Brunt working on an iceberg this season.Brunt spent four years as the mapping expert atMcMurdo Station before deciding to join the scientists in the field as a graduate student.

november 28, 2004 a flight down memory lane

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