Jim Karner at Davis Ward in 2015.

Hi all,  I just got done talking to Jim Karner via the iridium phone. All is well out at Davis-Ward.  They acknowledge they haven’t sent a blog post for a day or two,  but it’s mostly because they’ve had good weather and are really working hard.  They report slightly more than 400 meteorites recovered so far,  many from the downwind firn edge, the western moraines, and the “beach” area of the eastern moraines. They’ve been finding meteorites out on the blue ice during sweeps as well.  Jim said there’s lots of smallish specimens but also lots of interesting lithologies, rocks that lead the incautious to offer hypotheses about their classification.  Meanwhile the while the rest of us are content to be puzzled and wait for Cari Corrigan to tell us it’s an ordinary chondrite.

The team still haven’t got their resupply that was originally scheduled for yesterday;  and while they’re running low on one critical commodity (propane for the main stoves) they’re good for at least another few days before they have to start using backup fuel sources (like the white gas stoves we carry for emergencies).  The delays are due to crew illnesses before and after the holidays in McMurdo that caused backups on a number of missions, but Jim reports they were due to catch up today.  So here’s hoping tomorrow sees a plane heading out to Davis-Ward and some happy campers getting more fuel, food and maybe even a gift or two.

-posted by Ralph from sunny Novelty OH