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| Wyoming Water Science Center | ||||
| USGS Streamgaging in Antarctica Home / Wyoming Water Science Center Home |
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2007-08 Journal
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| I arrived in McMurdo (MCM) yesterday. I photo-documented my air craft from Cheyenne to MCM. My first flight from CYS to DEN was in a Beechcraft 1900. The second was a Boeing 737 from DEN to LAX, then a 747 from LAX to New Zealand (wasnt able to get a pic...maybe find I can find one on the internet). And the final leg to MCM in a C-17. | |
^ Beechcraft 1900 flight from Cheyenne to Denver |
^ 737 flight from Denver to Los Angeles |
^ Typical New Zealand Standing on Fox Glacier in NZ > |
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^ Waiting in front of the Windsor on "Flight Day" |
^ Checking in on flight day |
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^ First glimpse of Antarctica looking west from flight deck of C-17 < Long flight from Christchurch to McMurdo |
^ Representing the USGS in Antarctica |
^ Looking from the C-17 |
| Its been a busy week getting ready for the Dry Valleys. Nathan and Andrew arrived a few days ahead of me and got the ball rolling quickly. Weve washed endless bottles for water quality samples, gone through mounds of bags of tents, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, crampons, gaging equipment, and other gear to make sure we have everything we need. | |
| Happy Camper is a two day class in which we spend the night outdoors and learn survival techniques for Antarctica. We learn how to set up tents to avoid the wind (as much as possible), build snow block "walls" and how to build quinzees (snow huts). We then spend the night in our camp. In the morning we go through "survival scenarios" in which we need to find a missing person while wearing buckets on our heads (thus simulating Class 1 (white out) conditions) and another scenario where 8 people were stranded with only one "survival bag." | |
^ Loading up in the Delta |
^ Ready to work at Happy Camper |
^ Snow brick wall and Scott tent Sunset over a quinzee > (Photo by Andrew Sauthoff through his goggles) |
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| We were scheduled to go to the Dry Valleys across McMurdo sound today at 12:30pm...however because of weather moving into the area we were paged at 9am and left at 10:30am. We were the only people flight that went to the Valleys today...very lucky to be on it! | |
^ The Stream Team arrives at Lake Hoare: Andrew, Seth, and Nate Picking glacier berries off Canada Glacier for drinking water at Lake Hoare > |
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| We set up our tents and here are the views Ill wake up to tomorrow! | |
^ What I wake up to in the morning at Lake Hoare |
^ Also what I wake up to at Lake Hoare |
| We walked over to House Stm today. Saw a few seals...one may have been a leopard. Rae said she say one over there awhile ago. We couldn't see the head because of the snow (yes snow..it snowed 4" in the Dry Valleys the week I arrived in Mactown.). That's all for now. |
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We finally arrived at F6 yesterday. It is beautiful here. We noticed that the F6 gage (Von Guerard Stream) looked a little funny. I'll send a more formal update tonight, but wanted to let you know. It was upside down in the streambed. The nitrogen tank was busted. Looks like all the other equipment is intact....miraculously. The orifice line was severed and the conoflow may need a little work, but it looks to be alright. The ropes used for the anchors were decayed. Check in with you later, Seth
< Canada Glacier and Asgard Range from F6 |
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^ Damaged gage (Asgard Range in background) |
^ Damaged gage Von Guerard Stream |
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^ Damaged gage (F6 hut in background) |
^ Damaged gage |
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| We've finished opening the gages around Lake Fryxell. F6 (Von Guerard) obviously needs some work. There were a few that need new batteries, but we're done here for the most part until things start flowing. And by the looks of things that could be awhile. Lots of snow (see pic of F7) and still below freezing for most of the day...and night.
Gage (F7) on Harnish Creek (Kukri Hills in background)> |
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We helped out one of the other science groups (the lake team) on Sat and Sun. They are doing some studies with lake levels, light, ice density and ice ablation. They have a buoy weighted to the bottom of the lake with a pressure transducer about a foot underneath it. Below that they have a UV detector. We were adding a sonar device that I think was measuring ice levels above the buoy. Pretty interesting stuff. (I forgot to take pictures, but they're adding the sonor to their buoys on each lake so I may get another chance.
< Ice melt |
| We fly to Commonwealth on Friday morning and then out to Lake Bonney for the night. We'll finish up there Saturday and spend the rest of the weekend at Lake Hoare. Hopefully, we'll be going to the Onyx Tuesday or Wednesday to open them up and install the Sutron 9210. I'll be emailing you and the Sutron folks to coordinate when I'll be there.
