Cristina-on-Ice

Many people have asked me what it is like to live on top of the seven meters of ice that covers the 400 meters of water from the Ross Sea. Well, I do not even think about it…most of the time anyway, even though reminders of how ‘precarious’ this spot can be are abundant: we measure ice temperature daily and keep an eye on any temperature changes as the mid-summer time approaches; there are regular skidoo trips to the ice edge (about 8 km away) to see how far from camp open water is, as increasing heat causes the sea ice to start breaking up; everyone is aware of the need to look out and report any new cracks on the ice that develop on or near camp. But the most sobering one, at least for me, is the noise of the sea ice cracking. Sometimes is really loud, a ‘boom’ that indicate cracks are developing nearby (although these cracks do not necessarily mean we will be swallowed up, most are superficial).
And on this surface, a small community (30 souls) of drillers, scientists, engineers and camp personal has been living for the last 3 months…And is great!!! I said this before, when I first came here…and I still love it.
There are two main separated areas at camp, one for sleeping and the other one where everything else happens. Most of the buildings are truck containers that have been cleverly modified and joined together for a more spacious and comfortable stay. As you come in the main door there are several containers flanking the ‘hallway’. These are for storing food and other supplies (all container’s temperatures are independently controlled), another one is a small office and computer room, there are also a dry room (below at right) where our boots and cold weather wear hangs to dry after work, a laundry container, and a shower container (yes, we do have running water for the kitchen, sinks, three showers, two washing machines, and a sanitizer dishwasher!!) There are other containers in this area but they have noisy and scary looking things like generators and so forth.


Our camp manager and camp assistant (above, Heidi and Helen on the 'hallway') are great, always looking out for (and after) us. They keep our stress level down by keeping us from worrying about anything else other than our jobs. Thank you so much ladies!!
The shower/sink area is co-ed and small. Blow-drying hair, tweezing eyebrows and aplying facial cream next to guys shaving or trimming their nails does not raise anybody's eyebrows...


We have a well equipped kitchen and a great cook (Sarah, above right) that produces cookies, cakes, desserts, chocolate ‘everything’, and two good homemade meals a day for each shift. Beyond the kitchen is the mess (red tent in top photo) and adjacent to that one is the rac tent (yellow tent in top photo) where all social things happen. We have a flat screen for watching DVD’s, wireless internet connection, phones, a stereo, drinks and food at our disposition, plenty of books and games…the works!


The rac tent (above, left) is a multipurpose area. The mess (above at right) during the day-shift dinner time.
The sleeping containers are separated for a quiet sleep. There are 4 to 5 people per container but all on different shifts so not all are in there at the same time (photo below at left). The place is small but comfortable (I have slept very well all along) and with the curtains closed it makes the bunk bed really dark. There is a little shelf with a nightlight and, besides your bed, a small cubicle for clothes and other personal stuff…Not much room, just the bare necessities.
So…some may say: “wow, I could also work in Antarctica like this…”well, yes, but I still have not told you about the toilets. My (and most dwellers here) biggest challenge used to be the toilets (outhouses, really). There are 2 of them and have no running water but come with a cold breeze from below and, quite often, if it has been windy outside, snow in the seat…Now that the weather has warmed up (and I have acclimatized) is not a big deal anymore (unless I need to go in the middle of the night and have to dress up completely, boots and all…) but early in the season I required lots of courage and a good dose of urgency…
Below at right is the outhouse after a windy day (both photos by Diana Magens)


And on top of it all, the camp is just 500 meters from the drill rig, which makes for an awesome walk before and after our shift. Just beautiful, and exactly what I need after a long night logging core… So, yes, I like it here…who wouldn’t?
The flagged road from camp to the rig is also often used by other 'two-legged pedestrians'.

