A Final Farewell.

This is my final farewell to all the bloggers who have enjoyed my stories about Antarctica. I was on the seventh continent for three and a half months of the year. I watched the seasons change from summer (24 hour sunlight) to winter (9 hours of sun and dropping when I left). It was an amazing experience and one that I will not soon forget. Thank you for your comments and interest in my trip.

Here are some photos (roughly in order) of the highlights of the trip.
Cheers and peace.
Please remember some of the stories I have shared, remember how these animals and their delicate ecosystem are continually changing, and please do your best to have a positive impact on the globe.
Anna Rizzi Bramucci

Fun at 30 below!

Here is a fun thing to do if you are ever in weather that rivals Antarctica.

We got boiling water and then went outside in to -34 C temperature and threw the water into the air.

The air of the valleys was so cold and dry that the water evaporated on the spot, and some particles fell to the ground as ice... Watch the movie of our fun, I am the one throwing up the water.

The best way to really see an Aurora is by using a timelaps video function. This is where the camera takes an image every couple of seconds and then stiches them together in a movie format. Here is a great timelaps video showing how the moon never sets as it circles around Observation Hill in McMurdo. It also shows the wonder of the Southern Lights!

Aurora Australialis

Polar Night

Interesting Hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: The pictures are FAKE.

I think this is a great hypothesis. Several people have said they look fake, and I myself first thought the images were from a spam e-mail. However, after asking around in Antarctica and doing some research on the internet I have found that the pictures are not fake at all, this actually occurred near Palmer Station on the Antarctic peninsula. So we must REJECT this hypothesis. The pictures are REAL.

Hypothesis 2: The pictures ARE of a wave that froze in mid-air.

This is a good starting point for hypotheses in this case. The pictures claim to be of a wave that froze in mid-air so this becomes our null hypothesis and must be taken into account. Lets look at the facts first. Ambient air temperatures can decrease to a level that boiling water will freeze when it hits the air. Even here in Antarctica I have seen hot water be thrown into the air where some of it evaporates on the spot and some of it freezes and hits the ground. So if that is possible (especially in the coldest part of winter when temperatures decrease far lower then they are currently) is this really a wave?

Think about what would have to be true. First there would have to be an open body of water that could splash up. In our research we drill holes into the lakes and sea ice and water does escape, but the holes freeze over so quickly that even while we are sampling we are forced to drill more holes because our instruments no longer fit throw the shrinking diameter of the hole. So the likelihood that such a wave could come from anywhere other then the ocean is small. Furthermore, the ice edge that borders the ocean near McMurdo can be hundreds of feet higher then the surrounding ocean, so waves could not get over the ice pack. In areas more near Palmer, where these photos were taken, the ice edge is not as staggering; however it remains true that if a wave froze instantly it would then drop to the ground, no longer supported by water's elastic and surface tension properties. At this point ice crystals would fall to the ground and be smashed. Finally, ice that freezes instantly is opaque in color (the glassy color comes from ice melting rather then ice forming) and has many more impurities than ice that is formed slowly has.

Hypothesis 3: Victoria (3rd grade) Hammond Elementary School: The structure was formed by glacier or Mountain water that melted creating a waterfall that refroze to form this wave-like formation.

This is a great hypothesis and it really uses a lot of different ideas that come into play in ice formation in Antarctica. The first important idea is that ice can melt, glacier ice does in deed melt and create waterfalls off the side of the glacier. Melting is also how glaciers move and glacial water replenishes the valley lakes that we work on every day.

So this is a great deduction. And as Victoria states, and I stated before, because of the type of ice that is shown (very glassy blue ice) it is possible to state that melting was in integral part of the ice wave, not as the e-mail suggests, freezing.

Hypothesis 3: They are formed by wind, similar to the great ventifact rock structures of the valley.

This is an interesting point. Several of the glaciers really are shaped by the wind the photo shown (right above) is of the Canada Glacier which is shaped by wind, just like rocks. The sides of some glaciers look like ripples on the water because the effect the wind has shaping the ice. This picture of the Seuss Glacier (right below) is one example of how the wind can make amazing patterns.

So this is a great hypothesis. And perhaps wind had something to do with the formation of these giant structures. But the fact still remains that the ice had to come from somewhere. It it is not water that was frozen and it is not compacted snow, or a glacier that was already in existence, then what in fact is it?

So what is REALLY happening?

The area of Antarctica where this photo was taken is the peninsula area. This is the most delicate ecosystem in Antarctica because it is north enough that the temperatures can change quite drastically.

Therefore, water flows during the majority of the Antarctic summer and icebergs like those portrayed in movies such as The Day After Tomorrow are formed rather regularly. Icebergs like these keep most of their mass below water. The water that surrounds the icebergs is warmer then the ice, so it makes sense that the ice will melt from the bottom up (which is the reverse of how ice freezes). When the underside of giant icebergs begins to melt the bergs can become very unstable.

