the antarctic sun, december 2, 2001 · for predicting the earth's weather decades into the...

Emperor penguin researchers concluded their work in McMurdo Sound on Saturday. The team studied penguins’ ability to maintainbody temperatures in freezing waters and their tolerance for oxygen depletion. At right, some penguins carry a heart rate monitor ontheir backs to collect data for researchers. At left, an emperor plunges into an ice hole located inside its corral.

TheAntarctic SunDecember 2, 2001www.polar.org/antsun

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

Setting stonesaside for thefuture

Page 3

“To take a Challenger 55 and use it tomove a sled that weighs 10,000pounds over a few inches is not atrivial matter.”

The man whoheats McMurdo

6

I N S I D E Quote of the Week

- an ITASE participant

Convoy of research sleds making wayacross ice sheet in search of historyBy Mark SabbatiniSun staff

How's this for a challenge: Using only snow and ice, constructan area's history for the past 200 years while building a foundationfor predicting the Earth's weather decades into the future.

Those who regard snow as a uniform mass of gunk to be shov-eled might shudder or laugh at such a task. For scientists, it's the sortof thing that inspires a road trip.

So for the third straight year a team of researchers is slowlycrossing west Antarctica in an odd collection of portable laborato-ries and other huts, collecting ice and snow as they go.

Getting elaborate data from frozen bits of water is nothing new,they say, since ice and snow layers can be read the way a biologist

studies rings on a tree to determine its age. But samples are neededfrom across a region to accurately uncover its secrets.

"In a way in the past you were collecting ice cores in an isolat-ed spot and you really couldn't prove how much of a region it rep-resented," said Paul Mayewski, director of the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE).

The four-year ITASE project involves 15 countries collectingsimilar data across the continent. Members from the U.S., who aretraveling the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, will conclude their portionnext year with a traverse to the South Pole.

This year the U.S. team is traveling 1,200 miles (2,000 km) fromByrd Field Camp to the old Siple Station and back, the longest oftheir voyages to date. Much of the work continues previous research,but participants say variations - such as more snow and ice accu-mulation due to a warmer climate along the route - are expected.

ITASE: Science on the move

Photos by Melanie Conner/The Antarctic Sun

Into the drink

See ITASE on page 14

The Antarctic Sun is funded by the NationalScience Foundation as part of the United

States Antarctic Program. Itsprimary audience is U.S.Antarctic Program participants,their families, and their friends.NSF reviews and approves

material before publication, but opinions andconclusions expressed in the Sun are notnecessarily those of the Foundation.

Use: Reproduction and distribution areencouraged with acknowledgment of sourceand author.

Senior Editor: Kristan HutchisonEditors: Melanie Conner

Mark SabbatiniPublisher: Valerie Carroll,Communications manager,RPSC

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

Web address: www.polar.org/antsun

2 • The Antarctic Sun December 2, 2001

South Pole sayings

Ice peopleNumber of Raytheon Polar ServicesCompany employees in full-time andcontract positions, respectively: 285, 876

Median age of full-time and contractemployees: 41.9, 38.1

Age range of full-time and contractemployees: 22-66, 19-73

Male-female ratio of contract employees: 2-1

Ethnic status of contract employees:96 percent Caucasian, 2 percentHispanic, 1 percent Asian, .5 percentAfrican American, .5 percent NativeAmerican

Number of states with contract employees: 47 (Delaware, Kentuckyand Oklahoma have none)

States with the most contract employ-ees: Colorado (202), Alaska (64),California (63), Washington (62)Source: Raytheon Polar Services HumanResources

Cold, hardfacts

Ross Island Chronicles By Chico

ACROSS2) Snow formations resembling sand dunes6) You get two per week of two minutes each7) This, not cold, is called the biggest danger8) Despite all the white, very little of this

11) South Pole Remote Earth Observatory (abv.)14) The Pole and Sahara share this classification16) The first person to land a plane at the Pole18) A Pole night is made for this scientist19) This deceptive factor can make you feel low

DOWN1) The Pole's official time zone3) Where the only green growing plants are found4) A month of this before sunset and sunrise5) "Great God, this is an _____ place."6) The type of clouds that form during winter9) For $25,000, you can join the first to run this

here10) The only clothing allowed by the "300 Club"12) The type of huts used by summer workers13 The only 90-degree reading you'll get outdoors15 The time of year the sun rises and sets17 The Pole's dominant structure - for now

Answers on page 12Note: This puzzle is being rerun from last week dueto a printing error.

Yeehhhawww!!! Looks like someone elseis headed this way.

Whoaah Nelly!!!

Greetings fellow Earthlings. We’re the APEexpedition, the Antarctic ExpeditionAgainst Polar Expeditions 2001.

We’re crossing thecontinent to bringawareness to the factthat there are toomany expeditionsalready. We’redemanding they goelsewhere to get theirjollies because all theybring is unwantedmedia attention, morepeople and moreproblems for us.

By the way, youwouldn’t happen tohave any extrafishsticks with you,would you?

December 2, 2001 The Antarctic Sun • 3

By Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Explorer Robert Scott died collectingrocks in Antarctica. He wouldn'thave wanted them to end up in agravel pit.

While geologists today don't give theirlives, bringing home stones from theAntarctic is still a difficult and expensiveprocess. A rock repository planned forOhio State University will ensure the sam-ples are saved for future research.

"A lot of geologists have rocks storedin their garage or they have rocks in thebasements, so many rock collections arenot in permanent curated storage," saidRosemary Askin, a geologist at Ohio StateUniversity who's pushed for a way to bet-ter retain those collections. "Many PI's(principal investigators) are about to retireand there's a danger of the rock collectionsbeing lost."

The soon-to-be-built U.S. Polar RockRepository will be a library for samplesfrom both polar regions.

The Antarctic Treaty requires scientificinformation to be shared, and that includessamples. Similar repositories already existfor ice cores, sediment, meteorites andeven specimens pulled up from theSouthern Ocean.

"The way I see it is that the collectionof data down here is extremely expensiveand therefore materials that have an infi-nite shelf life, like rocks, should be madeavailable," said geologist David Elliot.

While a geologist in the U.S. can usual-ly just drive back to the area where rockswere collected and pick up some more,getting to regions of Antarctica is muchharder.

"There are many geologic sites thatonly one field party has ever visited," saidgeologist John Isbell. "They're like moon-rocks. They're valuable."

Since Antarctic rock collecting beganin earnest in 1957, geologists have luggedback tons of mostly hand-sized rocks. Bythe 1990's, some of the rocks were at risk

of being discarded and a group of geolo-gists began discussing the need to savethem. A few rocks with important fossilmaterial ended up in the Smithsonian andother museums, but many other rockswere probably lost as the scientists whocollected them moved on to other topics orretired, said Scott Borg, the NationalScience Foundation’s Geology andGeophysics Program Manager.

"I'm sure that a lot of material had beendumped out on the waste rock pile outsidegeology departments," Borg said.

Part of the beauty of rock is it doesn'tgo bad. It stores information for eons.Though one geologist may be done study-ing a particular rock, another geologistmay be able to make further discoveries.

In 1999, the NSF gave Ohio StateUniversity a grant that covers much of thecost of building the $700,000 facility. Therest is covered by matching funds fromvarious Ohio state sources. OSU geolo-gists had been discussing adding a rockrepository to the Byrd Polar ResearchCenter for 20 years, and had already start-ed an online Antarctic Geologic Database,Askin said.

The repository will be adjacent to theByrd Polar Research Center's laboratories,with a wet lab, rock saw, drill press,microscope and photographic equipmentfor preliminary rock and fossil examina-tion. It is expected to open in August of2002 with tens of thousands of rocksalready, Askin said.

"I personally have, from one particularpart of Antarctica, 2,000 samples," Askinsaid. "We have from one retired geologistover 3,000 samples."

Isbell estimates he also has about a tonof Antarctic rocks that will end up in therepository.

The repository will provide pieces ofthe rock samples to researchers uponrequest, but the core of the rock willalways be retained.

"We will keep one small piece of therock so we've always got an archive for

people to see," Askin said. "Oftentimes wecollect quite a big chunk of rock, so asmall piece off the side is no big deal."

