February 12th, 2008
Time: 7 am
Latitude: 42.40338 N
Longitude: 71.11346 W
Temperature: -18°C(-1°F)
Wind speed: calm
Wind Chill: -
Clouds: clear
Wind direction: -
Relative Humidity:35%
Barometric Pressure: rising
Precipitation: about 10" at my house since I have been home
Animals: 1 dog, 4 rabbits, 9 chickens, 1 rooster
Breakfast: bagel and not enough coffee
Lunch: The macaroni and chesse, and toasted cheese sandwiches I missed in the field
Supper:Pasta, pasta, pasta

It is about two weeks since I returned and It feels like it was a lifetime ago since I was in Antarctica and New Zealand. I have not fully adjusted back into this life but I am moving full steam ahead with the next round of trips and work that I do here through my office. The educator workshops that the Wright Center hots each summer are filling up and we are all looking forward to working with new and former educators. Certainly if you are an educator or know one then please direct them to our free workshops for this summer http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/workshops/wkshps08.html
There is certainly nothing better than learning content during actual hands-on work and all of our workshops offer that to participating educators (formal and informal classrooms K-16th grade). Other than preparing for this summer I am busy compiling slide sets of this last field season. I have about 30 gigs of slides and video and there is more that I have not received from colleagues. Little by little we wil be posting it to the outreach website at http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/wdop/index.html Many of us are also posting notices of public sites where we will be doing live presentations about the WAIS Divide ice coring project. If any of these are in your area then please attend or if you would like to have a live presentation by a member of the science/field crew then please contact me at my office zach.smith@tufts.edu with your preferences of date and time and we will do the best we can to accomodate all requests. We are also working on taping some presentations and posting them to the website.

Lucky the weather has been cooperating for me and it has snowed almost every other day since I have been home. The beach in New Zealand was nice but my personal biological clock is still set for winter and the more snow the better. We have been doing a lot of skiing and skating and hope to keep doing it for many more weeks. I am scheduled to be (working) on another private tropical beach in less than a month but it is the cold and snow that I prefer now.

Today's images are of what was left of the Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park, USA July 2008, and a private beach in the Bahamas. Both places I will work this summer with teachers during our workshops.

January 31st, 2008

Time: 7 am
Latitude: 42.40338 N
Longitude: 71.11346 W
Temperature: -2°C(29°F)
Wind speed: 15 km/h (9 mph)
Wind Chill: -6°C(20°F)
Clouds: clear
Wind direction: W
Relative Humidity:41%
Barometric Pressure: rising
Precipitation: -
Animals: 1 dog, 4 rabbits, 9 chickens, 1 rooster
Breakfast: fresh backyard egg, toast, coffee

Well I am back in my office with mixed emotions. Happy to be home but there is always a transition period from being in the field to having to drive a car and go to a grocery store. I will get over it just long enough to start preparing for my next trip.

As I think back and relate parts of my adventure to my family, a few things come to mind. One is the amount of energy, creativity, and professionalism of my colleagues. Not that my office mates are not the most creative people I know but to live 24/7 with a group like we had at WAIS Divide camp is hard to find. Not all of the creativity was directed for the benfit of our science though but often it was directed by our science. One of the things I did not talk a lot about was the ubiquitous Antarctic humor required to live with each other for the last 2 months. On the morning shift we tried to see how much we could make the morning shift drillers laugh by placing notices on the window between the drilling and ice processing portions of the arch. The themes were naturally dictated by the job and the conditions. Many of these could have become outhouse graffiti, and maybe still will....

WAIS not want not
An ice core in the barrel is worth two in the hole
It is better to have cored and lost than never to have cored at all.
I core, you core, we all core an ice core
Gone ice fishing
I break for ice cores
Practise safe coring
All ice cores are not created equal
In case of emergency break ice
I'd rather be coring (preferably in a warm place)


As I reconnect with colleagues and friends many of them have asked me how "bad" things really are in terms of global climate change. The data we collected on WAIS DIvide this season will not even be analyzed for months and or years as the ice still needs to be fully processed in the US after it arrives here this summer on the boat from Antarctica. So no one can give an answer to how bad things are based on the ice core we collected this year. Though, based on everything we know from the science at this point, there is no doubt that there is human induced climate change happening. The way we conduct ourselves for the next couple of generations will determine how bad things get. Anyone not sure how much energy they use in relationship to others should do a web search for a "global footprint calculator", of which there are many available. These footprint calculators will allow you to input your energy use and calculate how many Earths it takes to support your lifestyle. It is takes more than one Earth then there are probably things you might do to reduce your use. For help on reducing your energy use there are a number of sites now that provide information/services. One such group is Cool Air -Clean Planet http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/ who is also linked from our outreach web site as a terrific source for educational materials for school, businesses, and individuals.

