KAKTOVIK, ALASKA-- The captures have been going well. We caught the largest bear I have seen, an adult male who weighed 1,147 lbs. His neck was several times the size of my waist, and I could not fit both hands around his snout... {Read More »}

ABOARD THE JOIDES RESOLUTION, OFF THE COAST OF WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA– We drilled for 18 hours and then had to pull the drill pipe up out of the hole and reposition the ship to avoid a large iceberg that was heading straight for us... {Read More »}

WAIS DIVIDE, ANTARCTICA-- Here is a short video that summarizes all of the steps in collecting an ice core using the Deep Ice Sheet Coring (DISC) drill... {Read More »}

WHILLANS ICE STREAM, ANTARCTICA-- There are two basic projects that we are working on through our field work in Antarctica. One is looking at changes in the ice surface motion through time. To do this we make three types of GPS measurement... {Read More »}

ABOARD THE JOIDES RESOLUTION, OFF THE COAST OF WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA– So, guess what? We had to abandon our first drill hole, the one I wrote about yesterday. Turned out we had drilled into a massive body of sand, gravel, and big rocks... {Read More »}

WAIS DIVIDE, ANTARCTICA-- Our primary goal here at WAIS Divide is to drill and collect ice cores and get it shipped back to the United States. Rarely do we see anything other than clear ice with some scratches and cracks, but around 1600 m deep we retrieved a core with a visible dark band in it. We think that this layer is a tephra layer, or a volcanic ash deposit!... {Read More »}

MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- Today I visited the (New Zealand) Scott Base. The New Zealand base is next to some spectacular pressure ridges, which are caused by tides where the sea ice meets the land... {Read More »}

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet is the sleeping giant of the cryosphere: it covers more than 95% of the Antarctic continent and locks up more than 60% of the world's supply of fresh water. Scientists from many different countries are digging into East Antarctica's climate history to help predict how this vast ice sheet could respond in a warming world. {Read More »}

WAIS DIVIDE, ANTARCTICA-- We finally arrived at WAIS Divide. Our flight departed as planned and now the crew is here learning the ropes and getting used to how to survive constantly cold temperatures... {Read More »}

BEACON VALLEY, ANTARCTICA-- The early morning started out with blustery winds and soon snow from the polar plateau started blowing in; it was by far the worst weather we have experienced during this field season... {Read More »}