The rocks tell stories. They come in allthree of the major rock types - igneous,sedimentary and metamorphic. Somecarry traces of pollen or fossils fromAntarctica's warmer years. Others connectAntarctica to other continents, from thetime when they were joined in the greatGondwanaland. The movement of thecontinent across the South Pole can betraced through magnetic fields left in therocks. As technology and techniquesdevelop, geologists will learn to read evenmore from the stones.

Eventually the rock repository couldreduce the need for geologists to come toAntarctica, but it will never completelyreplace going into the field, Borg said. Theobservations geologists make as they col-lect rocks can be important to the research.

For instance, when Borg collectedgranite samples for his research he didn'tpay attention to how the rocks were ori-ented. Though those granite samplescouldn't be used in magnetic studies, aresearcher could test them for magneticfields to determine if it would be worth-while to collect similar samples, Borgsaid.

"In the future I believe the repositoryshould be a data source that anyoneproposing a new investigation must exam-ine and reference in order to demonstratethat they really do have a requirement togo in the field," Elliot said.

The repository will also be a source forstudents and the general public, who couldtour the facilities. For Elliot and otherresearchers who dedicated years to col-lecting and studying Antarctic rock, it'ssatisfying to know their work will beretained.

"It would just be a damned shame ifmaterials that have been properly collect-ed and catalogued are simply dumpedwhen somebody retires," Elliot said.

The Preservation of Rocks

Library for polar geological samples to be built in Ohio


Perspectives Perspectives

By Kristin van Konynenburg, MDPalmer Station physician

Iam steering a Zodiac Mark V overocean swells raised by an unexpected30-knot wind. Freezing water is splash-ing over the port side, and everyone is

feeling the vulnerable spots in theirMustang suits as the cold wetness sneaksthrough fleece and long underwear. I can'tfeel the fingers of my left hand, which hasbecome drenched holding on to the safetyline as my right hand moves the tiller. I nav-igate through the ice floes and bergy bitswhile continuing to head for Palmer Stationinto the wind and waves. My fellow Searchand Rescue Team members are full ofencouragement, and laugh at my salt-cov-ered sunglasses. I feel entirely alive in thisland of wind and water and ice. I am thePalmer Station Physician, I think to myself,and at this moment it's the most perfect jobin the world.

I applied to work in Antarctica because Iwanted to practice medicine in an austereenvironment, where my job connected meto the outdoors. I taught WildernessMedicine for the Juneau Icefield ResearchProject in Alaska last year, and discovered Iloved teaching and working in that world ofrock and ice. I also learned at least as muchas I taught, as I lived and worked with thestudents, staff and professors of the projectduring their two-month trek across theIcefield.

As Dr. Maynard Miller, the JIRP direc-tor, said to us, nature is screaming at you.What he meant was that the rocks and iceand the beings who live there are full of his-tory and meaning, we only need to knowhow to read the information in front of ournoses. So the next natural step for me was toapply for a position in Antarctica, support-ing folks on the cutting edge of research inthe earth sciences.

Working at Palmer Station as a physicianis an exercise in being both the ultimatecommunity physician and the Un-doctor.Palmer is a small station. Follow-up is easy.I know where to find folks. However, I maybe the only person who actually likes thatfact. Our closeness also makes confidential-ity an important issue. More than once Ihave been asked about a colleague’s prob-lem, and I tell the person I can't give thatinformation. But if someone has an injury

and feels comfortable with an audience,then it can become a learning experience forothers as well.

The beauty of working at Palmer is notthat the medical problems are particularlyinteresting, or that they are particularlynumerous. The beauty of working here isthat you are practicing in a very uniquework and living environment, where yourpatients are your friends and teachers androommate and supervisor and knittingbuddy and workout buddy. You need themas much as they need you. It's a sort of egal-itarian utopia with a manager. Except thatno one disputes the fact that the most impor-tant person on station is the one who knowshow to run the power plant.

As the Palmer physician I'm responsiblefor all aspects of the clinic and medical care,as there are no allied personnel. Beforemedical school, I had been a medical recep-tionist, a phlebotomist, a medical assistant, acommunity health worker and a specimenprocessor in a lab. I thought I was wellrounded, but I realize now I had not experi-enced numerous aspects of providing med-ical care and running a clinic. Not only do Iperform all of the jobs above, I'm also the x-ray technologist, the radiologist, the labtechnician and pathologist, the medicalrecords clerk, the central supply clerk andresupplier, the janitor, the pharmacist, theoperating room supply tech, the dentist andthe nurse. This work seemed to happen

magically at the hospital and clinics where Iwork in the states; I will never again take itfor granted.

Now I'll explain the Un-doctor part of thejob. In addition to maintaining the clinic andtaking care of health problems when theycome up, I'm the fire safety inspector, thefood safety inspector, the building inspector,the eyewash station inspector, the watersafety inspector and the hot tub chemicalmaintenance person. I take air samples forNOAA and Scripps research groups. Plus Ido the 1800 GMT weather observation andradio the results to Rothera, our neighboringBritish station, every day.

I now know why they call this PalmerVo-tech, because I've learned about every-thing from the chill box to how to alkalinizeour water supply. I've learned how to main-tain a barometrograph and what is a cirrusspissatus cumulonimbogenitus cloud versusthose of the altocumulus translucidus undu-latus variety. I know how to recharge aportable fire extinguisher. I have a favoritesnow shovel and ice chipping tool. I'm evenfiguring out how to use MAPCON.Oftentimes the scientists need a hand withtheir research as well. So I've fished for krilland counted penguins on nearby islands. Ican tell a skua from a giant petrel, which isvaluable knowledge when you want toavoid an avian attacker. I know where thecormorants nest and I've been dive bombedby an Antarctic tern. I can't remember hav-ing learned this much about such a widevariety of things ever before.

It's clear to me that weather, water, fireprevention and having a generator thatworks are the most important safety andhealth issues at the station. But the potentialfor major trauma or a serious medical con-dition is always present. The challenge ofthe job is being prepared for a major injury,disaster, or illness, while at the same timetaking care of the many small details ofmaintaining an entire Environmental Healthand Safety department. Aside from main-taining emergency medical equipment andsupplies in the clinic, I'm also focused onbetter preparing the station for an emer-gency. Along with our Boating Coordinator,Jeff Bechtel, who is a Wilderness EMT, I'vebeen teaching some courses for our Search

See Un-doctor on page 6

Kristin van Konynenburg is much morethan the doctor at Palmer Station.

Un-doctoring at Palmer Vo-tech

Photo courtesy of Kristin van Konynenburg

Close brushes withtoothy leopard sealsBy Tom CohenourPalmer correspondent

At 120 feet below the surface ofthe ocean, the predatory carnivoresuddenly appeared. Easily recog-nizable by its prehistoric reptilianappearance and sleek movements,the two divers knew instantly theyhad to abort their dive and seeksafety out of the water. The sheerface of the submerged rock wallprovided them with the best meansof retreat. With their backs literallyagainst the wall, Charles Amslerand Bill Baker slowly made theirascent. Both men, part of a team ofseven conducting research on theChemical Ecology of Shallow-Water Marine Macroalgae and Invertebrates(BO-022-O), have encountered Hydrugaleptonyx before.

Known commonly as leopard seals,Hydruga leptonyx is, as noted by Ted E.DeLaca in his article “Encounters WithLeopard Seals Along The AntarcticPeninsula” (Antarctic Journal, May/June1975) "... a major large carnivore inAntarctic waters that frequently consumeswarm blooded prey." DeLaca further notesin his article that over a four-year period "...there have been several encounters withleopard seals that have caused usconcern."

This was the fourth dive inrecent years the BO-022-O teamhad undertaken off the north endof Cormorant Island near PalmerStation and the third in whichleopard seals have been encoun-tered there.

Female leopard seals are largerthan the males. At 10 feet long (3meters) and 770 pounds (350 kg),the average female leopard sealhas a large head and a powerfullower jaw with rows of sharp tri-cuspid teeth. Their large canineteeth are well-suited for capturing

prey common to their diet such as birds,penguins and other seals. Krill, however,have been shown to comprise 37 percent oftheir diet.

"It [the leopard seal] swam around usdarting to within 3 feet (1 meter)several times," said Baker.

"And once it came within 1foot (1/3 meter)," added Amsler."Bill had his knife drawn just incase," Amsler said with a grin.

