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Archive for December, 2008


One Month in the Deep Field, Part 4

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND-- The other science component of the project is to image the subglacial lake underneath Whillans Ice Stream. To do this, we set off a series of explosions... {Read More »}



The Elves of McMurdo

MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- (By Mary Miller and John Weller) In the middle of an interview last Sunday, we were distracted by a mob of elves and Santas making the rounds at McMurdo station. John caught it all on video... {Read More »}



McMurdo Studio Tour

MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- (By Lisa Strong-Aufhauser) You've seen parts of it during our live webcasts, but Mary and Ron give us a full tour of the Exploratorium webcast studio here at McMurdo Station. This won't take long! {Read More »}



One Month in the Deep Field, Part 3

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND-- We had fairly windy weather the whole time we were out, but were left tent-bound by a storm that lasted about three days. This was the coldest time out on the ice... {Read More »}



Camp Winter

CAMP WINTER, ANTARCTICA-- What can I say about a place named Camp Winter? Of all names, it is appropriate: desolate, cold and windy. It's mind boggling sometimes to think how remote we are, the eight of us, and what minimal buffer we have between us and the vast, cold ice sheet... {Read More »}



Glaciers from the Air

SOUTH POLE STATION, ANTARCTICA-- On our flight to the South Pole, the view out the tiny windows on the LC-130 are mostly of a flat,… {Read More »}



One Month in the Deep Field, Part 2

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND-- We spent the first week or so in the deep field visiting GPS stations that were left out on the ice over-winter and setting out passive seismometers. Whillans Ice Stream behaves in a unique way – it slips twice a day in episodes that are linked to the tidal cycle... {Read More »}



South Pole Ack Camp

SOUTH POLE STATION, ANTARCTICA-- After more than a month in McMurdo, members of the AGAP team are camping at the South Pole to get their bodies acclimatized to high altitude living. Their destination is AGAP south camp in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet... {Read More »}



An Airport Made of Ice

MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- Our project takes us all over the continent to install equipment but to get there we have to leave from Williams Field, an airport near McMurdo Station. Willy Field has a runway equipped to handle the largest aircraft that fly into Antarctica. However, this runway is different... {Read More »}



One Month in the Deep Field, Part 1

ABOARD AN LC-130 EN ROUTE TO CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND-- It’s with a heavy heart that I climb aboard “Ivan the Terra” bus to get transported to Willy Field and off the Antarctic continent... {Read More »}