A good experiment we can do to test this hypothesis is to find an ice cube and melt it in a glass of warm water. How does the ice melt? From the bottom or top? Does it start rocking around if you shake the glass slightly? Could you imagine that in a storm a big half melted iceberg could flip over?

That is exactly what we think happened in this case. The iceberg that was already melted on the bottom by the warmer water circling around it, became unstable, and in a storm it flipped over. The formation looks like it has been shaped by the wind or that it even was flowing water. But to the contrary the ice was melted due to the surrounding water!

Does it make sense? What do you think?

Thank you for your comments, especially Victoria of Mr. Hector's 3rd grade class. Keep reading and hypothesising and we can all come up with more answers to the really important questions!

Looking Down.

There are few things that I expected of Antarctica; one was that I would see things, while looking up, that I have never seen before. I was right about that and when I first arrived in the Dry Valleys my eyes were glued to the mountain ranges and glaciers. For the past few blogs I have attempted to convey some of the wonders of these landscapes, from Mt Erebus to the ice bergs floating at sea, but what I wasn’t prepared for was the astounding wonder of all the things there are to see closer to the ground . In short, Antarctica is one of those few places on earth where looking down can be just as interesting as looking up—here’s why.

I work on lakes in the Dry Valleys. Every day we are walking across frozen lakes to get out to the Polar Haven, where we do research. Sometimes we can find clumps of agal mats (shown left and below) that represent the life that survives underneath the ice of Lake Chad. These algal mats float to the surface of the lakes during the Antarctic summer when Lake Chad is finally ice free.

The texture of the ice on each of the lakes is so different that it is almost possible to discern which lake you are on solely by looking down at the lake ice. Parts of Bonney and all of Chad are so glassy that you can see down to the rocks that scatter the bottom of the lakes. They also have hidden caves in the layers of ice, which make walking treacherous to the unaware, but which also turn the lake into a mysterious land of secret forts and hideaways.

In the Polar Haven we use niskins (tube-like bottles that catch water only from one certain depth) and winches to gather our samples. Looking down through the hole in the lake ice (which is around 3-4 meters thick) we can see water frothing as instruments are lowered down and when we look closely we can see the sediment trapped in the bubbles in the ice.
The wind howls through the valleys at such speeds that rocks and glaciers alike are carved and molded into ventifacts that scatter the ground and the sides of mountains. These huge sculptures are shaped by the wind that howls through the valleys whipping our faces and freezing uncovered fingers. Smaller stones also cover the desert ground and occasionally flurries of snow whip through creating a thin blanket of white on all of the surfaces.

Mystery of the Ice...

Check out this Antarctic Wave....
The temperature is below freezing for the majority of the year and streams only flow for the two months of summer. However, in this picture you can see what looks like a frozen wave.

YOU BE THE SCIENTIST:
Question: What caused the formation of this ice structure?
Create a HYPOTHESIS and make sure you are able to tell us WHY your hypothesis is realistic.
Remember that having a hypothesis is the most important part. The correctness of your hypothesis doesn’t really matter, BUT you do need to have a REASON for your hypothesis (so give us the reason)!

Please respond to this post using the comments button and leave your name, school, and age in the spot of a ‘nick name.’

Sunset.

Antarctica is located at the bottom of the globe. It is one of the two places on earth that sees almost exactly six months of winter and six months of summer. The seasons are dictated not by snow, which we see year round, but rather by the presence or absence of the sun. In the summer the sun is in the sky for more hours than in the winter, the same is true all over the world. Right now in Oregon the sun is staying in the sky for an extra ~2.5 minutes longer each day, so the days are getting longer. Here in Antarctica the opposite is happening.

Here the days are getting shorter as we enter winter. For the next 48 days the length of our days will decrease by 30 minutes a day. This means that we lose in one day more then you gain in one week!

But don't worry. It will not be until mid March that I start to really feel the effects of the darkening skies. At that point the days will start becoming noticeably shorter, for now we will just be having darker nights, which will be pretty fun.

And there are good things to look forward to. First of all when the sun sets we will finally be able to see stars! Also with the darkening skies we get to see sunsets and sunrises, and most importantly we may be able to see the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights.

Aurora Australis are formed by a group of charged particles that reach the Polar Regions from the sun. Through a series of collisions these particles increase their energy and then lose excess energy in the form of light. The reason these lights are often seen in polar regions is that a wind and very cold temperatures are needed to see the brilliant colors; however, they can be seen as far south as Montana.

I will not be seeing the Aurora for some time yet, but for now we can see the moon in the dusky sky, hanging over our camp like a silent reminder of what is yet to come...

