2 Days left in the season and this my first and last blog so I thought I would give you ANSMET by the numbers, a kind of primer on the program and generally fun factoids concerning our mission!
1912 Year that the first meteorite was found in Antarctica, by Mawson's...
News
Today was a highly productive day of meteorite hunting, and we've now found over 300 specimens! We collected several beautiful achondrites, one of which is particularly intriguing and has gotten all of the ANSMET team especially excited. We woke up this morning to 15-20mph wind blowing so much snow...
Every night, Johnny reads to us from the journals of Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton, mainly from a book "Race for the South Pole" by Roland Huntford. We hear what each of these parties did on the same calendar date we are in. I've heard everyone remark at some point...
Quick note from Da Boss
I talked to the team last night via iridium phone. Looks like they can get about 3-4 more days of searching in, then they'll start packing up for the homeward trip. It takes the best part of two days each leg in perfect weather; two...
The universe abounds with innumerable "Saganesque" mysteries, billions and billions of unknowns with an even greater number of clues to stimulate the souls and minds of all humans. We, the members of ANSMET 2013-14, feel privileged beyond words to be at the cusp of investigation into some of these...
When I describe to people how we search for meteorites out here - eight people on skidoos, looking with our eyes and collecting with our hands - a natural question that comes up is, why don't we use robots for that? After all, we send some pretty sophisticated robots...
It was a beautiful, balmy day today around the Miller Range camp area. It's amazing how the lack of winds makes such a big difference to our comfort levels out in the field. Once we heard that our resupply flight had been cancelled for the day, we took off...
Yellow tented harbor
I have seen waves before, out on the Blue Ice. Translucent, topaz swells undulate and interfere generating domical forms. Tiny, superposed, ubiquitous ripples reveal the relentless ravages of wind and sun. But out here, on the divide between ice sheet snows and plateau winds monstrous forms emerge....
Here's the ANSMET team atop Mt. Schutt, in search of blue ice.
A meteowrong, but a cute one
We awoke today to find our neighborhood greatly changed, namely, covered in snow! The fresh snow had sufficiently covered our snowmobile tracks and changed the landscape to remind us, yet again, how truly isolated and awe inspiring the Miller Range is. The sky was...