The underwater diver-to-diversignal for leopard seals is a handand thumb "jaw" motion in frontof your face. Though the signal isunmistakable, the warning is like-ly more conveyed by the intensityin which it's delivered - and thediver's wide eyes. Either way, thesignal was understood. Over thenext 12 minutes, both divers madetheir way to the surface and imme-diately hailed James B.McClintock and Margaret O.

Amsler who were waiting in the nearbyZodiac. Established protocol for evading aleopard seal attack while retreating is toemerge on land if possible. Fortunately forthe dive team, a rock ledge provided theperfect staging area to remove their divegear and re-enter the relative safety of theZodiac. Relative safety.

Leopard seals have been known to biteand puncture Zodiac air tubes. In 1999, PeteDuley with the seabird component of theLong Term Ecological

Research (BP-013-P) had the fortitude to

pause long enough to take a photo of a leop-ard seal in action biting his boat. The tubepartially deflated but he was able to make itback to station safely. Zodiacs at Palmer arenow routinely equipped with punctureguards on the cone-shaped pontoon ends."I've seen leps swim back and forth bitingthe Zodiacs tied up by the pier," saidBoating Coordinator, Jeff Bechtel. "Lastyear we had seven boats in the water. Fourhad guards and three didn't. The three with-out all got punctured by leopard seals,"noted Bechtel.

Despite their reputation for cunning andferocity, leopard seal attacks on humans arefew in number. DeLaca reminds us in hisarticle that, "This seal nevertheless is poten-tially dangerous because of its large size,mobility and feeding habits."

Thanksgiving festivitiesBy Judy SpanbergerSouth Pole correspondent

This past week at Pole was pleasant andeven relaxing during a two-day break forthe Thanksgiving holiday. The weather wassunny and in the minus 20s all week, whichis great outdoor weather for this environ-ment.

It's been a rather routine week for sci-ence. Science activities have been mostly ofa maintenance, cleansing and calibrationnature in preparation for another successfulyear of data collection. The field teamleader for the meteor radar experiment ishere to replace a broken power supply andto calibrate the experiment. This experimentis studying the dynamics of the atmosphereover the polar plateau with a ground-basedradar system that uses the ionized trails ofmicrometeorites in the upper atmosphere asa reflecting medium. Mostly, however, it'sbeen business as usual for the science com-munity here at Pole.

Construction continues on track andprogress is noticeable on the elevated sta-tion. Operations has been busy with moresnow removal. There are a few largemounds of snow dotted around the station,


around the continentPALMER

SOUTH POLE

McMurdo StationHigh: 37F/3C Low:14F/-10CWind: 23 mph/38 kphWindchill: -22F/-30C

Palmer StationNot available due to technical difficulties

South Pole StationHigh: -24F/-31C Low:-36F/-38CWind: 14mph/23kphWindchill: NA

the week in weather

Photo by Tom Cohenour/Special to the Antarctic Sun

A leopard seal rests on an iceberg near Palmer Station. See Continent on page 6

A leopard sealbites into aZodiac in 1999near PalmerStation.

Photo by Pete Duley/ The Antarctic Sun

but other than that it's nice and flat. A cou-ple of bases and maybe a pitcher’s moundand we could get a game going out there, ormaybe a golf course?

A fair amount of our energy this pastweek seemed to focus around theThanksgiving holiday. We celebrated ourThanksgiving on Saturday, which allowedus to have two days off in a row. A rare treatfor us hard working Polies. The preparationbegan earlier in the week in the galleywhere each evening between 20 and 40 peo-ple would help prepare food for the grandfeast. It was a reminder of the wonderfulcolors and textures of fresh food to watchthe boxes and boxes of produce come infrom the coolers outside. We made pies bythe dozens with no two looking the same.Pounds and pounds of veggies werechopped. Brie was wrapped in pastry doughand decorated according to the whim of thewrapper. It was near enough to working inthe kitchen at home with laughter, conversa-tion and flour being flung about as the piemakers dove into their work.

We took a break from food preparationon Friday night for the annual pre-Thanksgiving disco ball. Many of usbrought vintage disco outfits with us for thisevent, but many more made due with what

was on station. The results were astonish-ingly late 70s. The Afro was alive and wellthat night, and there was more polyesterthan anyone had seen in decades. The sum-mer camp lounge was decked out withlights, a DJ cage and a fully functional discomirror ball. And with the lightheartednessof people who have two days off and a mag-nificent feast ahead of them we danced thenight away. Prizes were awarded for mostauthentic and most creative outfits.

Thanksgiving was a day of food, relax-ing, helping in the kitchen, conversations,movies, kite flying, chess games and sleep-ing in. Later in the afternoon we set up thegalley for the feast. We set the table withlinen and candles. It was beautiful. The

lights were dimmed, the candles lit,announcements and thanks were said andthen it was time. And what a meal it was.Amazingly good. Roast turkey, smokedturkey and deep-fried turkey. Sweet pota-toes, fresh mashed potatoes, stuffing andgravy. Bean casserole, fresh bread, three dif-ferent kinds of cranberry sauce and mashedcarrots. And more. As we sat and dinedsome of our fellow polies had volunteeredto wander around and pour wine as needed.I had to remind myself that I was indeed atthe South Pole, which when I did madeeverything so much more special. A bigthanks to the kitchen staff who created asmall miracle for us to enjoy. We hope youall had as wonderful a Thanksgiving.


What do you think ofcommercial tourismactivities in Antarctica?

“It is the epitomy ofchecking somethingoff their lists. I guess

money does buyhappiness after all.”

Ellen KerkowCargo handler at SouthPole station, since senthome to Washington

state with a broken arm

“I doubt they could domuch more damage

than we do. They're noterecting entire cities.”

Quinn RedmanPrep cook at McMurdo

Station from Seattle, Wash.

“It’s OK in limitedquantities as long asthey are educated onthe Antarctic Treatyprovisions and their

activities are monitored.”

Carmen LemonAssistant logistics supervi-sor at Palmer Station, from

Colorado Springs, Colo.

and Rescue Teams and anyone else who isinterested. We've trained people on the useof the Automated External Defibrillator andhad a CPR review course. We've had anintroductory Wilderness Medicine course toprepare folks for assessing injured or sickcolleagues in the field and communicatingthe victims situation to the station via radio.The Wilderness Medicine series of lectures

will continue, covering topics such as ortho-pedic injuries and splinting, wounds andburns, hypothermia, drowning, packagingand remote evacuation.

If you're getting the impression that I'menjoying myself here, you're absolutelyright. It's the best 54-plus-hour work week Icould imagine. I'm already wistfully think-ing that when I return home I won't look out

the window and see seals float by on icefloes or hear the roar of a calving glacier.Because right now out the window I can seea snow shower traveling towards the stationfrom over the sea, with long gray tongueslicking down from the storm clouds.Suddenly, it is snowing. Time to go out andenjoy the weather. Nature is screaming at me.If I listen, my life will never be the same.

Un-doctor From page 4

Continent From page 5

Polies share aThanksgivingtoast.

Photo by Alice Orlich/Special to The Antarctic Sun


By Mark SabbatiniSun staff

They started their 1,200-mile road tripThanksgiving Day, eating cold bean burritoswhile driving at jogging speed through blowingsnow across a vast ice sheet.

It's a bumpy ride, but flat white terrainstretches to the horizon in every direction. Theview won't change anytime soon - certainly notduring this leg of the trip, which lasts more than30 straight hours.

About once an hour the line of sleds carryinglaboratories, a kitchen, sleeping bunks and otherstructures reaches a waypoint on a GPS systemthat serves as a road map. The procession stopsso about a dozen people aboard can refuel trac-tors hauling the two "trains," check the stabilityof loads and use the outhouse that is one of the"cabooses." Between stops, they read, talk, eatand try to perform scientific work despite thebumps and jolts.

This routine, with a series of stopovers to digup snow and ice, will be life during the next twomonths for the U.S. component of theInternational Trans-Antarctic ScientificExpedition (ITASE). One member calls it "anold-fashioned expedition," another "industrialmountaineering" and a third "the price you payfor progress … (squeezing) nine blokes in the

On ttheRoadagain"For tthose oof uus rreturn-

ing ffrom pprevious yyears iitwas aalmost llike bbeing hhomeagain. WWe mmoved bback iintoour oold bbunks iin tthe BBlueRoom aand mmade oourselvescomfortable ffor tthe nnext 66-88weeks."

