Several of us woke up around 3 am this morning with gusting wind hitting our tents. Yes, Antarctica turned. From a beautiful no wind day yesterday to a windy day today, just like that.

We started our day appropriately–heading out to the “wind rows” to collect meteorites we found on a previous day when they had been flagged, but not collected. It was a great exercise for us to practice collecting meteorites. Collecting meteorites truly is a team effort. There are plenty of tasks for all of us to do. There’s holding the GPS pole to get a precious location of our find (Daniela). We also have to get the field tags and collection bags (Lauren), plus get the field number counter ready (Erin) to take measurements and then a field photo (Jon). Then, there’s making an assessment for how much of the meteorite is covered by fusion crust (Robert), and sealing the collection bag to secure the meteorite with its field tag (Minako). Brian stores the GPS location data and Jim takes field notes. Each task has different challenges especially with the Antarctic cold wind. We rotate jobs so we can experience it all.

After collecting 24 meteorites in the morning, we headed back to our sweet home for lunch and most importantly to warm up.

After lunch, we toughened up and headed to the Klondike area, a moraine near camp. We did a foot search about 1.5 hours. We cut our mission short because the wind was getting stronger and stronger. Jim told us it was whipping at about 30 knots (-4 F ambient and -30 F with wind chill). We did manage to find one meteorite out there, which we flagged and will collect later when Antarctica calms down a bit. We got back home safely by 3 pm, with plenty of time to warm up again and enjoy some free time in our sweet homes before dinner.

P.S. I heard that my sweet home in the US (Houston) will get a cold snap which brings temperature down below freezing. Expecting school closures and more… Stay warm Houston! BTW, a bit below freezing temp sounds so lovely to me 🙂

P.P.S. (Note from Robert): Each evening we gather in a separate tent (the “Science Tent”) that is used for storage and group meetings/events, and where each evening we can commiserate after the day. This evening we filled out NFL playoff brackets for a friendly team competition. So send us news of game outcomes. And Go Chiefs (Robert); Browns (Jim); Houston (Minako); Steelers(begrudingly–Lauren); Bills (Jon); Miami (Daniela).