News – Page 34 – ANSMET, The Antarctic Search for Meteorites

Omnipotent Antarctic Gods (cue The Rolling Stones: “Under my Thumb”

January 25, 2017

That the Antarctic Gods control the weather here is known to all Antarctic travelers. What is less appreciated is that the gods also control activities that humans mistakenly think are under their control. Take for example, cashes of aviation fuel out at Shackleton Glacier camp. Our plans to fly...

E is for Elephant Moraine

December 15, 2016

After 24 hours of wondering, proposing, and negotiating (in both the maneuvering and bargaining senses) we have a new plan. We're sending our field team of 6 to Elephant Moraine. There's a lot of work associated with this switch- basically all the work that went into organizing our cargo for Shackleton...

Plans A through Z cancelled; on to a whole new alphabet

December 15, 2016

This has been a busy, shocking afternoon, as our existing plans for this season were completely tossed out and new, leaner plans are being built on the foundations. It all started about 1:30 this afternoon when I saw a friend in the Crary lab that shouldn't be there- it was...

Pressure ridges adventure

December 15, 2016

Hi, it's me, Minako Righter. Today is Sunday, means everyone gets day off here in McMurdo. No flights going in and out today, so no staring at flight info screen to get update. Our flight is planned on Tuesday to go to Shackleton Camp. So we have a couple more...

Musings on a McMurdo Sunday Morning

December 15, 2016

There are few times in the summer that McMurdo is truly quiet, but Sunday morning is one of them. This is the only day the local workforce gets off every week, so no aircraft are flying, no administrators are administering, and the worker bees tell the queen to buzz...

The Touchy and the Feely

December 15, 2016

Jani and Minako here! we had a few fun experiences around town we'd like to share with you. The first is a trip to the Crary Laboratory touch tank, a place in the basement of the science building where you can actually touch many of the sea creatures you'd...

Bubbles the Seal Princess

December 15, 2016

(Please note: the intended audience for this blog is in the 3rd grade; this narrative takes great liberties with the literal truth and absolutely no treaty violations occurred). My daughter Scout has asked repeatedly that I bring her home a seal from Antarctica. She thinks they're cuddly and the word "cute"...

Following the Duck’s footsteps…

January 25, 2017

Following the Nov-20 blog posted by Duck I went for a walk to the Observation Hill and here are some pictures taken on the way. One third into the hike I saw the site where a 1.75 MW nuclear reactor operated since 1962 for about 10 years. It used...

The waiting game and an Antarctic sight I had never seen before

December 15, 2016

Not a whole lot of stuff going on today for the ANSMET team. We have all of our gear in the cargo system as of lunch time Wednesday. Now it is just a matter of waiting... This is the Antarctic version of the military’s “Hurry up...

The Coziness of McMurdo

December 15, 2016

The Coziness of McMurdo Hi everyone! Jani here. Were in McMurdo, having just finished a satisfying few days of assembling all our gear and getting it into the system, ready for flight out to our field locations. We bring a lot of gear with us, so this takes a...

Shopping cart