Erin stalking prey among the rocks at Davis Ward, 2024
Let me start with an apology- we haven’t posted in 13 months. All I can do at this stage is beg your forgiveness, and promise to do better. During most of that time, in the absence of good news to report, I opted for silence rather than descend into an old-man-style grumble about how everything worked better in the olden days. Get off my lawn you punks.
So why am I back grinding away at the blog wheel? Late last week we (ANSMET) received the first positive news in a while. Our PI Jim Karner was formally invited to start preparing a SIP (Support Information Package) for an austral summer 2025-26 deployment! He’s already begun working on it as of this morning.
For those of you who need a refresher, the SIP is the formal, official request for support, a lengthy file detailing everything we want USAP to provide, from flights to kitchen utensils. It also includes everything USAP wants to formally hear from us; that we’ve got our permits for samples, our people trained to deal with hazards, and plans to deal with waste, isolation, emergencies and (gasp) outreach to the public both in and outside of McMurdo. The resulting document is usually the equivalent of about 100 pages and fascinating reading, if you like seeing our calculations on how many buckets of human effluent we expect to produce.
With well over 40 seasons under our belt, we’re well-equipped to prepare a SIP that’s a thing of beauty to USAP’s planners. Frankly we’ve had plans A through Z ready for years, and we keep them constantly maintained and prioritized. But USAP changes over time just like everything else; what’s available for our use in 2025 is distinctly different than what we saw in 2015 or 2005 or 1995 or….. you get my drift. Thus while we’re not daunted with the task of preparing the SIP for 2025-26, it will still be a major chore for us- but a welcome one!
Wondering what we’ve got in mind, are you? Here’s a run-down. Our next target is the “main” Dominion Range icefield, not far from the Davis-Ward icefields we finished searching the last time we deployed (2023-24). At the end of that season we put in a cache (including gear, fuel etc) at DOM main in the hopes it would ease the logistical burden during our formal visit the following year……..
The cache at DOM main icefield, with the Dominion Range (and a very cold pilot) in the background.
……. Which of course became the year after that. Why? At risk of starting up that old-man rant again, let’s just say ANSMET has been faced with numerous problems including diminished USAP logistical capacity, a persistent pandemic-related science backlog and (worst of all) the absolute lack of anyone in the Office of Polar Programs considering ANSMET a priority (as a non-NSF-funded project). Given this is a “good news” post, I’ll simply say these are all ongoing issues with no easy solutions. we’re just grateful that something (maybe several things) changed at USAP and now we’re back on the schedule.
Why DOM Main? In 1985 USAP established a helicopter camp in the headwaters region of the Beardmore Glacier that allowed ANSMET to make numerous short visits to icefields across the region. Among the first visited was the Dominion Range Main Icefield, where 4 meteorites were recovered. But it was only one of many promising sites “discovered” by ANSMET that year, such as the Miller Range, Davis-Ward, the Queen Alexandra Range and others, each of which would occupy us with many thousands of meteorite recoveries over the next 3 decades. As a result the DOM main icefield wasn’t revisited until 2003, when a team of four on a more extensive reconnaissance visit recovered 51 meteorites.
The Dominion Range icefields. The yellow triangle on the Main icefield (to the north) shows the approximate location of the gear cache we established at the end of the 2023-24 field season.
Even though there’s a little bit more area of exposed blue ice at the DOM Main icefield than at the Davis-Ward icefields, we’re not sure what to expect in terms of meteorite recoveries. The setting of the two icefields are quite distinct. While most of the meteorites recovered from Davis-Ward came from a central, deflating ice tongue and its surrounding moraines, the DOM Main icefield is more of an open setting. There’s a triangle-shaped area of blue ice bordered by mountains on it’s NE flank, and with flowing ice along its northern and western boundaries. There simply aren’t enough constraints yet to hazard much of a guess as to why there are meteorites there at all- but if pressed I’d say it appears to be an area of ice with little ongoing inflow, separated from faster-flowing Beardmore Glacier ice by a very active shear boundary on its northwest boundary. If the stranded ice has been sitting there quietly deflating (i.e., with more volume loss from ablation than input by glacial motion and precipitation) for a few million years, then maybe there’s lots and lots of meteorites; but it’ll take more boots on the ice to prove that. In any case the 55 finds so far strongly support spending a full season at the site, systematically recovering meteorites.
So what’s next? Unfortunately, ANSMET seasons are no longer sure things, and the season won’t be “real” until the field team is on-site and working. But we’ll continue to adapt to this uncertainty as we have to so many changes in the past; with solid alternative plans and a “ready to deploy” attitude. We’ll be making sure everyone at USAP knows that we’re the group you don’t have to ask to get ready; we’ll BE ready when they call our number. Jim and Brian will start putting together the SIP today with John and I offering our support as needed. Jim also has a preliminary set of field team choices in mind and will be prepping those individuals as well.
Finally, if as a reader you want to help, please let your friendly neighborhood NSF official know how happy you are to see ANSMET once again listed for deployment.
-From Cleveland with high hopes, Ralph