Most people’s idea of a drill rig is that of the giant off-shore oil platform we are used to see in movies and in the media. The ANDRILL rig is nothing like that…This one is small, at least as rigs go, and can be put up and down in just a few days with a small crew. It is pretty compact and maneuverable, one of the main specifications when it was commissioned. It can be moved easily from one place to another, and is transported on skis almost everywhere within the continent, on roads that are groomed by bulldozers on the sea ice and on top of the ice shelves.


Andrill rig being pulled by bulldozer to this year's location on the sea ice (photo by Johno Leitch)

Even though the rig is quite light it can drill holes that are about to 2 km deep. Last year it sat on top an ice shelf that was 100 m thick (melted a hole through that ice with a hot water system), went down through 900 meters of seawater, and then drilled into the seafloor down to 1280 m. This year the rig is on a 7-meter thick layer of sea ice that covers about 400 meters of the Ross Sea, and then we are expecting to drill down to 1000 meters below the seafloor.




The shroud is a pretty clever way to keep the hydraulics from freezing and the drillers at a comfortable temperature

Under the white tent (above) is the rig tower and the rig floor, where all rig operations take place under a bunch of kiwis (affectionate term for New Zealanders). During night shift, brilliant cartoonist and master driller Malcolm ‘Tubs’ MacDonald commands at the rig floor; he is in charge of operating the rig. The rest of the night crew are Conrad Rains, the night shift engineer and ANDRILL veteran from last year, who has learned to make coffee strong enough to keep us going for the 12 hour shift; drillers Ira Leech, our ‘unofficial’ photo-shoot model and a man with a million facial expressions; Darryl Faneslow, who is teaching us the thousand and one uses of the word ‘lovely’, and Willy ‘the kid’ Buchanan, who just turned 21 but has already been working for 3 years on an off-shore oil rigs.


The night shift crew from left: Conrad, Darryl, Will, Ira and Tubs
Being at the drill floor can be quite intense, as when we had mud ‘flying’ out of the pipes (below) or they are bringing up core, but there are also quiet times, mainly during the coring phase (when the bit is actually drilling down the hole). Coring times depend on how deep the drill bit is but also on how hard the material that is being cored is. Sometimes it takes 45 minutes to an hour to core a 6-meter length and other times it may take 2-3 hours for the same length.
Photo of 'sleeping Will' by Conrad Rains

Finally, I would like to point out that there are a total of 30 people working at the ANDRILL drill site this year, either as drillers, drill site and/or drill camp support personnel, or as scientists, and that this project would not work out without all these people’s 24/7 efforts.

I already said this year's location was beautiful but at night...there are no words to describe it. All photos below are from different days and different times throughout the night.
Pretty soon we will not have this colors anymore, but for now...we have this! And there are no camera tricks!

I took this photo of Mt Discovery (one of the many volcanoes nearby) a few nights ago, around 2 in the morning. It was bitterly cold but we all bundle up and went out for the show.


Mt Erebus at 4:00 am two days ago. Early dawn


The Wilson Range (photo below by Conrad Rains)


The drill site on a cloudy night...

For a few hours early one night we went to the ice edge, just 8 km from the drill site. It was great! Not only because of the views and the beautiful dusk colors, but also because of the penguins that hang out there.
The greeting committee. Photo by Scott Drew

We approached the edge carefully, watching for signs of thinned ice, and saw a few Emperor penguins lounging around in the distance. As soon as we got off the skidoos a group of 10-12 penguins run towards us to check us out. We stood still and got our cameras ready. I thought they would move away once they got close, but instead they came even closer….could almost touch them. We went on our bellies and knees and just started shooting. They put on a good show, flapping their wings, stretching their necks, and skiing on the bellies. After a while we stood up and walked around taking photos of the mountains in the distance and looking for whales in the open sea. The penguins just followed and stayed with us for some time as we walked around…Then they tired of us, circled up and started grooming.
I had seen penguins in Antarctica before, but these were my first Emperors. Scott, who had never been here before, had a smile from ear to ear and kept saying: “this is so unreal!!”
What a special night trip and what a fabulous company!!