-excerpt from ITASE group journal, 11/16/01

Members of the 2001-02 U.S. ITASE traverse arrive at Byrd Field Camp, above, tobegin final preparations for their 1,200-mile trip in a variety of small research andliving facilities attached to sleds.

Below, two researchers gather in front of a set of sleds from last year’s traverseduring a stop in its voyage across the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The U.S. ITASEtraverses will end next year with a trip to the South Pole.

Photos by Mark Sabbatini/The Antarctic Sun

See Roadtrip on page 8Photo courtesy of ITASE


Blue Room" at night."It's going to be a long, bumpy ride,"

said Dave Schneider, a University ofWashington doctorate student who is mak-ing his second traverse with ITASE acrossthe West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

There is a mix of new and familiar asthe scientific research convoy begins thethird of four annual trips. Newcomers joinreturning veterans on the research team.There are more structures for living andworking instead of tents. A secondChallenger tractor provides more horse-power for pulling the 80,000 pounds ofgear and sleds. Equipment has been modi-fied as a result of past problems such asthe rough ride. For the first time, someonehas packed a portable shower.

The hours of digging snow and drillingice are largely the same as past years, butITASE members expect their research toexpand on previous findings. There arealso hopes the flat views of the ice sheetwill be replaced by better views as theyreach crevasse fields near the end of theirroute.

""WWee ssppeenntt tthhee mmoorrnniinngg ((aattMMccMMuurrddoo SSttaattiioonn)) ddooiinngg aa rriisskkaasssseessssmmeenntt ffoorr oouurr ffiieelldd pprrooggrraamm ……SSoommee ooff tthhee rriisskkss aarree oobbvviioouuss,, lliikkeeeennccoouunntteerriinngg ccrreevvaasssseess,, bbeeiinngg iinnjjuurreedd bbyyssoommee ooff tthhee hheeaavvyy mmaacchhiinneerryy oorrvveehhiicclleess,, aanndd ffoooodd hhyyggiieennee.. EEaacchhmmeemmbbeerr wwaass aasskkeedd ttoo vvooiiccee tthheeiirr ssiinn-ggllee ggrreeaatteesstt ccoonncceerrnn.. SSoommee wweerree qquuiitteessuurrpprriissiinngg - DDaann,, ffoorr iinnssttaannccee,, wwaass

ccoonncceerrnneedd aabboouutt bbeeiinngg lleefftt bbeehhiinndd iifftthhee ttrraavveerrssee ssttaarrttss mmoovviinngg wwhhiillee hheeiiss ssttiillll vviissiittiinngg tthhee bbaatthhrroooomm..HHooppeeffuullllyy wwee ccoonnvviinncceedd hhiimm tthhaatt tthheerriisskk wwaass mmiinniimmaall..""

- excerpt from ITASE group journal, 11/10/01

Adjusting to life on the traverse isn't abig deal for most of the ITASE team;either they've been on previous trips orworked in remote field camps elsewhere.The lone exception is Dan Dixon, aLondon native who is now a graduate stu-dent at the University of Maine.

"I didn't even have the right clothes forMaine," he said.

Dixon, whose first field work came ona Russian research ship where "theRussians were drinking a lot and it wasjust good fun," said a snow survival schoolcourse at McMurdo "kind of shocked mybody into producing more heat." He saidhe has few concerns now, especially afterliving in tight quarters with others duringlong sailing trips.

"In a way that's what we're going to belike on the traverse," he said. "The tra-verse is going to be our survival capsule.In a way we'll actually have more freedombecause we can get out and walk around."

For many, the lengthy and jarring ridebetween work sites is the worst part of thetrip - sort of Antarctica's version of gettingcarsick. Everything from eating to work-ing can be difficult as the high center ofgravity of most structures makes the joltsfrom the uneven terrain even worse.

"I guess the closest thing would be likea ship in very rough weather … the thing

is always shaking and jerking in all direc-tions," said Gordon Hamilton, an assistantprofessor of climate studies at TheUniversity of Maine who is participatingin his third ITASE trip. "Some peoplecomplain of seasickness."

"I can easily read or listen to music," hesaid. "Some people, all they can do is basi-cally curl up and sleep through it all."

Working during travel times is crucialfor those doing projects that rely on move-ment, such as radar mapping, while othersare forced to forego portions of theirresearch because of the risk to delicateequipment. During leisure time they watchmovies, prepare meals and play "WhoWants to Be a Millionaire" tournaments onone of the computers.

Some relieve their boredom by taking aturn driving one of the Challenger tractorspulling the sleds and gear. TheChallengers aren't difficult to operate - oneITASE member refers to them as "MyFirst Sony Tractor" - but drivers mustwatch for hazards.

One of this year's biggest hazards arethe crevasses, said Steve Niles, a mechan-ic and primary driver. He said a crevasseradar system will be suspended by a boomabout 5 meters in front of the machine -"on an inner-tube, just sort of floating" - tohelp detect hollow spots in the ice. Butthey will be limited to speeds of about 3mph (5 kph) - about half their normal trav-eling speed - while using the radar.

"It's going to be one of these dealswhere you won't be able to see thecrevasses, (but) a lot of these guys havestudied the area," he said.

Roadtrip From page 7

Lynn Peters, a mechanicand driver on the ITASE

traverse, tries to balancea 4,000-pound track ona Challenger tractor atByrd Field Camp. The

space between the trackson the tractor needed to

be widened to preventsnow and ice from

clogging the vehicle during its 1,200-mile

journey across the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

See Roadtrip on page 9

Photo by Mark Sabbatini/The Antarctic Sun

"Besides," he added dryly, "when I getinto the crevasse areas I'll let the scientistsdrive."

""BByy llaattee eevveenniinngg tthhee wwiinndd hhaaddddrrooppppeedd aanndd aa ffoogg bbaannkk hhaadd mmoovveeddiinn.. HHooaarr ccrryyssttaallss bbeeggaann ttoo ffoorrmm oonnaallll ssuurrffaacceess.. IInn tthhee ppaarrtt ooff tthhee sskkyyooppppoossiittee tthhee ssuunn,, aa ffooggbbooww ffoorrmmeedd -ffoorr mmaannyy ooff tthhee tteeaamm tthhiiss wwaasstthheeiirr ffiirrsstt eexxppeerriieennccee ooff tthhiiss uunnuussuuaallpphheennoommeennoonn..""


Scenery isn't on the priority list of someITASE participants, since most of the voy-age occurs over terrain that is white andflat. But even the dullest-looking stretchof ice can offer glimpses of beautydepending on how it is viewed.

A satellite map of the traverse haspromise, with ridges surfacing along glac-iers toward one end of the route. Hamiltonsaid that is deceptive at ground level, sincethe ripples are about the height of an officeceiling. But look even closer and a snow-field that looks the same during a 60-miledriving trip takes on new life, said CobiHarris, a mountaineering guide fromPortland, Ore., who is providing field sup-port during the traverse.

"If you look down at the snow, there'samazing patterns and it's really beautiful,"she said.

Some crew members are hoping for abit more scenery as they approach theRonne Ice Shelf and two prominent glaci-ers along the route. Those participating inlast year's trip saw only one mountain, and

the lone rock they encountered was a stoneabout 12 miles away that apparently hadblown off the summit, Harris said.

Even though the monotony of thingssuch as scenery and routine are felt bymost people, it's not a serious impediment,said Paul Mayewski, director of the U.S.ITASE program and the larger internation-al ITASE project involving 15 countriesmaking traverses at different locations onthe continent.

"To me that's the hardest part, thatthings are pretty much the same everyday," he said. "But with a good group ofpeople it doesn't bother you that much."