Clouds on Crescent Glacier, Kukri Hills > |
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| When we opened up Lost Seal today. We found the best mummified seal so far right on the trail to the gage. | |
| Hello Northerners!
It's a short update today. I'll have time later this weekend to do another (I hope). We finished opening the gages around Lake Fryxell this week so we moved today. We flew out to Commonwealth Stream on the other side of Commonwealth Glacier this morning. The view was beautiful! We hiked up a nearby hill and looked out across the sound to see Mt. Erebus (the southern most active volcano) puffing out some steam. There was an iceberg in the sound as well. Have I mentioned that this place is beautiful? |
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^ Tent at F6 with Lake Fryxell and Mt. Rae in the background |
^ Across McMurdo Sound with Mt. Erebus in the background |
| From Commonwealth we flew to Lake Bonney the first lake in Taylor valley. Lake Bonney camp is the Limnology Team's main camp, and they would have been there, however they had some major set backs on Lake Fryxell (no ATV, no radio comms, no generator, and 2 of the 3 members were sick). Our second day at Lake Hoare we delivered a new spark plug to the limno team...of course we had to hike across Canada Glacier to do it. | |
^ Lake Bonney Hut |
^ Toe of Bonney Riegel at Lake Bonney, Taylor Glacier in the background |
| Our gages at Lake Bonney are at opposite ends of the lake. Luckily, there are ATVs there too. We decided to head west to Lawson Stream. Taylor Glacier comes right down into Lake Bonney. There's a feature called Blood Falls at the tip of Taylor where the melt water is turned red from iron salts from ancient seawater trapped somewhere in the glacier. While we were opening up one our gages just to the side of Taylor Glacier we met some scientists who had just finished drilling into the glacier. They asked if we'd like to check it out and of course we said "Okay!". They're collecting ice samples from the basal ice to look at trapped gasses and their origins (whether it's atmospheric or biological). The tunnel went in the side about 10 feet, up glacier another 15 feet, and then straight down for 15-20 feet. They'll be collecting about 200+ lbs of ice samples. The science going on in these valleys is so interesting! | |
^ Blood Falls at terminus of Taylor Glacier (Lake Bonney in foreground) |
^ Tunnel in Taylor Glacier |
^ Inside tunnel in Taylor Glacier |
^ Inside tunnel in Taylor Glacier |
| The weather has been a colder than normal for this time of year. And there's still quite a bit of snow (somewhat of a rarity in the Dry Valleys). So far, yesterday and today have been the warmest at 22-25 F. Hopefully, it warms up soon so that we can start making streamflow measurements and running levels.
That's all for now. Enjoy the pics...there will be more to follow soon! |
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| We flew to Lake Hoare this morning. It was a quick trip down the valley. We hiked over Lake Hoare and Lake Chad to House Stream to check on the gage. Some more of the snow melted but there was still no flow. We were able to see more mummified seals and penguins, however. Since runoff hasn't started yet we had the rest of the day off. We continued up the valley through the Defile (a section where Suess Glacier buts up against the opposite side of the valley making a narrow gap) to Mummy Pond. Supposedly there are a lot of mummified seals at Mummy Pond, but again the snow kept most of them hidden. | |
^ Suess Glacier |
^ Mummy Pond with Suess Glacier in background |
| We're planning on installing the Sutron 9210 at the Lower Wright Onyx gage on Wednesday midmorning/afternoon. So that would be Tuesday afternoon/evening back in the States (we're 20 hrs ahead of Mountain Standard Time). We scheduled plenty of ground time in case we run into problems. I won't have the helo schedule until the night before we fly out, but as soon as I have it I'll send it your way. Hopefully, the whole set up will go without a hitch and we won't need any help from back home. But I wanted to give you a heads up just in case. | |
| Nate and I attempted to hike up Mt. Rae today. It was a very long, very steep trek...but very beautiful too. On our way up we encountered our first live animals. A flock of about 6 snow petrels flew around us for a few minutes. Snow petrels are small, all white birds with jet black eyes. They fly very swiftly and didn't make a sound the whole time. Rae Spain, the camp manager at Lake Hoare, told us it was a rare sighting. We tried to snap a few pictures, but those little birds were a little camera shy. | |
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^ Snow petrel (slightly up from center in photograph) < Cairn on Mt. Rae |
^ Looking down from Mt. Rae on Lake Hoare (Kukri Hills in background) Canada Glacier, Lake Hoare, and Kukri Hills > |
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| We were able to see Mummy Pond and Lake Bonney from our high point looking west. Looking east, we could see Commonwealth Glacier, McMurdo Sound, and Mt. Erebus. We also saw some great ventifacts (rocks eroded by the wind). | |
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^ Canada Glacier beyond ventifacts, Mt. Rae (Lake Fryxell in background) < Looking up Taylor Valley (Lake Bonney visible center photograph) |
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< Canada Glacier (foreground), Lake Fryxell (right center), toe of Commonwealth Glacier (left center), and McMurdo Sound (center background) |
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Nate, Andrew, and I flew back to F6 today. We came home to a present, a nice shiny ATV parked out on the lake ice. We started in on our regular camp duties and managed to get the Von Geruard gage up and running. The temperature peaked today at 29 F. We're hoping things will start flowing soon. In the mean time we're prepping for our trip out to the Wright Valley and the Onyx River.