SoLaR EcLiPsE...

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, potentially blocking out all sunlight and throwing parts of the earth into midday darkness. A partial solar eclipse occurred here in Antarctica just last week. The eclipse that we saw had 80% coverage, so the sun was not completely behind the moon. In America when partial eclipses occur you can look at the sun with special lenses or OMSI glasses and still observe the moon slowly creeping along in front of the sun. Depending on where you are and the percentage of the sun that is blocked, it may even still look like the sky is darkening.





The eclipse that we saw was very interesting. All of the scientists in Crary Lab went outside at around 4:20 in the afternoon and looked up at the sun with goggles and camera lenses as eye protection. (Remember that because we are so far south the sun was still very high in the sky, at 4pm the sun looks like it does at 11am in the States!)



Even though the eclipse was not total the sky did darken slightly, it looked like dusk was coming on, which after having the last month of 24 hour sunlight was quite a lot! But because there is so much snow and ice covering the ground in Antarctica the little sun that did shine through got reflected off the white ground and scarttered across McMurdo so that it still seemed bright to us.



Keep in mind that these pictures show the sun in a darkened sky because that is the only way the camera will produce a shot.

Girls in Science:

Please pass this on to all who might be interested! Join an expedition to discover the world of glaciers Girls on Ice is a unique eleven-day leadership program for teenage girls that combines leadership, mountaineering and science. The program takes place *July 28-August 7, 2008 * and is free to girls who qualify via amerit-based application process. It is open to girls 15-18 years old who have shown a keen interest in exploring the world of science and the outdoors. Nine young women will be selected and the ideal candidate willbe an inquisitive, adventurous girl who would like to learn more about scientific inquiry, research, careers in science and the North-West environment. It is the only program in the nation that combines leadership, scientific inquiry and mountaineering for teenage girls. Itprovides a rare opportunity for young women to feel at home in the wilderness while observing the natural world through the unique lens of science under the guidance of professional female glaciologists and mountaineers. Applications due March 15, 2008 Please visit Girls on Ice for more information and an application packet or feel free to contact Erin at epettit@pdx.edu.

Finding WATER in a DESERT.

Water is the most interesting naturally abundant substance on Earth, it is the medium of life, and it is scarce, especially in the desert. One of the most important reasons the Dry Valleys need to be protected is because the ecosystem here is so simplified. Unlike the forests and groves of the Portland valleys this area has little influx of nutrients from rain, rivers, or animals. Furthermore, it also has limited macro organisms to disrupt the balance of the microbial life in the lakes.

"A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature."

-Henry David Thoreau-

First the Facts:

Ninety-seven percent of the water on the planet is in the form of salt water. Only 3 percent is fresh, and two-thirds of that is ice.

Water molecules are made of one oxygen and two hydrogen's bonded together.

Water is a POLAR molecule so each side bears a slight charge, the Oxygen side is partially negative and the Hydrogen side is partially positive.

Water is relatively incompressible.

Water has a very high surface tension which allows you to fill a glass up above the rim without spilling anything on the floor (make sure to be very careful!!!).

When cooled to its freezing temperature (0°C, 32°F, under standard pressure), water changes to a colorless, crystalline solid (ice).

Water is one of the only liquids on earth that expands during freezing and is therefore less dense in its solid form (ice) than as a liquid at 4°C.

Water is the universal solvent (which means it is the best liquid to dissolve particles in).

The United States uses three times as much water a day as the average European country, and many, many times more water than most developing nations.

The main fact is that WATER is LIFE.

Here in Antarctica our research takes place where the life is—beneath the ice. Remember that when ice forms it incorporates only pure water into its crystalline matrix. The molecules that remain are in the water and the concentration of these compounds changes based on depth (this is because temperature and ambient light also changes with depth). So water beneath ice has an extremely different composition from other water. The water beneath the ice holds trapped dissolved CO2 (not commonly found dissolved in lakes), dissolved O2 (present in other lakes, remember seeing small bubbles in the water?), and is very saline (salty), all of the compounds work together to give life to the extremophiles that habitat the water columns.

The BIGGER picture:

The Lakes of the Dry Valleys are treated scientifically like a baseline of research. When they are understood it is possible to further understand the more complex ecosystems of this world. More importantly due to the fragile state of this ecosystem the effects of global climate change or climate warming are drastically expressed by the lakes. When lake ice thickness diminishes it changes the amount of ambient sunlight that reaches the lower depths of water. Slight increases in temperature or increases in the amount of light can both have drastic effects on the microorganisms of the lakes. Changes like these can influence metabolism, temperature regulation, reproduction, and evolution. All of these things together lead scientists to believe that the changes in the lakes of the Dry Valleys are a good representation of the changes that could occur in our world if global warming continues.