Wage Peace, and environmental sustainability

January 29th, 2008

Time: 7 am
Latitude: 43.08 N
Longitude: 70.73 W
Temperature: -12°C(10°F)
Wind speed: calm
Wind Chill: -
Clouds: clear
Wind direction: -
Relative Humidity:56%
Barometric Pressure: falling
Precipitation: - light snow
Animals: 1 dog, 4 rabbits, 9 chickens, 1 rooster
Breakfast: fresh backyard egg, toast, coffee

When I left home back in the beginning of December it was 40°F, this morning it is 10°F, which is still not very cold and not very different than the middle of West Antarctica.

After 37 hours of planes, trains, and automobiles I arrived home this morning at 2 am. And I arrived home on the day I left. I left my beach front hideout in New Zealand at 10 am on January 28th and arrived home on January 29th at 2 am. If you do the math you will see that there are not 37 hours between 10 am and 2 am the next day, but since I crossed the International Date Line I gained a day traveling. I still had to sit for 37 hours but I only "lost"14 hours. The first at the door to greet me this morning was my dog. I guess she had it marked on her calendar because I was told that she has been at the door waiting since yesterday morning. Maybe it was the added excitement in everyone's voice that cued her into my pending arrival, or she did in fact have it marked on her calendar. As you can see from the current animal list there were no birds chirping this morning to greet me and they are all domestic residents of my backyard. I must have awoken them at 2 am this morning when I arrived but they were not as excited to see me, in fact they were pretty much neutral about the whole thing and were just happy that anyone fed them this chilly morning.

If you also do the math between my arrival home time and the blog entry time you will see that I did not get much sleep last night. Actually I got very little sleep for the 37 hours of traveling either. My ability to sleep while sitting up on planes and buses is not good. So, among basic chores today like chopping wood, stowing gear, cleaning clothes, and catching up on anything I missed for the two months that I was gone, I have scheduled a long nap for this afternoon. Though instead of the veranda at my secret New Zealand beach spot (which was only little over a day ago) I will be napping indoors in front of the wood stove.

Today's image is the view from my New Zealand beach still fresh in my mind, especially as I look out the window over the D1 operating that needs to be done here at home.

January 28, 2008
Still an undisclosed secret location (on a beach) in New Zealand, no mater what the latitude and longitude says

Time: 5 am
Latitude: 43_ 31.742’ S
Longitude: 172_ 37.846’ E
Elevation: ~60 m (180’)
Temperature: 20_C (68 _F)
Wind speed: calm
Wind Chill: -
Visibility: forever
Clouds: very few strato-cumulus
Wind direction: -
Relative Humidity: 70% ?
Barometric Pressure: steady
Precipitation: -
Animals: gulls, bees, moths, spiders, cats, black swans, dolphins, sparrows, sheep
Breakfast: Tea, Croissant, cold cereal
Lunch: Fish and Chips
Supper: Cheese, crackers, canned fish – standard backpacker’s meal

I am still at my lodgings in New Zealand and using it as a base for exploring. The view from here is still spectacular and warm enough to sleep with the windows open with no additional blanket. At home we also have a bedroom window open at night (even in winter) but here, not only are the windows open but there are no bothersome flying insects. There are a couple of locations here in New Zealand that have biting sand flies (like a New England Black Fly) but none here. The area where I am has a large marine sanctuary so the dolphins, and other marine life, are protected. There are a number of dolphins here that might even be attracted to “play” if they are in the right mood. Dolphins tour boats and swims are very common here in New Zealand along with tours to see yellow-eyed and blue penguins. I did see dolphins but I did not see penguins here in New Zealand or in Antarctica this year. Guess I will have to come back and try again. The trekking around here is super and today I walked through everything from high ridges to beaches to small touristy towns to grasslands filled with grazing sheep. One could easily have fish and chips for lunch in a small town and end up either gazing across the ocean from a top a ridge line or sitting on a deserted beach and watching dolphin cruise by.


