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2008-09 Journal - Part II
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| Hi Everyone, I'm Peter Wright and today (after traveling from Billings, MT and enjoying a short visit in New Zealand with Seth) I started my journey from Christ Church, New Zealand to the Mc Murdo Dry Valleys. My journey started off a little different than Seth's. Seth ended his journey flying on a South African L100 while I was lucky enough to fly to Mc Murdo Station (Mac Town) on board an Australian Airbus 319 owned by the Department of the Environment and Water. Lucky because they had 24 first class/business class seats and there were only 18 of us on the flight. Lucky because unlike a C-17 or a C130 the airbus has lots of windows and I was able to see some fantastic scenery. We even had flight attendants! | |
^ Peter enjoying Cape Foulwind NZ. 
^ Our flight briefing on Airbus 319. |
^ Peter's flight to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. 
^ View from my seat. |
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Once reaching Mac Town we all attended an in brief and then were allowed to get reoriented and find our rooms. Since I was down here during the 2004-2005 season I only need to take a couple of refresher courses. Maybe I will be able to make out into the Dry Valleys for Christmas. Last time I was down I spent Thanksgiving at Lake Hoare Camp and it was a wonderful time.
< View of Mount Erebus from the air. |
| Well, today was a busy day. This morning I gathered, organized and weighed all my things and then hauled all but a small bag down to Helicopter Operations (Helo Ops). They like to have most of your gear in advance so they can determine how best to load the aircraft. I spent the afternoon in snow school refresher training. It was all inside as Seth mentioned above, but had great tips for survival and on how best to use the field equipment provided. Below I have included a few photos taken at Mc Murdo Station. Building 155 houses dormitories, the store, barber shop, dining hall and many other town facilities. | |
^ Building 155. |
^ View of McMurdo Sound. |
| Yeah, I made it to Lake Hoare camp in the Taylor Valley! After attending environmental awareness training and special training for people going to the Dry Valleys (The Dry Valleys are protected as an Antarctic Specially Managed Area) I geared up in all my Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear and headed to helicopter operations for an in brief and my ride to Lake Hoare Camp. It was a beautiful day and great ride across Mc Murdo sound to the Taylor Valley. When I arrived at Lake Hoare Camp the celebration had begun with hut and cookie decorating. The whole camp was full of holiday spirit which made for a very nice celebration. | |
^ View of Lake Hoare Camp from just outside my tent. |
^ My tent at Lake Hoare Camp. |
| Happy Holidays | |
^ A homemade gingerbread house. |
^ One of two trays of cookies we all helped decorate. |
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Temperatures have been in the 30's since I arrived in Antarctica and streams are flowing well. Today Corey, Anna and I flew over to Lake Bonney to measure and sample the streams. Corey and Anna told me it was the most flow they had seen all year. It felt good to finally be out in the field again after all the traveling to get down here. While at the West Lobe of Lake Bonney we saw the Endurance team, which Seth mentioned earlier in his blog, were done with their work and were packing up for the season.
< Anna measuring Priscu Stream. |
| Today we flew over to the Wright Valley to work on the Onyx River. Wow, although I was down here during the 2004-2005 season I had forgotten how majestic it is out here. Pictures just don't do it justice, but I will do my best to capture as much as I can for you. We flew in A Star helicopter which allowed one of us to fly in the front passenger seat with the pilot. We all had a chance to sit up front and I was able to take the picture below (as well as dozens of others) while flying over the Asgard Mountain Range which sits between the Taylor Valley from the Wright Valley. While at the Onyx River at Lower Wright I took my first opportunity to measure stream flow since I have been down. | |
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^ Flying over the Asgard Range. < Peter measuring the Onyx River at Lower Wright. |
| Today we flew to F6 camp which is the stream teams' primary base of operations which is located along the South side of Lake Fryxell. F6 is smaller than most of the field camps in the Dry Valleys since it generally just houses the stream team and there are normally only two to four stream team members. However, there are other teams which will occasionally stay do at F6 to perform their field studies. Just after we arrived in camp another team showed up at F6. They are measuring soil characteristics in the area as part of their research. | |
^ F6 Hut. |
^ Lab in F6 Hut. |
| I don't think Seth explained much about field camp life this year. I'll try to give a brief overview. The hut shown below (F6) includes our lab space, work space and has a kitchen. Everyone is expected to sleep in tents. It's really not too bad. It gives each of us a personal space to retreat to when we need a break from each other. When people work and live together 24/7 having a place one call your own is a good thing. Since it is the austral summer here in the southern hemisphere and we are very far south (app. 77' 35") we have daylight 24 hours a day. Although it can make it difficult to sleep it allows us to power all of our equipment (pumps, radios, phone, and computers) with solar power. We have a backup generator in case we have too many cloudy days and our solar system can't keep up with demand, but we never used it while I was here in 2004 and it has not been used yet this year.
