Ice Stories: Dispatches From Polar Scientists » dynamite http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:40:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Detonation http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/detonation/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/detonation/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:13:12 +0000 Lucas Beem http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2352 WHILLANS ICE STREAM, ANTARCTICA– This video shows the detonation of our excess explosives, used for seismic surveys of the base of the glacier. Our scientific objectives justify the risks of transporting the explosives to our field site. But the risk is not justified to carry them back. As a result, once our scientific objectives have been completed we dispose of any excess through detonation.


A detonation on the ice sheet



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]]> http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/detonation/feed/ 0 Escorting Dynamite Through Siple Dome http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/escorting-dynamite-through-siple-dome/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/escorting-dynamite-through-siple-dome/#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:50:24 +0000 Saffia Hossainzadeh http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=1192 WHILLANS ICE STREAM / ICE STREAM B, ANTARCTICA– In these two audio dispatches, I describe our journey to our field site via a stop at Siple Dome station. In part one, hear about the difficulties involved in escorting 700 pounds of explosives through Antarctica. In part two, hear about our combat-style landing at Siple Dome’s remote air strip.

Part I

Part II


The main structure at Siple Dome.
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