View of the skyline of Punta Arenas, Chile.

Packing for a research expedition to Antarctica is a bit different from your average trip. Antarctica is far away from mostly everything, and can be very cold and rough at times. No detail is small enough, including what clothes to wear. Upon arriving in Chile, we were issued Extreme Cold Weather gear to make sure we were equipped to work in any and all conditions we could face. When spending 59 days at sea, the little comforts of life (including being dry and warm) can make a huge difference.

Clothing issue at the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) counter.

While choosing what clothes to wear can seem tricky enough, figuring out what scientific equipment to bring and how to get it to the southernmost tip of South America before loading it on the ship, presents even greater of a challenge. This project brings together scientists studying a wide array of subjects, from oceanography, geology, to glaciology and biology, to try to understand how the ecosystem of the Larsen B ice shelf has changed since its break up in March 2002. And to accomplish these lofty goals, participants have brought a whole slew of instruments to measure everything from sediments, to ice thickness, and algae concentrations. The oceanographic ‘toys’ we’ll be working with include a CTD rosette (named after variables it measures, Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth) to sample water from the surface to thousands of meters deep, a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to get live video feed of the ocean floor, coring equipment to bring samples from the ocean floor back to the surface and to collect ice cores to look at ice algae, and even helicopters to allow scientists onboard to sample ice and rocks from the continent itself. It takes time to assemble this kind of gear, and we are now stuck waiting for everything to be loaded and organize. It’s amazing how little space there is on a ship the size of a football field!

The ROV (nicknamed Suzee) getting put together and cleaned on the back deck.

We’ll be bringing you updates from Antarctica as often as we can, and will be talking about both the science and life onboard our research vessel. Please post any questions you have on the website, or send them directly to me at mattias.cape.guest@nbp.usap.gov and I’ll try to answer by my next post. I know working in the Antarctic can seem strange and out of reach, but you’d be surprised the many different paths people onboard this ship have taken to get to where they are. You don’t have to be a scientist to experience the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic! None of our work would be possible without the help of the ship’s captain, crew, engineers, and science support staff.

View of the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer at night.

Gareth Morgan and Kate Swanger passing time at LAX.

Twenty-four hours after leaving Boston we were eating breakfast in Sydney and we finally arrived in Christchurch; the total travel time from Boston to New Zealand lasted 29 hours 32 minutes. A full day to say the least!

Flying from Sydney to Christchurch over the southern alps, New Zealand.

Tonight we will rest up at the hotel, enjoy a good meal in this beautiful city, and begin reorganizing the gear for the trip to Antarctica. Tomorrow we will head to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) located just a few blocks from the Christchurch International Airport to collect (and test out) our Extreme Cold Weather Gear (ECW). It has been a hectic 36 hours but the team is getting along great and I am very excited to be headed south on Tuesday if the weather holds out.

Usually, they don’t tell you. You don’t get to see all the things that happen before the big discovery, the little baby steps that bring you to the point where the discovery actually can happen.

I think this is too bad. There’s a lot work and a lot of support that goes on behind the scenes, much of it done by people who are not actually scientists. So I thought I’d start out, before the crew shows up here in Barrow and we get out in the field, with a little behind-the-scenes look at some of the stuff that we’ve been doing to get ready for the summer field season, and some of the people who have been helping.

Some of our gear. Pictured here: 5-gallon buckets, dustpans, gloves, flagging tape, stakes, chaining pins in boxes, foil, water container, pelican case, and Action Packers to hold all of it.

Buying supplies

There are a lot of supplies an archaeologist needs in the field. Since most of these things can’t be bought in Barrow, and shipping can take a while, we started ordering them months ago. All of our field notes have to be taken on “Rite-in-the-Rain ™” paper, so they don’t get smudged or melt. We order reams of blank paper, and then laser printer our field forms onto them. Sharpies and mechanical pencils get used by the box, so we order ample supplies of those as well.

This year we bought a couple of new planning frames, which are squares that go over an excavation unit someone is mapping. They help people draw quickly and accurately. We also got several new north arrows for photography (for some reason they seem to grow legs and walk off) and a very nice new set of photo scales made by a company in France.

We also use a lot of Ziploc bags, in different sizes. We use freezer bags, both because they’re a bit more durable, and because they seem to work better in the cold temperatures we have up here. They can be bought locally, but in the quantities that we use, the store can easily be bought out. Therefore, we start buying them early in smaller batches. We’ve already got a huge stack in the lab.

Our growing ziploc pile.

Getting a crew

For the last several weeks, I have been reviewing resumes from graduate and undergraduate students who are interested in participating in the project. After posting project information on a couple of sites listing excavation opportunities, we got way more applicants than we could place. The result: a pretty rigorous winnowing-out process.

The aftereffects of an abundance of CVs.

Since it’s a long (and expensive) trip up here and the field conditions are fairly harsh, it was really important to interview not only the applicants, but also their references, especially those who have been in the field with them. The decisions were finally made, and I had to do the tough job of notifying those who didn’t make it. I hope we’ve got a good crew. We’ll find out soon– the folks from out of town will start arriving on May 24.

We are now starting to get applications from local high school students will also be taking part in the project. We’ll be doing those interviews in the next couple of weeks, sandwiched around a trip to Yellowknife, Canada, to give a presentation at a meeting there.

The work before the fieldwork

Our collection of trowels that we use in the field.

At least two of the students from last year are back. One has already been working for a week in the lab. He has been cleaning and sharpening trowels, cleaning and restocking the boxes full of field equipment and supplies, and labeling the newly arrived equipment. He will be setting up some new shelving we just got and moving all the batteries and chargers onto that. It is time to start charging all of the radios, transit batteries, camera batteries, and computer batteries (not to mention the batteries for all the Ice Stories gear) that we take into the field with us every day.

Our essential collection of radios.