""TTooddaayy ttuurrnneedd oouutt ttoo bbee tthhee iiddeeaallddaayy ttoo cceelleebbrraattee TThhaannkkssggiivviinngg.. CCoobbiiaanndd GGoorrddoonn ccooookkeedd uupp aa ffeeaasstt,,iimmpprroovviissiinngg wwiitthh aavvaaiillaabbllee iinnggrreeddiieennttssaanndd aaddaappttiinngg ttoo tthhee ccrraammppeedd ccooookkiinnggccoonnddiittiioonnss.. OOuurr mmeennuu ccoonnssiisstteedd ooff::eeggggnnoogg,, aappppeerriittiiffss,, mmiixxeedd nnuuttss,, ttuurrkkeeyy,,ggaarrlliicc mmaasshheedd ppoottaattooeess,, yyaammss,, ggllaazzeeddccaarrrroottss,, ssaauussaaggee ssttuuffffiinngg,, ddrriieedd cchheerrrryyssttuuffffiinngg,, mmuusshhrroooomm ggrraavvyy,, ccrraannbbeerrrryyssaauuccee,, rreedd aanndd wwhhiittee wwiinnee,, ppuummppkkiinncchheeeesseeccaakkee wwiitthh ggiinnggeerr ssnnaapp ccrruusstt,,lliiqquueeuurrss ((aanndd)) cciiggaarrss.. TThhee cciiggaarrsswweerree aa ssuurrpprriissee ggiifftt ffrroomm ZZaacchhSSmmiitthh,, aa ppaarrttiicciippaanntt iinn llaasstt yyeeaarr''sseexxppeeddiittiioonn.. DDaann pprreesseenntteedd tthhee ggiifftt oonnhhiiss bbeehhaallff ttoo hheeaarrttyy ggoooodd cchheeeerrss aallllaarroouunndd..""


Harris' duties include being the expedi-tion's food manager, but everyone sharescooking and other domestic duties. Menusare reasonably varied, since meat and veg-etables can be kept safely frozen in storageboxes outside the trailers.

Sleeping arrangements are consideredboth better and worse than past years. Thegalley has been removed from the nine-bunk Blue Room, which is also being sup-plemented by a smaller sleeping trailer.Everyone is well-sheltered - a big plusduring storms - but perhaps a little cozierwith their co-workers than they'd like.

"Oddly enough, given our preferencewe would sleep in tents," Mayewski said.But tents took hours to set up and removeduring the first year's trip, and didn't pro-vide the warmth much of the field equip-ment needed.

One person has a place of his own tocall home, although Brian Welch's box-shaped "Popesled" - named because thedesign supposedly resembles the HolyFather's travel vehicle - makes an averageprison cell look vast by comparison. Theplywood structure isn't tall enough for himto stand upright in and is barely longenough for him to sleep, once he crawlspartially under the work table that domi-nates the interior. On the table is his com-puter and other radar-mapping equipment,along with two 300-watt light bulbs drivenby a gas generator outside the hut.

"Essentially I'm in my own giant Easy-Bake oven," he said. "On a good day it'llbe 60 degrees just from body heat."

Welch's tactics on the road are asunusual as those in camp. His Popesledrides to the rear and side of one of thetrains, held there by two ropes to ensurehis radar readings aren't disrupted by thetracks made by the Challenger and othersleds. He said he doesn't mind the isola-tion.

"When I designed my shelter I knew Imight be sitting in there for 36 hours at atime," he said.

""DDrriilllliinngg bbeeggaann ttooddaayy.. AA ffeeww bbuuggsshhaadd ttoo bbee iirroonneedd oouutt ooff oouurr nneeww 22-iinncchh ssyysstteemm,, bbuutt bbyy tthhee eenndd oofftthhee ddaayy wwee hhaadd oouurr ffiirrsstt ccoorree ssaamm-pplleess ...... BBrriiaann aanndd SStteevvee NN.. ccaarr-rriieedd oouutt aa 1100 kkmm ttrraavveerrssee uussiinnggBBrriiaann''ss ddeeeepp rraaddaarr - tthhee rreessuullttssaappppeeaarr ttoo bbee vveerryy iimmpprreessssiivvee.. SStteevveeAA.. aanndd AAllllaann uusseedd aa hhiigghheerr ffrree-qquueennccyy rraaddaarr ttoo mmaapp tthhee ssttrraattiiggrraapphhyy



See Roadtrip on page 10Map courtesy of ITASE

ooff tthhee ssnnooww ttrreenncchh eexxccaavvaatteedd bbyy tthheettrraaccttoorr yyeesstteerrddaayy.. MMaarrkkuuss ccoonnttiinnuueeddhhiiss aattmmoosspphheerriicc ssaammpplliinngg pprrooggrraamm..OOtthheerrss wwoorrkkeedd iinnddoooorrss..""


The work pace speeds up considerablywhen the trains aren't moving, with someITASE members working 16 hours a day.

"That's the way you always work in thefield, because the sooner you get yourwork done the sooner you get to go home(and finish researching)," Hamilton said."It's not like there's much to do if you fin-ish early."

Most of the projects are related, so it'scommon for researchers and non-sciencefield support workers alike to help withtasks such as digging snow pits anddrilling ice.

In addition to the usual camp chores,there is the task of keeping the outsideworld informed of their progress. Every daysomeone writes a log that is e-mailed bysatellite phone to the Boston Museum ofScience, which posts the journal atwww.secretsoftheice.org. Also, variousmembers call the museum twice a week toanswer questions from visitors, with theconversations also archived at the Web site.

"One of the things I've found out aboutmuseums is kids tend to ask the most intel-ligent questions, especially when it comesto dinosaurs," Welch said before makingone of the calls with fellow researcherMarkus Frey.

In addition to talking about their pro-jects, Welch and Frey fielded questionsfrom an elementary school class aboutfood, clothing, weather, if any wildlife

lives in the area and what it's like trying tosleep in constant daylight.

There is time to have fun, the studentswere told in response to a question, butoutdoors it tends to be active pastimessuch as skiing or running because of theextreme cold.

The cold can also impose other recre-ational limits, Hamilton said separately.

"Last year we played frisbee and itbroke on the third throw," Hamilton said,noting he has a 3-inch model this year hehopes is less likely to shatter in the cold.

The traverse is scheduled to end in

January, with participants returning totheir various universities and other main-land occupations to study the results oftheir efforts. Some will almost immediate-ly begin preparations for next year's tra-verse. Others who are unsure if they'll beable to return said no matter what happens,they'll always have the thrill of participat-ing in a unique adventure.

"I've been locked into the same job for22 years and I'm an outdoors person, so it'sa great deal," said Lynn Peters, a longtimemechanic who is maintaining and drivingthe Challengers along the polar highway.


"One oof tthe tthings II'vefound oout aabout mmuseumsis kkids ttend tto aask tthemost iintelligent qquestions,especially wwhen iit ccomes ttodinosaurs."

-ITASE researcher Brian Welch

Markus Frey, left,and Brian Welchmake one of twoweekly calls byITASE team mem-bers to a Bostonscience museum.


Gifford Wong, on snowmobile, takes Markus Frey’s science research hut for a test drive atByrd Field Camp.




By Mark SabbatiniSun staff

This year's put-in at Byrd Field Camp will be remembered largely for oneof the worst storms anyone can recall. And possibly Pat's spaghettiSundays.

industrial tractor with a set of custom wheels were just part of the job.Ten carpenters, mechanics and other workers were flown three hours

southwest of McMurdo Station to prepare the way for a convoy of researchsleds making a two-month traverse across the region. Much of the work wassimilar to numerous other put-ins at remote camps each season, but theweather and unusual scientific mission made for some unique moments.

Work days were spent digging out gear left from last year's traverse,assembling new trailers and getting two tractors ready to haul the convoy.During the evenings, the all-male crew gathered in a canvas hut, wolfingdown platters of steaks while discussing snow chemistry and the merits ofusing fresh basil in pesto sauce.

"I don't mind the shop, but hanging out in the field is where I feel mostcomfortable," said Doug Drexel, a carpenter's apprentice who is working hisfirst year on the Ice.

When Drexel arrived at Byrd the night of Nov. 1, lugging his gear and afive-gallon jug of water, there wasn't much to see besides the canvas hut, par-tially caved in from winter storms, and a lot of snow-covered lumps he wouldsoon be digging out. He had no complaints.

"It was just beautiful when I got off, just a white desert," he said. Evenwith a few structures to break up the scenery, "It seemed to me like we wereout in the middle of the ocean."

The crew set up camp, going to sleep in their tents well past midnight. Thenext day they started routine tasks such as digging out food buried during thewinter and assembling the research sleds for the U.S. component of theInternational Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE).

Little of note happened until their second night when their stellar - but stillsubzero - weather was interrupted by clouds on the horizon.

"It came over us like a white wave," said Pat Plaia, the camp's construc-tion foreman.