< Mt. Rae (L) and Mt. Falconer (R) from F6 Andrew and Nate with ATV on Lake Fryxell (Commonwealth Glacier in background) > |
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| Our flight schedule for the day was to arrive at Lower Wright at 1300, however nothing has flown out of McMurdo this morning due to weather. We just checked with Helo Ops, and we may not be going to the Wright Valley today. I'll keep you all posted.
[Later] Our flight has been cancelled for the day. Tentatively we're rescheduled for Friday...Thanksgiving in the States. Hope you all have a great Turkey Day. Seth |
| I got a little restless last night and decided to go for a hike up Mt. Falconer. I heard there were some great ventifacts along the ridge to the top and wanted to see for myself. It was a good hike about 5 hrs round trip with 800 meters elevation gain. Saw some great views from on top. | ||
^ Ventifact |
^ Ventifact (Lake Fryxell below) |
^ Ventifact (Kukri Hills in background) |
| Andrew, Nate, and I hiked around the terminus of Canada Glacier last night to spend Thanksgiving Dinner with the rest of the scientists in the Dry Valleys. Rae, Sandra, and Kathy had cooked up a feast. We had some great turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin rolls, salad, and 7 pies for dessert! All in all, there were 22 people spending the holiday at Lake Hoare. The festivities lasted until late into the evening and then we hiked back over to F6. We fly out to the Wright Valley tomorrow morning. We also heard from the crew at Blood Falls that Santa Fe has started flowing so we'll fly there on Monday. |
^ Hiking around Canada Glacier |
^ Thanksgiving at Lake Hoare |
| The Wright Valley is amazing! We stopped by Marble Point (the helo refueling station) and then flew over Newall Glacier. When we crested the divide, the valley opened up ahead of us and made for a spectacular view. We stopped at the Lake Vanda gage and opened it up first. Once we were finished we flew up the streambed to the Lower Wright gage to open it and install the Sutron 9210. Unfortunately, the program was looking for the wrong parameter. It was a simple problem that I overlooked in the field. We've got everything fixed and we're planning on making it back out there on Tuesday next week (Monday back home).
Also, things are finally starting to warm up in the valleys. It got up to 40 F last night and it's sitting at 30 F today. We'll be flying to Bonney on Monday. We heard from the limno team that Santa Fe Stream is flowing so we'll go get a misc. measurement and collect some QW. Today we're hiking around Fryxell looking for flow. |
| The days have finally started warming up (25-30 F) and staying clear of clouds. Canada Stream has started to flow. We've got flowing water...it's a beautiful sound! We toured the rest of Lake Fryxell to see if anything else had started. Canada was the only one. The data-logger wasn't collecting gage height record so we installed a new accubar which solved our first problem. Our second problem was that the temperature probe wasn't working. We ended up replacing the conductivity and temperature probes. Everything at Canada is new...and working! |
^ Andrew and Seth at Canada Stream |
^ Digging out Canada Stream |
| We flew to Blood Falls to check on Santa Fe today. Lawson Stream was flowing as well. We were able to get water quality samples and flume measurements at both sites. |
^ Flume measurement on Santa Fe Stream |
^ Andrew and Seth measuring Santa Fe Stream |
| After we finished our work we stopped in to visit the Blood Falls crew. The team that drilled the tunnel in Taylor Glacier had finished collecting their ice samples. When all was said and done, they removed 55 metric tons of ice (3 tons in the sampling process). They'll be leaving next week.
