Two days and counting...

After an extended stay in MCM due to weather we are finally scheduled to fly out to the field site on Monday. The past few days have been a mad rush to box up all of our camping gear, food, science equipment, and libations... well of course we must have libations! Mark and Brent went out at to the glacier on Monday with a member of FSTP (Field Safety Training Personnel) to survey prospective sites for building the tunnel. The Taylor Glacier (TG) is a very active glacier with an average flow velocity of about 2 m per year. This activity results in large calving events along the margins. Our goal is to find a suitable location to chainsaw our tunnel... suitable is defined as an area which is not susceptible to these large calving events.

Picture of TG and the large cracks which form along the margin. Ice thickness in the picture is approximately 80-100 feet. Photo by B. Christner. *** All pictures enlarge if you click on them

We are all very excited to begin tunneling after many hours of safety briefings and trainings. We expect to tunnel approximately 10 m into the glacier. At this point we will be able to access the basal ice zone and collect samples.

Once we have collected samples I will be responsible for the geochemical analysis of the basal ice. This includes aqueous, gas, and isotopic chemical analysis of the ice samples. I also plan to investigate some of the unique features of TG. For example, the ice at TG is composed of many debris-rich bands of ice (you can see these bands from the pictures shown here). At this time there is no reasonable explanation for these features and they are of great interest to me. As we get closer to sampling I will provide more information of the particular analyses that I will conduct.

TG margin (looking up valley). The dark spots on the ground are from the helicopter touching down at different potential sample sites. Photo by B. Christner.

Wednesday Science Lecture

Bad weather in the area has resulted in a great opportunity for me. Each wednesday evening a science lecture is held in the Crary Labs at MCM. These talks highlight the ongoing research currently being conducted here in Antarctica. This weeks talk was to be given by Dr. Mark Skidmore but weather kept him from returning back to MCM and therefore he asked me to give the talk. The title was "Cool Life, Geomicrobiology of the Subglacial Environment". After finding out that Mark would not make it back I began preparing with only four hours notice. I stood in front of a large crowd (Scientists, NSF representatives, Crary Lab employess, and the general public) gave the talk and nailed it! I received many complements from the folks in the audience (It was a packed house with approximately 90-100 people in the crowd). I guess sometimes the best opportunities come at the most unexpected times.

Here is a picture I havent had the opportunity to share with you all. This was taken at LAX on our way here.

LSU and MSU researchers with Flavor Flav of Public Enemy.

Not always sunny in MCM

Many of the pictures I have posted so far portray MCM as a beautiful sunny place. Here are some pictures taken from the Crary Lab (Science building) of MCM station and the sound during the storm today.

Happy Campers

I am back in MCM after two days of snow school, aka "Happy Camper". The weather was beautiful as you can see from the pictures but of course a clear, blue sky day leads to a cool night (~ -20 oC). Of course this is nothing compared to the temperature at the South Pole that evening (-47 oC).

Mt. Erebus is an active volcano on Antarctica. Elevation of the summit is 3794 m. This picture is taken from the ice shelf which is close to sea level elevation.

Snow schoolers build a quanzee. Campers slept in a variety of different configurations; Scott tents (large teepee style tent used in Antarctica), 4 season mountain tents, quanzee (shown above), or a snow coffin. A poll of the campers in the morning revealed that the quanzee and the coffins were the most desirable sleeping quarters.

Shawn Doyle (L.S.U.) begins the excavation of our snow coffin.

A view of the completed snow coffin Shawn and I dug and spent the night in.

Campers perform a search and rescue under zero visibility. During this simulation teams of campers were sent out with white buckets on their head to simulate white out conditions (no visibility and little to no possibility of verbal communication between members of the team). Although it seems impossible to find the trapped victim one group was able to locate their victim and return them to the hut.


The last few blogs have highlighted life here on the ice. Its getting close to our departure to the field and therefore much of the information that I will post in the upcoming weeks will focus more on the science that we are here to conduct.

Thursday and American Night at Scott Base

It was a bit windy today and temperatures at MCM ranged from a high of -11 oC to a low of -36 oC. Tomorrow our group will attend snow school also called "happy camper". This training will give us the opportunity to learn and practice methods of survival while in the field. Activities include building snow shelters and navigating under zero visibility. This training will also give us a chance to test out our camping and sleeping gear prior to going into the field.

Thursday night was "american night" at Scott Base which gave us the opportunity to visit another permanent station on Antarctica. Scott Base is the New Zealand base on Antarctica and it is only a short walk from MCM. During the summer there are approximately 80-100 people on station (MCM has about 1000).

*note: click on pictures to enlarge


Where in the world is Scott Base??

View of sea ice in McMurdo Sound from Scott Base

Ice pressure ridges form in the sound

"Sunset" over the sound (notice the blowing snow)


We have begun our final preparations for the field. This includes fine tuning all of our equipment and gear (i.e., chainsaws, laboratory equipment, food pull, and the remaining safety briefs necessary to leave for the field next Friday). Snow school is a two day event and upon return to MCM on Saturday I will update you on this activity.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my supervisors (Drs. Skidmore and Christner), friends, colleagues, family, and especially Galena for all of the support thus far. A great deal of time and work has been put into this project and it would not be possible without your support.

Arrival at McMurdo Station

After many hours of travel we have finally arrived at McMurdo Station (MCM), the United States base on Antarctica. We arrived at MCM from Christchurch, New Zealand via a C-17 operated by the 62nd air wing of the United States Air Force. During our flight I had the opportunity to ride in the cockpit and get a "pilots" view of the amazing landscape of Antarctica.

My first days at MCM are chock full of briefings about the rules and regulations which pertain to daily life on the ice. These included briefings on subjects which range from from recycling of trash to survival during extreme weather events. Over the next few days I will continue to adjust to daily life on the ice and continue to make final preparations to go into the field next week.

Introduction to the project

We will conduct a geomicrobiological study of basal ice from Taylor Glacier, Dry Valleys, Antarctica.

• Previous work at Taylor Glacier revealed elevated CO2 concentrations concurrent with depleted O2 concentrations

The anomalous gas values in basal ice sections are concurrent with measurements of elevated biomass and heterotrophic microbial activity in the ice samples.

One explanation for these data is that in situ microbial respiration is occurring in the ice at -17oC.

We will determine the gas concentration (N₂, O₂, CO₂, and Ar) and isotopic composition of CO₂ (i.e., d13CO₂) in a 5 m profile of the Taylor Glacier basal ice. In addition, experiments will be undertaken in parallel to examine the viability and physiology of the entrapped microbial assemblages.

Members of our research team:

Montana State University:

Mark Skidmore, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences, PI

Scott Montross, Graduate Student

Tim Brox, Undergraduate Research Technician

Louisiana State University:

Brent Christner, Assistant Professor of Microbial Ecology, Co-PI

Pierre Amato, Post Doctoral Researcher

Sean Doyle, Undergraduate Research Assistant