By the next morning it was clear a severe storm had arrived. Four of thecamp's eight tents were flattened by winds of up 60 mph during the day, forc-ing workers to sleep in the canvas hut or in a trailer filled with bunks for theincoming scientists. At the same time, a solar flare knocked out radio com-munications with McMurdo for a few days - a concern for those at the larg-er station who had no way of knowing how the remote workers were faring.

Everyone was safe, although a few cases of cabin fever may have

By Gifford WongSpecial to The Antarctic Sun

At one time or another, we've heard the cliché,"It's a harsh continent," but how bad can it reallybe?

At McMurdo Station we have showers, televi-sion, radio and the Internet. We get mail, freshiesand the occasional storm. But a storm watchedthrough windows from a heated building is differ-ent than a storm survived in the deep field, like thefive-day blizzard we endured at Byrd Field Camp.

I suppose I'm getting a little ahead of myself, solet me back up a bit. As a carpenter's helper my jobentails doing exactly what I'm told, which is greatbecause the jobs we get are so interesting. Thisparticular job was to re-establish Byrd Field Campfor scientists heading out on the InternationalTrans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition or ITASE.

Whenever science needs a camp to live in or asled to work upon, they call on the carpentry shopto deliver, (many other trades and folks cometogether to piece an actual camp from scratch, butI've only been working in the carp shop, so pleasebear with this slight oversight). We typically pre-cede the scientists with what is called a "put-in."Ever wonder what that camp is like?

Well, if it weren't for the incessant flapping I'dhave sworn I was in a library. There were a fewconscientious readers, the silently snoozing sleep-er and a couple of rabble-rousers pushing cards.From the sound of things, the game was "GrandmaNiles' rummy," the flapping was utterly undeniableand I was about as far away from a library as onecould be. I was actually sitting inside an eight-sec-tion Jamesway planted at 120° west, 80° south,which are basically the coordinates for a long-agoabandoned Byrd Camp in Marie Byrd Land. Whyinside? It seemed Mother Nature thought it wrong

For the Byrd’s

Views of a deep field virgin

See Byrd on page 13 See Virgin on page 12


A canvas Jamesway, far right, and other portable buildings and tents make up Byrd Field Camp.

Tasks such as taking buildings for test drives and outfitting an


for us to come so soon in November, so she was working us overwith a storm that produced hurricane-force winds and very limit-ed visibility. We were shut in and shut down.

When we arrived a few days before, our put-in lives hadseemed destined for smooth sailing. We landed lighter than afeather, drifting our cargo and stepping out atop the still-descend-ing rear cargo door in a matter of minutes. We set up communi-cations and tents, and cooked dinner. The next day was mar-velous - clear, calm, about minus 20 F (-30C). And the next day,though that didn't last quite so long. Remember the moving wallof sand in the movie "The Mummy?" Imagine that wall to begray and expanding to obscure the entire horizon in the wind-ward direction. Yeah, something was coming. I suppose younever really know what that something is until you're lostbetween two ridiculously close flags on your way to the outhousebecause, well, you had to go. That's when you know the sass hashit the fan.

So what do "hurricane-force" winds do to a four-season tent?Of the eight tents out in our self-proclaimed tent city, four werecompletely smashed, two were sketchy and the other two wereway too sketchy for habitation. Of the four, Kip's looked likeKing Kong poked it through the snow that drifted on the otherside. Steve's looked like Godzilla sat on it. Cartoon cymbalswreaked musical havoc with Dave's tent and nature decided thatChuck's tent should've been a convertible. Don't get me wrong,as I like Sierra Designs a lot. I even own a tent of theirs. Thething of it is, Emeryville, Calif., where the tents are built, is justsouth of Berkeley and Byrd is just about south of the entireworld. Things were a bit different out there.

Communications was another seemingly regular aspect ofdeep-field life. We needed to check in with McMurdo Stationonce a day, with a few weather observations thrown in for goodmeasure. Hourly weather observations started six hours before aherc flight. Well, two hours into our weather observations on theday it went from marvelous to not-so-marvelous, Mac Opsinformed us of an expected solar event. These solar flare-upsinterfere with high-frequency radio signals, blocking our onlymeans of communication. For four days we didn't hear fromtown. We missed who won the World Series. In fact the onlyradio transmissions we heard were our own. We checked outVHF radios, much like the firehouse does for McMurdo folks,

but our destination wasn't quite so glamorous as Castle Rock. Itwas our outhouse, nicknamed "Hotel McGarvey." Better safethan sorry, which is why our t.p. was in a large Ziploc bag. I hearfrostbite of the rear is tough to live down.

The days themselves were gruesome in their own little way.Don't get me wrong - I am not complaining. But look at thenature of it. Time is usually of the essence, and put-ins are donequickly so that science can begin efficiently. A day's 24 hours cancontain, at most, the pat eight hours of sleeping, leaving roughly16 hours for "other" stuff. Usually work fills that time, but thefive-day storm brought work to a halt. Given our habit of eatingthree meals a day and, assuming they last about an hour, that left65 hours of reading, writing and fumbling towards the outhouse.At times it felt more like a psychology experiment than a fieldexperience.

So, it's a harsh continent, right? A 50-year-old canvasJamesway buffering you from an Antarctic hurricane … 70 mphgusts threatening to loose your tenuous footing at the pee flag …whiteout conditions playfully hiding both the flag that you justpassed and the flag you were heading towards. Perhaps.

Or perhaps it just instills and inspires a very healthy respect ofnature, and the unpredictable nature of things. Halfway throughthe five-day storm the legendary Steve Niles promised perfectweather. Kip assured us that it'd be good by 4 p.m., and it was, ifyou like 40 mph winds blowing you about (sorry about the trashcan lid sailing towards Onset D, and could you look for that Poohbear for Kip?). Patrick was still hankering for a World Serieswinner and nearly everyone, save for Doug, was lamenting howwe magically ran out of lag bolts during this whole ordeal.Regardless, I'm glad that I survived my first big blow as a deepfield virgin. And while I'll never forget my first time, I'm defi-nitely looking forward to my second.

Virgin From page 11

A Byrd Field Camp worker inspects his wrecked tent following afour-day storm that forced camp workers to abandon their workand seek shelter in portable buildings.

Members of the Byrd Field Camp eat dinner inside the canvasJamesway that serves as their primary community shelter.

Photo courtesy of Byrd Field Camp/Special to The Antarctic Sun


Crossword answersfrom page 2

Across: 2-sastrugi; 6-showers; 7-fire; 8-snowfall; 11-SPRESCO; 14-desert; 16-Shinn; 18-astronomer; 19-alti-tude

Down: 1-New Zealand; 3-greenhouse; 4-twilight; 5-awful; 6-stratospheric; 9-marathon; 10-boots; 12-quonset;13-latitude; 15-equinox; 17-dome


occurred. Steve Niles, the camp manager, halted work until thestorm ended after four days.

"In the six years I've been here (at Byrd) it's the worst stormI've seen," said Niles, who has worked 10 years in Antarctica andis one of the ITASE drivers.

Workers passed time playing cards, reading, talking and doingwhatever else they could find in their small shelter. But goingoutdoors was inevitable for some necessities such as getting snowto melt for water and using the outhouse. That meant stringingropes and flags between buildings, since visibility at times wasonly a few feet.

"The weather got so bad we ended up taking a radio out (to theouthouse)," Drexel said.

When the storm passed they had to catch up on work, result-ing in some shifts of 12 to 16 hours. Part of their time was spentredigging out all the things the storm buried.

"I'm thinking it looked like a bad deal," said Lynn Peters, amechanic who helped with the camp put-in before joining thosemaking the ITASE traverse. "They were all like 'All right! This isnothing compared to last year.'"

Among the challenges Peters and others at Byrd faced waswidening the tracks on a Challenger tractor by 28 inches so itcould travel across the West Antarctic Ice Sheet without accumu-lating excess snow. Almost all the work had to be done by hand:removing scores of bolts, adding thick bolts to where the tracksare mounted, and using a variety of pulleys and other tricks toremount the tracks.

"It's like changing a big 4,000-pound tire," said DaveAnderson, a mechanic who has worked the past year on the Ice.

Although the research sleds weren't quite ready to be placedinto the two "trains" planned for the traverse, many still neededto be tested individually to make sure they would hold up whiletraveling 1,200 miles across rugged ice. That meant roping thesled-mounted huts to snowmobiles and driving them in figure-eights on the vast ice sheets near camp.