Here's the latest update. We had hoped to go back to the Wright tomorrow, but there was a miscommunication. with the helo schedule. Long story short, we got bumped to Wed. That's ok because things are starting to flow so there's work around here to do. Hope you had a great weekend. Seth |
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| We're on our way to the Wright Valley again today at 1010 (2:10 MST) to hook up the 9210. I talked with Clara [Ed.: Clara Patch, Sutron Corporation] late last week and figured out what was wrong. Thanks again. We've got 1.5 hrs ground time with close support. So our time is somewhat limited, but with some luck we may be able to get 2 txs [Ed.: txs = transmits]. I'll have the satphone again. I'll call be calling to verify that we're receiving txs. Again, thanks for all your help. Wish us luck! Seth | ||
| Editor's note: Seth is working to install instrumentation that would provide for real-time streamflow data from a gaging station on the Onyx River. | ||
^ Lower Wright |
^ Installation of telemetry instrumentation |
^ Seth installing instrumentation |
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< Instrumentation ^ |
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| It's my last week in the Dry Valleys. It's been quite the adventure! It's a strange feeling when constant daylight, flying in helicopters, and hiking over glaciers and frozen lakes becomes routine. The last few days have consisted of making the rounds on the lakes to see if any other streams have been flowing. So far, Canada remains the only stream running on Lake Fryxell. | ||
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^ Nate in A-star < Andrew in A-star |
^ Seth in A-star |
| When we flew to the Wright Valley yesterday to finish installing the Sutron 9210, we asked the pilot if he would swing by Commonwealth Stream to see if it was flowing. It was... so we're hiking over there today (Thursday). It's a good 9 mile round trip around the terminus of Commonwealth Glacier, a hike we've never done before so we'll get to see some new countryside. |
| We made it to Commonwealth yesterday. It's the most water we've seen to date. We were so excited to get things done we forgot to take pictures!
We're hiking over to Lake Hoare for the weekend. Another stream team member, Lee Stanish, will be meeting us there. She's a veteran in the Valleys and will be spending the rest of the season with Andrew and Nate. I'll be spending one night at Hoare and then flying back to McMurdo so that I can be sure make it to Christchurch on Tuesday. And then I'm on my way back to the States on Dec. 5. I'll keep you posted on the end of my adventure! Seth Davidson |
| Well, I've made the 1st step back to civilization. I arrived in McMurdo at 5:30pm today. The flight back from Lake Hoare was a memorable one. Paul, one of the many skilled pilots down here, and I took off in the A-star and headed towards Marble Point. Enroute we saw Thomas and Joe working on Canada Glacier. We swooped down and circled them for a few rotations and then proceeded on our way. At Marble Point we picked up Wendy who had just finished her 3 wk rotation there. Since she doesn't get to fly much, Paul decided to give her a "boondoggle" aka:scenic flight... and I got to tag along!
We flew over the sound towards the icebergs and checked them out up close and personal as we hovered within a few yards. I asked Paul, and he said they were 100 ft high! That means that they extend at least 600 ft below the surface! Amazing! There were quite a few seals and penguins in the area which were fun to watch too. |
| I was able to go to Cape Evans today. We drove on sea ice in a Delta (the orange box with big, silly wheels) the whole way north. It was a 2 hr ride and we were able to stop occassionally and take pictures of seals and the scenery. |
^ Scenery on the way to Cape Evans |
^ Scenery on the way to Cape Evans |
^ Seals on the way to Cape Evans |
^ Seth and Mt. Erebus |
| The major draw to Cape Evans is Scott's hut, the headquarters for the Terra Nova expedition of 1910-1913. Scott and his men were stranded here when the ship's anchor chain broke. They woke up the next morning to find the Terra Nova miles away in the sound. |
^ Seth and Scott's Hut |
^ Scott's ship anchor and chain |
| This hut is very well preserved due to the constant cold. Most of the goods inside remain and even the labels are legible 100 years later. The expedition had ponies and sled dogs which is evident from the mounds of horse manure and the remains of one of the dogs. The hut was stained black with soot from the seal blubber they burned to keep warm. It's like stepping back in time. |
^ Scott's Hut |
^ Sled dog remains |
| Spent the day making final preparations for leaving tomorrow. We had to "bag drag" at 8pm. I finally realized why they call it bag drag. You've got easily 80 lbs worth of gear and you have to walk 200 yrds up hill to building 140 to tag and weigh them. By the time you get there your arms are burning and you wished you just dragged your stuff through the mud. |
| I leave the continent today at 1215 in a C-17. We'll arrive in Christchurch at about 9 or 10. Then we'll return our cold weather gear and finally get to the hotel at 11pm. I leave Christchurch the afternoon of the 5th. This trip is coming to a close quickly... I'll be back in Wyoming before I know it!
Oh, and I talked with Hassan about the Van Geruard gage box [Editor's note: See Nov. 12 entry]... by the CR10X data we could tell that it happened on May 25th. We correllated that with the data from his MET station on Commonwealth Glacier. There were 80 knot winds that day, which picked up even more speed by the time they reached F6. He hadn't checked the MET at F6 yet, but when he does he'll let us know the wind speed. |
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Antarctica Q and A with a 6th grade class in Montana is available