Many projects in Antarctica are 24/7 operations, and ANDRILL is no exception. It makes for an exhausting working season but it also is much more efficient. We take advantage of the 24 hours of continuous daylight at this time of the year (well...there is a short ‘night’ period between midnight and 2 or 3 in the morning, when the sun goes down a bit and it looks like dusk. This is getting shorter everyday and soon the sun will be all the way up and move in a tight circle above)

Mt Erebus, viewed from the drill site, in the Antarctic 'dusk' light. Photo by Scott Drew

And so this year I am working the night shift again, which suits me fine. I like this shift a lot more, since we do not have to deal with visitors and media (this year we expect a flurry of media activity, but not as intense as last year’s.) It also is quiet around the drill rig with only 9 people: there are four drillers, two core techs, one person in charge of the physical properties team, plus Scott and I (in contrast, day shift has 16 to 18 people around here all the time!)

A couple of days ago we decide to adjust to working nights before the core starts coming out of the ground so we would be ‘fresh’ and alert. Last year we went into night shift ‘cold turkey’ on the first day that core came up. The adrenaline of working on the first meters of real core, combined with all the glitches and small problems that arise when you actually start something for real, kept Terry and I awake, and made the night transition much easier. But the truth is Scott and I are dying; this year there is no core yet, and no one is at the drill site other than one or two drillers keeping an eye on the rig, By 5 or 6 in the morning (our shift ends at 8:00am) we are barely speaking and look (and feel) catatonic.

Tonight is our third night and we were expecting core, and although it is not going to happen tonigh either the whole night shift team is here and is more tolerable. Some do movies and others catch up on e-mail, read, or work on other things. Maybe tomorrow, when the core comes, we start feeling a little bit more alive.


Diana (above), Roberta and Alyssa (from left on right photo) waiting for core.

A new drill hole (ANDRILL-SMS Project), a new location, a new drill and science teams (some returns, though) new expectations, new worries, new results….a new job for me. This year we are about 30 km from McMurdo station, so those of us working at the drill site live at a camp specially set up for this operation AND within 5 minute walking distance of the drill rig (nice change form last year’s hour-long commute to the site!!) The camp is great! Quite a set-up, overall when I think of how most people do research here, and what a logistical nightmare living and working in Antarctica is. I will have some photos and stories about my ‘home-on-the-ice’ in a later posting (how come we DO have showers and washing machines even though we are sitting on 7 meters of ice and 400 meters of sea water?)

The drill rig has not changed much since last year, other than a new interior 'spotlight' and a big ANDRILL sticker!

The location of the drill site is beautiful. I did like the spot from last year, but this year’s views are just spectacular! We can see quiet a bit of Ross Island, where McMurdo station sits, and have great views of three of its volcanoes. We can see many of the volcanic cones that poke through the sea-ice here and there, we can sea large icebergs in the distance, at the sea-ice edge (were we are hoping to go sometime for a closer look), and we are near the Royal Society Range and its beautiful mountains and glaciers…

The SMS science team at McMurdo will be working at Crary Lab, like last year, studying every millimeter and many different scientific aspects of the core that comes up. There are about 43 to 45 people there, some are back from last year but most are new. I hope to go to McMurdo occasionally (I like living at the drill camp a lot more…do not miss McMurdo’s ‘bureaucratic ways’) and spend some time there so I may get to know them.

There are 31 souls at the drill site…from 6 different countries! That makes for interesting interactions when living and working in tight quarters. A couple of the New Zealand drillers and core technicians from last year are back, but most are new to me. Most of the science team at the drill site was here last year: Cliff, Gavin and Diana will be working in the adjacent container and logging the core physical properties with a Multi Sensor Track. Our structural team will be logging and scanning the core fractures, and this year we also have new members: Tim Paulsen is back, but Simona Pierdominicci, a geologist from Rome, is new; she will be working on the day shift with Tim. Scott Drew (first time in the ice) is a fellow Ph.D. student at Ohio State and will be working with me on the always better, more fun night shift. Our ‘fearless leader’ Terry Wilson is not here this time, but is keeping a close eye on us!