From where I am it is only a few mile to the ocean proper and I feel like I am living on the edge of an ancient fjord. The terrain is high and steep and some of the cliff faces drop hundreds of meters (a thousand feet) into the water. The water here is also reported to be a 1000 m (3,000 ‘) deep. The views are spectacular from the high points on the ridge trail, where I hiked to yesterday. I would post a picture of the view from the ridge line but no photo can possibly do justice to sitting on the top of a steep rocky ridge with friends enjoying snacks and looking out over the ocean and the “fjord” to the water that is hundreds of meters (thousand feet) below. There is brilliant sunshine, little wind, and unlimited views until far out into the ocean where the Earth curves away. I also learned that New Zealand has about 50 million sheep and they are everywhere. All the trek routes I have followed are also free range land for sheep. There are a few milk cows and cattle but mostly sheep. The sheep oblige trekkers by keeping the weeds and grass chewed down. There are not many trees here. All of the forests I have seen are managed forests and were planted only in the last 20-40 years ago. Most sit out like carpet swatches laid out over the hills surrounded by grasslands, and sheep. The day was truly spectacular and I think I picked up a bit more sunburn from being out and about with little shade or cover but it was well worth it to see all the things I have seen.

January 27, 2008
Undisclosed secret location (on a beach) in New Zealand

Time: 5 am
Latitude: 43_ 31.742’ S
Longitude: 172_ 37.846’ E
Elevation: ~60 m (180’)
Temperature: 20_C (68 _F)
Wind speed: calm
Wind Chill: -
Visibility: forever
Clouds: very few strato-cumulus
Wind direction:
Relative Humidity: 70% ????
Barometric Pressure:-
Precipitation: -
Animals: gulls, bees, moths, spiders, cats, hundreds of black swans, and dolphins- hopefully later today
Breakfast: Tea, so far
Lunch:
Supper:

I apologize for not getting to the blog yesterday and potentially keeping everyone in suspense at a critical moment when we were getting off the “ice”, but it could not have been helped. Our flight actually did leave McMurdo though a little later than scheduled – about 10 pm. For most of the time between 6 pm and 10 pm that day we were standing on the “tarmac” at the Pegasus airstrip on the seas ice outside McMurdo. We had to wait for a C-17 to land, off load people and cargo, and have us and our cargo loaded. A C-17 is much nicer than a C-130 with much more room to stretch out. We were even given a chance to go up to the cockpit as we were flying out to Christchurch. I was very lucky and managed to be in the cockpit as we flew over the ice margin and saw the transition from the terrestrial glaciers, the sea ice, and the open ocean. The ~5 hr trip was uneventful and we (~100 people) landed at 3 am in Christchurch. We then were taken to the CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) where we returned our ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear, given our travel tickets back to the US, and allowed to leave for hotels in Christchurch. By the time I arrived at my hotel it was 5 am and I was in my bed asleep by 5:30.

I did not have any room reservations for the next few days in NZ, and there was a music concert going on in town which packed town, so I got up at 8 am for breakfast to try and find an available room for the next few nights. After a few phone calls and Internet searches I found that there was little available in Christchurch. I had looked at the map of NZ before leaving Antarctica and did see that there were a number of fantastic-looking spots to visit. So, I found a bus going to a secluded ocean front town located only a few hours form Christchurch and there I found a room available at a B & B (Bed & Breakfast). I did a quick walk around the outdoor arts festival also going on in Christchurch, had lunch, and made the bus in time for a very scenic drive through the NZ countryside. After having only 2 hours sleep in the last 36+ hours I was a little tired but managed to stay awake for most of the long bus ride. When we arrived I was thrilled to find this isolated beach-front community of ~500 people (without tourists) with a few shops and restaurants. The owner of the B & B picked me up in town at the bus drop-off and drove me to a cup of tea on the veranda of her home over looking the bay through a plethora of lovely garden flowers. After 2 months with few colors and aromas other than ourselves and hot cooked meals, I immediately fell in love with my new location and managed to sit in one place in a comfy chair on the veranda for hours until I made my way back down to town for some delicious fish and chips. I did wake up a couple times in the night but had a great sleep and enjoyed every bit of the darkness that I now realized I so missed. It is now before dawn and I am back on the veranda composing today’s blog with yet another cup of tea and the sights, sounds, and smells of an ocean community waking up to another day. It is also the first time I have seen the moon in months and I am sitting here waiting for Sunrise in shorts, a long sleeved shirt, and NO shoes.

