Andrew Beck, December 29th, Larkman Nunatak

We collected 44 meteorites today, the most we have collected in a single day this year! Today’s collection site was the same as the previous few days, the youngest in a sequence of end moraines at the base of Larkman Nunatak. A picture from the top-center of this moraine looking NW is shown in the post. The moraine curves to the NW at both the left and right side of the picture indicating that the glacier that formed these end moraines was receding from the SE to the NW, or directly away from the camera. The glacial activity that sculpted this area happened a long time ago, so only topographic features formed by the glacier remain and not the glacier itself. Moraines are depositional features, but glaciers are erosional as well. Though it as not too apparent in the picture, there is a large depression just beyond the moraine in the blue ice, much of which is reflecting sunlight. This depression is likely an erosional feature that was caused by repeated glacial advance and retreat across this area.

The glacial features we see at Larkman are reminiscent of the sequences of end moraines trailing into the Great Lake basins around areas like Saginaw, MI and Toledo, OH just to name a few, though the features at Larkman Nunatak are on a much, much smaller scale. Seeing interesting geologic features like those at Larkman and at Mt. Bumstead have been a rewarding and mostly unexpected perk for a lot of the team. We have enjoyed discussing these features both in the field and in camp to aid in our plans for meteorite collection. Here is hoping these discussions continue and help us to have more record days!