2019 / 2020 Field Season – Page 4 – ANSMET, The Antarctic Search for Meteorites

Officially at Davis Ward and Meteorite Hunting

December 30, 2019

The gang is all here! Brian and Marc arrived this morning, even with grey clouds threatening to turn the plane around inflight (a “boomerang flight” in McMurdo terminology). We’re all thrilled to be officially beginning our work exactly one month since the start of this adventure. Nicole, Alex, and...

6 Down, 2 To Go

December 29, 2019

Hello from Davis Ward! Boy has it been a long day. Cindy and I woke up at about 5:30 am to catch a shuttle from McMurdo to Willie field (a 1 hour very bumpy ride in a Delta). After the gear was loaded, including 3 snow machines, into the...

4 Down, 4 To Go

December 28, 2019

This morning (Dec. 28th), Nicole, Lauren, and Alex caught a flight south to join Johnny at Davis Ward! The Basler returned to McMurdo yesterday, so the 7 of us enjoyed our last meal together in McMurdo. Unfortunately, the weather at the fuel cache today does not look good, so...

Happy Holidays from McMurdo!

December 25, 2019

Happy holidays from McMurdo! We all miss being with our families during this time of year, but the McMurdo staff did a fantastic job of preparing holiday fare for the McMurdo community and guests like us. Being here for the holidays does mean we have the opportunity to meet...

50 Years Ago Today

December 22, 2019

The 2019-2020 ANSMET field season corresponds to several anniversaries that we find significant, but none more important than today. Fifty years ago, on December 21, 1969, Renji Naruse of the 10th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE-10) was one of several glaciologists embedding a network of survey stations in the...

Cheese is the glue that holds McMurdo together

December 23, 2019

McMurdo Update Volunteers are everywhere in McMurdo; shuttle drivers, dishwashers, exercise class instructors, etc. Today, we volunteered to contribute to the wonderful McMurdo community. Lauren and Emilie worked in the salad kitchen slicing 50 blocks of cheese and cubing 134 apples. When a kitchen worker saw us slicing, he commented...

Marc, the good luck charm

December 20, 2019

We are delighted to welcome Marc to McMurdo! He was not delayed at all in New Zealand (only 2 days there), arrived on the continent last night and immediately began training. Meanwhile, we have finished our training and final cargo preparations and are now waiting to deploy to the...

Updates for Wednesday, 18 Dec.

December 18, 2019

Hi everyone. I've got a little bit of information for you after some emails exchanged between Marc Caffee in Christchurch, Jim Karner and John Schutt in McMurdo, and myself. Marc should be flying down to McMurdo right now aboard a New Zealand C-130; earlier this morning he was...

A note from Marc Caffee (in Christchurch, en route to McMurdo)

December 17, 2019

This is my second trip to Antarctica with ANSMET. So while I’m really looking forward to joining my colleagues and experiencing “cold” and couldn’t keep myself from noticing what goes on behind the scenes. It started at O’Hare. On my flight we’re at least six folks going to Antarctica:...

Shakedown: First post from the field

December 16, 2019

Today we are practicing all the skills we’ll need out in Davis-Ward! Yesterday we gathered most of our gear and drove it down to an area close to Scott base (about a 10 minute drive from McMurdo base). After breakfast today, we spent 20 minutes piling on all our...

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