Last night there was an evening gathering of any of our group still in Christchurch, which I am sorry I had to miss because of last minute travel arrangements, but I am very very content to be here, now. I met some wonderful people at WAIS Divide camp and I will be talking to and seeing many of them in the near future, so they are not lost to me. If any of them, especially those that I did not get a chance to say good-bye to are reading this, thanks and I wish you good travels - Via con Dios.

To them and you, I will continue to write this blog as often as possible until I get back to work at my job as program coordinator at the Wright Center for Science Education at Tufts University. We have plans to provide a workshop for teachers in Glacier Park Montana USA this July with information and classroom appropriate materials about the WAIS Divide ice coring project. Though we can not bring you to Antarctica and our ice core drilling project directly we can take you to the glaciers on the US and through them virtually bring you to Antarctica. International educators and individuals interested in applying for the workshop and/or more information about educational materials developed with the WAIS Divide ice coring project in mind should go to www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center and available through links from the projects science web site at www.waisdivide.unh.edu
New information will be added often. The ice core drilling program will continue for the next 3-5 years so please continue to check back as I return home back to the US and over the next few years. Each year there will be some returning people along with a new cast of “characters”.

For now, the Sun is about to rise over the ridge, the birds are in full chorus, birds are starting to fly, bees are buzzing at the nectar in the flowers, and I need another cup of tea. Thanks so much for following along with us. I have enjoyed writing this science travel log and talking with many of you on the blog, through my personal e-mail, and during direct calls from WAIS Divide camp to many school classrooms. Many more of you I will see at teacher, student, and community presentations/professional meetings over the next couple months. Enjoy wherever you are and help to keep it the fantastic corner of the world it is.

January 25, 2008
McMurdo Antarctica

Time: 10 am
Latitude: 77° 50 S
Longitude: 166° 49.10’ E
Elevation: 34 m (112’)
Temperature: -3°C (7 °F)
Wind speed: 33 km/h (21 mp/h)
Wind Chill: -25°C (-12°F)
Visibility: mostly cloudy, low ceiling
Clouds: stratus
Wind direction: SSE
Relative Humidity: 63%
Barometric Pressure: falling
Precipitation: - occasional flurries
Animals: 24 Skuas, dozens of Weddell seals in McMurdo - including pups, no penguins yet, 1 whale sighting
Breakfast: eggs, bagels, juice, coffee
Lunch: mac and cheese
Supper: lamb, potatoes, mixed veggies, pumpkin pie
**Since we are in McMurdo there are four or five entrees at every meal


We did our bag drag last night to prepare for our flight today. Bag drag means that we took all our gear, except of ECW
gear (Extreme Cold Weather) and one carry-on bag to be weighed and
packaged for the flight. The pilots need to know exactly how much
weight they will be flying with on every flight around and to/from
Antarctica. Once we weighed our gear we gave it up to the baggage folks
to package and ship out to the runway for loading. We kept our
toiletries, one set of town clothes, and ourECW gear out to use until
the flight. If the flight is canceled we need to have clothes to wear
until the flight does go, whenever that is. We will not see our checked
bags again until we land in Christchurch New Zealand. The temperature
in town (and onthe flight) is relatively warm but we are required to have our ECW gear with us most of the time.

The rest of the day we will spend writing, walking around McMurdo,
napping, reading, playing cribbage, or just hanging-out until we leave
for Willy’s Field and our plane. We will take a C-17 back to New
Zealand instead of the C-130 we take around Antarctica. The C-17s have
a little more room with comfortable seats than the C-130s. It will
still be a 5 + hour flight “off the ice” and we will not arrive until
late, possibly even Saturday morning. We are taken to theUSAP Clothing
Distribution Center (CDC) where we will return the clothing and gear we
were issued for the program and then we will be released to wander off
and explore NZ and/or return home. It will be even later that morning
when we finally get to our hotels and recover from the late flight.
Rumor is that there is aBon Jovi concert in Christchurch so it might be an exciting weekend in town with all the additional tourists.