Day-to-day duties such as cooking, cleaning and getting snowto melt for water were shared, although some were more soughtafter for their culinary skills than others. Plaia was one of thefavorites for, among other dishes, the spaghetti he made eachSunday, somehow concocting a secret sauce out of the limitedcamp ingredients.

The Byrd put-in lasted a little more than two weeks, with near-ly everyone returning to McMurdo a few days after the ITASEresearchers arrived. Drexel said his experiences - driving a snowmachine, riding an LC-130 military plane, enduring the storm -were what he hoped for when assigned to the task.

"I've done a lot of things out here for the first time," he said.Long-time veterans also continued to have their moments.

Niles, frequently referred to as a legend by those working withhim, talked about retiring to his home in Wyoming after this sea-son - but isn't really sure he'll go through with it.

"Usually the ones that say that they're never going to be backare the first ones back," he said.

Byrd From page 11

Byrd Field Camp workers prepare to unload a Challenger tractor from the rear of an LC-130 aircraft.Photo by Mark Sabbatini/The Antarctic Sun


"What we've found with ITASE is if you go from camp to camphundreds of kilometers apart you find conditions vary," said GordonHamilton, an assistant professor at the University of Maine who hasbeen on all three traverses.

Findings will be combined with other field research and data toform a portrait of the region's climate and environmental history.

The bumpy journey on two moving "trains" of huts hauled byindustrial tractors across the vast white desert adds a novel twist tothe workday. But the actual research when they stop at preselectedwork sites is usually familiar to the participants since most havedone remote field work before.

"The work is the same," said Blue Spikes, a University of Mainedoctorate student who is working his fifth season on the Ice and firstwith ITASE. "It's just how you get there."

Research gear ranges from shovels for digging snow pits to cus-tom-designed radar that is dragged behind the entire procession dur-ing traverses, measuring the icefield's thickness along the way.

"This is science going on 24 hours a day," Mayewski said. "Evenwhen we're sleeping we have atmospheric chemistry experimentsgoing on."

Ten projects make up this year's itinerary, although the work gen-erally falls into a few categories: drilling and extracting cores of iceto study the layers that have built up over time, digging snow pits tostudy surface snow and how it interacts with the atmosphere, andusing radar and GPS systems to collect data about ice and snowaccumulation and thickness.

Going back 200 years in time allows the best combination of his-torical perspective and widespread sampling possible with the12,000 pounds of ice cores the ITASE can carry, Mayewski said.The weight will allow a total of 900 meters of ice to be collectedfrom six to eight drilling sites.

Deeper or more samples would be nice, he said, but other data isor will be available. Deeper ice samples have already been extract-ed on a more limited basis in the region, for example, while satellitedata can provide a broader - but less detailed - view of the area.

Heavy traverses in Antarctica date back to the 1940s, Mayewskisaid. But until ITASE, traverses were typically three or four peopleon snowmobiles doing much more limited research.

"We were just in many cases looking for ways to open up sci-ence in the region, producing maps," he said. Now "we're extractingrecords I never thought I'd find."

Among the researchers participating in this year's journey, andthe work they are performing:

Mayewski, who is overseeing general operations during the tra-verse and supervising the ice core research. He has participated indozens of scientific expeditions worldwide, including more than 30in Antarctica. Constructing the ice sheet's history may provide cluesthat allow for reliable long-term future predictions - possiblydecades into the future, he said. That could be useful for makingforecasts worldwide, since a link between the region and globalweather factors such as El Nino is suspected.

Hamilton, who is establishing GPS sites and using other satellitedata to measure the thickness of the ice sheet, and determine if por-tions are getting thicker or thinner. He said sea level is rising abouttwo centimeters every 100 years - "about twice the rate as it was1,000 years ago and it seems to be getting faster all the time" - andall known causes account for only about half of this. He said possi-ble melting of the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland are an"obvious possibility" for the remaining rise, but it's too early to drawconclusions since readings from previous research indicate bothincrease and decreases in thickness in different spots. Hamilton isbeing assisted by Spikes, who will use satellite data from a futurefellowship at NASA to supplement his research.

Steve Arcone, a science investigator at the U. S. Army ColdRegions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H. Heis using subsurface radar to profile snow layering in the region dur-

ing the past 200 years. Snow layers at testing sites have generallybeen horizontal and stable, he notes at an expedition Web site, butin some areas dipped or folded layers can be seen. "These dippinglayers could be caused by unequal rates of snowfall around hills, orby ice deforming as it travels over a buried mountain, which mighteven be a volcano," he explains.

Markus Frey, a field assistant and doctorate student at theUniversity of Arizona in Tucson, who is analyzing the chemicalinteraction of the atmosphere and surface snow in snow pits dug atvarious sites. He said one of his main goals is to construct an atmos-pheric history of the region, which might provide a better under-standing of factors such as ozone depletion.

Dan Dixon, a graduate student at the University of Maine whoplans to study the chemical composition of ice cores to determinepast air mass movements in the region. By studying the amounts ofdissolved ions - such as sodium, which peaks during winter - "youcan actually see the seasons as chemistry," he said.

Brian Welch, a post-doctorate fellow at St. Olaf College inNorthfield, Minn., who is mapping the ice sheet using a deep-sounding radar system being dragged behind and to the side of oneof the trains. He said the system will look deeper into the ice thanother ITASE projects - up to 3,800 meters - as he assists with a pro-ject at his college to determine the ice sheet's thickness and stabili-ty, "This could be some of the deepest ground-based radar that hasbeen done," he said.

Mark Wumkes, a drilling specialist who lives near Fairbanks,Alaska. He will lead efforts to extract ice cores three to four inchesin diameter using an electromagnetic drill. The samples are expect-ed to be 60 to 150 meters long, depending on the location beingdrilled, and will be preserved in 100 carefully labeled storage boxesfor shipping back to the U.S.

Because many of the overall goals of the ITASE researchers arethe same, there is considerable overlap and sharing of data.

"It's not 10 non-related projects," said Dave Schneider, aUniversity of Washington doctorate student making his secondITASE trip, where he is collecting and analyzing snow samples."They're all interrelated."

Even so, it's vital to treat samples collected in the field like jew-elry, so that everyone gets their fair share of the "goods" whenthey're divided back in the mainland U.S., Dixon said. Extensiveprecautions are taken to keep ice samples pure, including drillingwell away from camp sites and ensuring instruments are sterile sothey don't contaminate the ice.

"When you think about what each meter is worth it's almostpriceless because the chance of going back to that exact location isalmost nothing," he said.

Brian Welch hooks up a generator to his “Popesled,” a researchhut where he will work and live during the ITASE traverse.

ITASE From page 1



By George L. Blaisdelland Gary CardulloSpecial to the Sun

There currently exists a six- toeight-week period in the middle ofthe USAP austral summer seasonwhen the McMurdo runway systemcan only support ski aircraft. Thissignificantly restricts the programby placing all inter- and intra-con-tinental airlift requirements on thelimited LC-130 Hercules fleet.Further, the use of the LC-130 forinter-continental missions is quiteinefficient, considering this air-craft's reduced payload and speed(compared to the standard wheeledC-130). During the skis-only peri-od, the Pegasus runway is covered with athin layer of snow to protect against solar-induced melting.

Work at the Pegasus site during its orig-inal development in 1991 suggested that itcould be possible to process the protectivesnow cover to an adequate strength for thesupport of wheeled C-130s. However, thisapproach was not pursued. Instead, alevel-graded glacial ice surface was cho-sen, with an annual requirement for plac-ing and removing a temporary reflectivesnow cover. During the 2000-2001 season,the original compacted snow surfaceapproach was tested on a 1,500-foot seg-ment of runway overrun. The results werehugely successful, with snow compactionbeing completed by Dec. 15 and taxi andlanding tests by LC-130s operating onwheels following shortly after. As a bonus,an inadvertent test of the surface was per-formed when a C-141 unknowingly tra-versed the compacted snow surface. In allcases, once the compacted snow coverwas completed, only the smallest of tireimpressions could be detected in isolatedlocations.

These results convinced the NationalScience Foundation that a compactedsnow cover could be placed on thePegasus runway in order to support mid-season wheeled Hercules flight opera-tions. Work began this season at WINFLYto cover the entire runway with a com-pacted snow cover. Progress has beenrapid and rewarding, owing to extensiveplanning and preparation during the off-season, obtaining new dedicated and spe-cialize equipment, and having a full, pro-fessional and motivated on-site staff.

