It has been a bit of a journey getting here. On the way to our original destination– Iceberg UK177 near the South Orkney Islands– a new satellite image told us the berg had become surrounded by sea ice. We changed our course and headed to Iceberg UK238, a bit south and west of our original destination.

Sea ice, however, intervened again. Surrounded by freezing waters forming into pancake ice, we decided to turn towards Iceberg A43K in the Scotia Sea. It was 290 nautical miles northeast from where we were– approximately 27 hours away. We chose this berg because it was the brightest spot on our satellite image without sea ice in its vicinity, and because the surrounding water is 2700m deep.

Pancake ice on our way to the Scotia Sea.

In the midst of this hunt we continued to set up and test all of our equipment so that we would be ready when we found the iceberg we were searching for.

In the end, that iceberg was not A43K, the berg that we were heading toward, but one that we came across along the way. We are in the Scotia Sea, so this iceberg will now be referred to as SS1.

Iceberg Scotia Sea 1 (SS1), our first study site.

First we circumnavigated the berg to look at its structural integrity to make sure that it would be a safe place to study. SSI is 2.25mi in length and 80 – 100 feet from the sea water surface to the top of the berg.

We are starting to study it right away.

We have a large group of scientists and engineers on board that left the Northern Hemisphere summer to come down to the Antarctic to conduct their research, but before we can begin we have to unpack all of our equipment.

Science crew from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) setting up in the Dry Lab.

We are currently headed toward the South Orkney Islands which are located in a Southeasterly direction from the Straits of Magellan. This destination was chosen based on satellite imagery. We receive the images twice a day from Dr. David Long at Brigham Young University. These images give us an idea of where to look for a free floating iceberg that is also free of sea ice so that we can study the effect of icebergs on the surrounding water column.

Satellite image of the Weddell Sea and surrounding area. The white is ice and the smaller spots of ice are potential icebergs that are circled and named with numbers and letters, the letters ‘UK’ standing for unknown. Courtesy of John Helly and Dr. David Long.