This year I will be logging the fractures (and other structures) in the core. Quite a step up from last year where I was scanning the core, but Terry and Tim have helped me a lot and I feel confident I can do this job.

Photo below is this year's structural geology team: Simona, Scott, myself and Tim

Well, it’s been just under 10 months since my last posting but the thing is: I am back in Antarctica. All this time I have wanted to do one more post, just to wrap up the season and let you all know how it all ended, but the truth is the last few weeks before we left were just too busy and I never manage to write anything. So, I will let you know that it was quite successful: operations at the drill site stopped on December 26^th and recovered over 1284 meters of core, well over the 1000 m the team had initially hoped for.

The night shift team finished a succesful season

Since we left the ice the team met at conferences, workshops, and colleague’s institutions….to share findings and data already coming out of last year’s core, and to prepare for the next season: the one that started October 3^rd, when the first Andrill team members arrived in McMurdo. And so, here I am. It almost seems like we never left however, many things have changed….

We are changing the drill bit again, so I have tonight off...YEEEPEEEE!!!! We all were in desperate need of a day to sleep, catch up on e-mail, start the on-ice reports, work on collected data, update the blog, take care of coughs and colds (a lot of these going on around, I am OK so far....)

What a week it has been! I said this last phase would be the longest and hardest for us, and it turned out to be exactly that, but also more. Everyone is pretty exhausted by now, but the end is near: at 8:00 am on the 26th (Tuesday) we stop drilling and conditioning of the hole for the core loggers to start lowering their tools down the hole.

But it has also been more than that, as we have reach some milestones: on Saturday the 16^th the night shift reached the depth of 939.43 meters below sea floor, making this the deepest hole ever drilled in the Ross Sea are (the previous record of 939.42 mbsf set by the Cape Roberts Drilling Project in 1999).

Night shift master driller Paul (above) scowled at us: "I never though I would see the day when a ribbon is tied up on a drill pipe". His smile, however, gives him away...

On Sunday the 17^th the day shift drilled to 1000 meters below seafloor, making this the deepest hole ever drilled in the continent (previous record was 999.1 m set in 2000 by the ocean drilling program). Quite an accomplishment when taken into consideration all the technical difficulties of drilling in general and of drilling on an 80 m thick moving ice shelf in particular...

Day shift crew,standing from left: driller "little" Luke, Tamsim (assistant to drill site manager), master driller Grant, mud master Bill, drill site manager (and drilling system designer) Alex Pyne, driller Conrad, and day shift supervisor T.K. Front: driller/ballerina Tristan and core tech Alyssa.

And so we are now set to finish and try to reach 1200 m by Tuesday morning. I will let you know....

Early last week Terry, Catalina and I went to Scott Base after work for dinner and New Zealander Colleen Clark, assistant to the ANDRILL's Project Manager, took us for a walk to the Pressure Ridges just off the Kiwi base (see photo on posting dated 11/03/06). The pressure ridges form at the meeting point between sea ice and the ice shelf. As the moving, thicker ice shelf pushes against the thinner sea ice, the ice buckles and breaks into the beautiful patterns you see below. The open cracks formed by the buckling and upward pushing ice create perfect breathing holes for the Weddell seals that always sun-bathed nearby.

Below from right: Terry, Collen, Betty, Catalina and I.



There is a flagged walking path between the ridges, and most of the area is close to walkers since the terrain here is quite unstable and full of open cracks. The pressure ridges will be off limits soon as the weather gets warmer and the sea ice melts.

 

The pressure ridges are off limits to the McMurdo community unless specifically invited and accompanied by a Kiwi, so I feel very lucky I had a chance to see them. It was a bright, warm morning, perfect for a leisured walk in this almost surreal landscape, and just what my tired eyes and body needed after a long night’s work.