Antarctica Local Customs

Your Wellies need desinfection when...

by globetrott

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Your Wellies need desinfection when...
by globetrott
Skuas in McMurdo
by XenoHumph
Nunatak in the Miller Range, Antarctica
by XenoHumph
Irregular surface of the ice sculped by...
by XenoHumph
Sastrugi or wind-sculpted snow, Miller...
by XenoHumph

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Ekahau Apr 6, 2013 at 1:29 PM

Achondrites crystallized that formed 4.5 billion years ago they thought was from Mercury not sure how that turned out .
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Ekahau Apr 6, 2013 at 12:59 PM

Meteorites in Antarctica maybe a Part of mercury or mars
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  XenoHumph Apr 6, 2013 at 1:05 PM
  
  Some meteorites are definitely from Mars or the Moon. Mercury, we are still looking, although there was a reasonable candidate described at the last conference I went to!

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Meteorites in Antarctica

by XenoHumph

I suppose I should say a few words about meteorites given that I went to Antarctica to find some!So first, why do we need meteorites? The meteorites found by the ANSMET expeditions are made available to scientists from all over the world to study. They are curated in Houston (USA) at NASA Johnson Space Center. Meteorites are rocks from space that fell on Earth. They can teach us a lot about how the solar system and the planets formed and even what the origin of our own Earth and Moon is. Some are pieces of the solar system intact from its very beginning even before planets formed. Some are pieces of Mars, the Moon or asteroids like Vesta.Second, why go to Antarctica to find meteorites? Meteorites fall all over Earth and not specifically in Antarctica. First, deserts, hot ones like the Sahara or cold ones like Antarctica, have the perfect climate to preserve meteorites, with minimal...

Sundog

by XenoHumph

A sun dog is a bright ring that forms in the sky around the sun. When the air is cold enough for ice crystals to form, sunlight reflects off them. It is a common and beautiful sight in Antarctica. The scientific name is parhelion.

Blue ice

by XenoHumph

In Antarctica, the ice of the polar cap or the glaciers is of a milky blue color. That is because it is old ice, more dense and with less air bubbles than new ice. New ice reflects almost all light so it is white, while old ice absorbs more light and reflects mainly blue light. The fact that Antarctica is a desert means rare precipitation and new ice is added very very slowly. Plus the wind ablates the ice, especially near mountains, exposing older ice. These blue ice patches are where meteorites are sometimes found.

Trapped bubbles in ice

by XenoHumph

In shallow ponds on top of a moraine (rock pile accumulated by glaciers), we came across these beautiful bubbles trapped in ice. There is always air trapped in ice, generally tiny bubbles, which help climate scientists reconstruct past climates from ice cores. However, I am not sure how these large (several cm in diameter) bubbles formed! A sudden release of a large amount of gas I suppose but from what? There is no plant matter here that could have released methane. Anybody knows?

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Sastrugi

by XenoHumph

Another result of the fierce Antarctica winds: mounds of sculpted snow called sastrugis, sometimes meter-high, on the polar cap. You should not imagine the polar cap to be that flat, the ice is full of bumps and irregularities, and the snow accumulates in places thanks to the katabatic winds! I almost toppled with my skidoo once on a large sastrugi I had not seen in poor visibility conditions. This gave me quite a fright!

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Windscoop

by XenoHumph

The unrelenting winds of Antarctica are great masters at carving ice. As a result, a very common site in the interior of Antarctica are these large holes at the edges of the glaciers where ice meets the side of a nunatak (visible part of mountains buried in ice). They are quite impressive and beautiful.

Nunatak

by XenoHumph

Eighty percents of Antarctica is covered by ice. Some entire mountain chains are buried beneath kilometers of ice! But when they stick out of the ice, they are called nunataks. In Antarctica you only see the very tip of mountains!

Skua

by XenoHumph

Skuas are big (53 cm in length or 21") brown gulls that can be found everywhere on the Antarctic shores. Their scientific name is Catharacta maccormicki. They are quite aggressive and will eat anything, like penguin eggs for example. At McMurdo, they always try to pick at trash. This behavior resulted in a very McMurdan term for goods that are free to take, such as when people leave the station and want to get rid of something that may be useful for somebody else: "skua". Amongst the billions of recycling bins in each dormitory, one is always called "skua".

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Heavy coat hangers in McTown

by XenoHumph

In McMurdo (affectionately called McTown), you always come in buildings from the cold outside and therefore always wear a thick coat with you, generally the thick issued red jacket called "big red". So everywhere in McMurdo buildings you have these rows upon rows of hangers for the jackets. A very McMurdan sight!Actually when I first arrived in McMurdo, I would wear "big red" everywhere because I thought it was so cold. When I came back from the field, I wore the lighter jacket (issued, also red) because I thought McMurdo was not so cold after all!

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Working in the rigg

by globetrott

Stepping up into the rigg or climbing on the masts is possible for passengers any time, as long as they tell someone from the crew. That makes sense for taking photographs from a special angle and it should be no problem for you, as long as your feet are not too wide, or you are able to make a wide jump, just hanging on your arms.In any case you will always be secured by a strong rope, that is fixed to your body and also to a rope next to the masts.In my photos : my brother Bernie stepping up the mast in order to take his HD-Video from above

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