I
still have not seen any penguins though I did find a flock of Skua and
many more seals. The day started very nice but soon turned very
blustery and cancelled any hope of a big hike today to the top of
Castle Rock. Another trip to Hut Point and up Ob Hill were all the
outdoor activities I was able to accomplish.

The images I have for you today are a photo of an old time photo of McMurdo taken during a very early expedition (this image hangs in the galley) and a picture of McMurdo taken this last December 2007. Both are taken from Hut Point looking back towards Ob Hill. In the old McMurdo picture you can see three sailing ships in McMurdo harbor with Ob hill in the background. In the modern picture you can see the station as it exists today.

January 24, 2008
McMurdo Antarctica

Time: 10 am
Latitude: 77° 50’ S
Longitude: 166° 49.10’ E
Elevation: 34 m (112’)
Temperature: -4°C (24°F)
Wind speed: 24 km/h (15 mp/h)
Wind Chill: -11°C (13 °F)
Visibility: 7 miles but overcast, low ceiling
Clouds: stratus
Wind direction: SE
Relative Humidity: 74%
Barometric Pressure: rising
Precipitation: - light snow
Animals: 6 Skuas, dozens of Weddell seals in McMurdo, including pups, no penguins yet, 1 whale sighting
Breakfast: omelets, French toast, sausage
Lunch: burritos
Supper: mac and cheese, turkey potpie
**Since we are in McMurdo there are four or five entrees at every meal

Yesterday felt like chore day. I went to the New Zealand Scott Base to look in their store and rode in the shuttle with the 109th Airlift Wing NY National Guard (http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/ang/109/109.php) pilots who flew us in to McMurdo the day before and were on their way back to WAIS
Divide to collect a few more of our friends. The weather was
deteriorating yesterday but this morning I met a couple of our folks at breakfast
and learned that indeed they were lucky to get out because of clouds.
Later during the day,I also went to see the person in charge of travel arrangements, checked my mail,
and ran down to Hut Point to look in the open water leads for penguins
– there were none there at the time. Hut Point is very nearby McMurdo
central where Robert Falcon Scott and his men built a hut on one of
their early expeditions to Antarctica. I wrote about it in an earlier
blog. When I got there, also touring that hut were members of the
Norwegian-US Traverse of East Antarctica http://traverse.npolar.no This
project is an ice coring traverse of East Antarctica. The US researcher
on the project, Dr Mary Albert, works at Dartmouth College and the Cold
Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, NH
http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/. I happen to know her from my earlier
experience in Antarctica. Funny to see people in Antarctica whom you
know that live and work only a few hours away from your home. The drilling
organization on that project is also Ice Coring and Drilling Services (ICDS)
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/icds and their driller and our drillers had a
lot to talk about at supper last night. Since the principle
investigator of ICDS, Dr Charlie Bentley, is in town with us there was a reunion of sorts as well lots of “shop” talk. The members of Norwegian-US traverse are also flying out to New Zealand with us tomorrow (fingers crossed).


The rest of the day I spent catching up with letters and “thinking about “
(I hesitate to say planning since we are not even off the ice yet) the
few days I will spend in New Zealand “recovering” from my days here on
the ice before the long flight back to Maine. As I have mentioned
before, many of our folks will be spending weeks and months touring New
Zealand and the world after they leave here but I only have a day or
two before getting back to family and work.

Today I will
continue to look for penguins in the open water leads. I have stopped
counting Weddell seals as there are dozens and dozens of these 500 lb “sea
slugs” all around the open water at McMurdo. I still have not seen any Skua (sea
gulls) but I know they are here somewhere.

Today’s images are of the
ice breaker opening up the sea ice to make it possible for the resupply
ship to land, possibly by Monday. And an image of good ole’ Mac Town (McMurdo Station). Transitioning back to McMurdo
and its dirty streets, buildings, and traffic is a difficult adjustment
after being in the middle of West Antarctica for over a month.