The construction technique to achievethis strong snow pavement is not complex.

Principally, it involves pneumatic-tire-roller compaction with progressivelyhigher loads, and some interspersedgrooming efforts. However, timing ofactivities is the challenge, as the efficien-cy of snow compaction depends on the tirepressure, the total tire load and the snowtemperature. Thus, close attention is paidto keying the roller loads/tire pressuresand timing of compaction activities totemperature and weather conditions. Justas important as timing of the compactionactivities are the "rest periods" that affordthe snow a chance to sinter (grow inter-granular bonds) between rolling efforts.

This approach has resulted in a strong3.5-inch-thick snow pavement. The firsttest of the new all-season Pegasus runwaytook place Nov. 28 when a New York AirNational Guard LC-103 (SKIER 92) land-ed on wheels at maximum weight(155,000 lbs). A series of progressivelymore demanding taxi, take-off and landingactions was completed to evaluate the per-formance of the compacted snowcap onthe 10,000-ft runway and on three pro-gressively weaker test sections at thesouthern end of the runway. The intent ofthe reduced strength test sections was tohopefully induce rutting (surface strengthfailure) in one or more of the weaker testsections in order to accurately determinethe minimum level of strength required tosustain wheeled C-130 operations.

The evaluation activities - whichincluded tight, hard turns, aborted take-offhard braking stops, and a simulated emer-gency short field landing - generated nofailures of any type on the runway. Closevisual inspection on the ground, underproper lighting conditions, was required todetect the mild burnishing of the surface

left by the aircraft tires. In the test areas, only the sec-

ond and third reduced-strengthareas showed any sign of surfacefailures. In the test areas, onelong classic rut was developedand several "pops" 1 foot indiameter were found. These arecurrently being analyzed todetermine what levels of strengthdefine the boundary for reliabletire support.

Efforts at the Pegasus siteover the next week are aimed atgetting in place the necessaryrunway support devices to allowa Little Rock, Ark., C-130 AirForce unit to start regular inter-continental service Dec. 10.

Maintenance, including periodic com-paction rolling to preserve the snow pave-ment strength, will occur throughout theperiod of C-130 operations.

Redeployment airlift is still planned tooccur with C-141s from the Pegasus run-way starting in late January each year.This may require that the compacted snowpavement be placed and stripped eachyear. While this scenario meets NSF's goalto provide reliable C-130 operations fromPegasus from the time of sea ice runwayclosing until late January, the Pegasusconstruction team have as their goal tomake the compacted snow strong enoughto support C-141 operations, thus makingit a permanent snow pavement.

The Pegasus Project is on schedule dueto the dedicated and outstanding perfor-mance of many people and organizationswithin NSF, Raytheon Polar ServicesCompany, NYANG and Cold RegionsResearch Engineering Lab leading theway. On-site direction of this challengingproject has been expertly accomplished byGerald Crist, Pegasus Fleet OperationsForeman. His knowledge of ice and snowconditions and specialized techniqueswith equipment are instrumental in thesuccesses achieved. Outstanding supportfor this project has come from many workcenters and individuals, including theHeavy Shop, Fleet Operations, Surveying,Supply and the Carpenter shop, who, inless than 30 days, built over 90 two-tonconcrete blocks for roller ballast.

Gary Cardullo is the McMurdo airfieldmanager and George Blaisdell is aresearch civil engineer with CRREL.

Photo by Gary Cardullo/Special to the Antarctic Sun

A D-8 tractor tows a 100-ton roller, compacting the snow onPegasus runway.

Hardening snow to pave a runway

16• The Antarctic Sun December 2, 2001

ProfileBy Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Zellard Lemon can take the heat. Hemakes it.

the rooms residents seldom see, the onesmarked "Boiler room. Authorized person-nel only."

Each boiler room is different, some amaze of pipes leading to a stained orangeboiler the size of a Volkswagen Bug.Other, newer boilers are fed by pipesencased in shiny aluminum with largelabels on the sides. The boilers themselvesare square, gray boxes, controlled throughpanels of lights and wires on the wall.

Lemon peers through a keyhole win-dow at the orange flames, a hellish 300degrees, what he calls "real hot." He does-n't need to look at all to know if the boileris running well or not.

"You can hear that pump. It soundssweet," he said. "You know it's doing right."

Lemon's interest in boilers started whenhe was a boy in South Carolina, readingabout steamships.

"It seemed like they would take me for-eign places," Lemon said. "And they dotake me foreign places."

As a boy his daydreams were general -the Orient, maybe Alaska. He put themaside when he enrolled in Claflin Collegein Orangeburg, S.C., earning a teachingdegree. For 10 years he taught middleschool and high school biology before hisboyhood dreams came back to wake himup.

"I always want to move about to alldifferent places," Lemon said. "I likebeing flexible."

He joined the Army for four years,where he worked as an administrative per-sonnel. That didn't satisfy the dream, so hemoved over to the Navy and was trainedas a boiler technician on the ships.

Finally he was working with steam,moving big ships, going to foreign places,but he had no inkling how far it wouldtake him from his home in Corpus Christi,Texas, and his wife and two children.

After the Navy he began to work for themerchant marines, running boilers intankers, cargo vessels and other ships.They took him to Bali, Indonesia; Venice,Italy; Salu, Spain and other ports aroundthe world. During the Persian Gulf War hewas working on a merchant marine shipthere, refueling the fighter jets. He spenteight months on the floating fuel-tank, 120miles from the air fire.

"Every time a scud missile would go an

alarm would go off, but all we had weregas masks," Lemon said. "We were sittingducks anyway."

Sometimes he would go from oneextreme to another in a matter of days, as hedid on a trip from Kuwait to Shanghai.Kuwait was a sweaty 120 degrees. Whenthey pulled into Shanghai the decks frostedover.

"Of course, I'm in the boiler room, sothat makes me feel secure, because that'swhere you get the heat," Lemon said.

The same is true in Antarctica, whereLemon and two other boiler techs are incharge of the care and feeding of 25 boil-ers. None are officially the "lead," but theother boiler techs look up to Lemon.

"We consider him the lead because heknows the systems better than anybodyright now," said Scott Saltzman, one of theother boiler techs. "He's great. He'ssmart…He's very patient with me whenhe's teaching me."

Lemon's happy to help, he just doesn'twant the title.

"I don't reckon an extra $10 for moreheadaches," Lemon said.

Four of the boilers are steam driven,producing hot water for the kitchen andlaundry room and humidity for the CraryLab. The rest of the boilers use glycol, aclear liquid chemical commonly used inantifreeze and cooling systems, to heat thedorms and work centers. No matter howhard and cold the wind blows outside, theboiler rooms are oases of warmth.

Working in Antarctica is easier than onthe ships, Lemon said. On the ships theboilers are under high pressure, and hecould barely move in the boiler room withall the hot pipes winding around. He's hadto work 85 days at a time with only sevenother people, and been caught at sea in ahurricane, sickened by the 16-foot waves.

"I said 'Whoa, 10 more days and I'll beout of here, because I'm going toAntarctica,'" Lemon said. "It's safer here."

He also enjoys having more people tosocialize with and being able to walkaround.

"It's more of a community here,"Lemon said. "You meet more people. Itgives you piece of mind and happiness."

Especially if you're Lemon. It's rare tocatch him without a smile, and if he catch-es you he'll follow the smile with a "Hi,buddy, how are you?" Lemon seems toknow everyone, Saltzman said.

"He's very friendly," Saltzman said."He goes out of his way to make you feelcomfortable."

It's Lemon's second year in McMurdo,and he plans to stay the winter again, as hedid in 2000. The quiet night was hisfavorite part of his first year, when hewould go on long walks.

"You see the stars, auroras, stuff likethat, and the nights are real soft," Lemonsaid. "It's like walking in a dream."

And if it gets too cold outside, heknows just where to go to warm up.

By Melanie Conner/The Antarctic Sun

Zellard Lemon builds glycol pumps in the boiler room at McMurdo Station.

All day long he goes frombuilding to building, slipping into

Stoking the fires

the antarctic sun, december 2, 2001 · for predicting the earth's weather decades into the...

Documents