The Dry Valleys are a protected area. That means they we are required to minimize our impact to the environment here while doing our research. Everything that goes into the Valleys must be taken out. Yep, that means all waste including human. On the right of the hut you can see a black structure which is our outhouse and the orange barrel to the right of the outhouse is our urine barrel. We are required to keep our solid and liquid wastes separate. Well enough about F6 for now. After arriving at F6, Corey headed over to the North side of Lake Fryxell to measure and sample Canada, Huey and Lost Seal Streams. Anna and I hiked down the South side of the lake and worked on Green, Delta and Crescent Streams. It was a long day but tomorrow we head to town (McMurdo Station) so we want to get as many streams measured and sampled as possible. |
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^ Looking upstream at Crescent Stream. |
^ Example of the inside of a gage box. |
| Today we sampled a couple of streams near our hut (Von Gerard and Harnish Streams) and then flew to McMurdo Station. The other members of the Stream Team have been in the field since November 10th so it was time for them to go to town to take a real shower, was clothes and restock up on items for the field. It was also a nice time to visit with friends we had made and town and celebrates the New Year. Each year McMurdo Station celebrates New Years Eve with a concert they call IceStock. Throughout the evening several bands played a variety of music. Although I could not watch the ball drop at Times Square on the TV, it was a very nice way to enjoy the arrival of a new year. | |
^ IceStock stage. |
^ Concert at IceStock. |
| Happy New Year!!! | |
| Today we flew back to the Taylor Valley and F6 camp (my home away from home). During Coreys' visit to gages on the North side of Lake Fryxell he noticed that high flows had damage the control structure at the Lost Seal gage so we decided we should make a visit to assess damages. After our visit to the Lost Seal gage we also visited McKnight Stream to make a stream flow measurement and collect a water-quality sample. | |
^ Flying over McMurdo Sound. |
^ Peter flying in the back of an A-star helicopter. |
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< Lost Seal Stream - The hole to the left of the flume does not belong there. |
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Today we hiked over to Canada Stream and repaired damage to the wing wall caused due to weathering and high flow. While there, we measured and sampled Canada Stream. On our hike back to F6 we measured and sampled two other streams, Huey and Aiken. It was a long day, but after we completed the repair work and looked back at the gage it was all worth it.
< Canada Stream control structure after Stream Team made repairs. |
| We flew to the Wright Valley today to visit our gages on the Onyx River at Vanda Weir and Onyx River at Lower Wright Weir. Data we were receiving from the Onyx River gages showed they were flowing at a high stage. High enough stages that we were worried we might not be able to make a wading measurement. When we arrived it was definitely high and it was difficult to find a "good" location to measure the river at Vanda. However, in the end we were able to make stream flow measurements at both sites. | |
^ Corey and Anna in a B-212 helicopter. |
^ Onyx River downstream of Lake Brownworth. |
^ Peter measuring flow at Onyx River at Vanda weir. |
^ High flow on the Onyx River. |
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After finishing the work in the Wright Valley we flew back over to the Taylor Valley where Corey and I were dropped off at Commonwealth Stream and Anna was dropped back at F6 to begin sample processing.
Commonwealth Stream is a beautiful little stream draining from the Commonwealth Glacier into New Harbor. It is the only stream the Stream Team monitors that does not flow into one of the permanently frozen lakes in the Taylor or Wright Valleys. Corey and I hiked back to F6. Nice Hike. < Peter is the dark spot at the bottom center of this photo. |
| Today the stream team divided up to accomplish as much work as possible. Anna and I visited the gages in the Lake Bonney Basin today. It was a beautiful day. We planned on sampling 5 sites, but we were not able to cross the West Lobe of Lake Bonney due to the size of the moat around the lake. We sampled Lawson and Santa Fe streams as well as Blood Falls. We were then dropped off at the East Lobe of Lake Bonney to sample and measure Priscu Stream. | |
^ Blood Falls. |
^ Lawson Stream flowing from the Rhone Glacier. |
| A GA (general assistant, Zach Anderson) was dropped off at F6 and he and Corey repaired the gage control wall at Huey Stream. Late in the day we all met back at F6 and Corey, Zach and I headed back out to repair the gage control wall at Aiken Stream. Today was a very productive day. | |
| Today Corey, Zach and I hiked over to Lost Seal Stream to begin rebuilding the gage control structure. This gage control has a flume and an overflow, but as you can see in the photo it looks as though there are two overflows. We needed to close up the hole on the left side of the flume as seen in the below photos. | |
^ Hole in control wall at Lost Seal Stream. |
^ Temporary wall built to assist in reconstruction. |
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After a lot of hard work we were able to repair the control structure at Lost Seal Stream.
< Lost Seal with a repaired control wall. Today we gained a new Stream Team member, Mitch Weaver! |
| Wow, this place is chaos! Not Antarctica, but our little home here at F6. Yesterday an artist (Judit Hersko) and research team arrived at F6 hut. Last night there were 9 of us here and today we had 4 more scientists arrive. Three are just making a day trip. The team which arrived on the 8th was lead by a researcher with Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Shortly after their arrival they set up and began an experiment on Von Guerard stream (which runs past F6 hut). They are trying to determine if there are changes in nematode populations in wet algal mats and stream sediments as stream stage changes during the daily diel cycle. Because they study nematodes, we lovingly call the team worm herders.
One of the other researchers is part of a team from Dartmouth which is collaborating with the science team from Colorado State University as well as the University of Waikato (in New Zealand) and Brigham State University. She is studying whether soil respiration rates change with the addition of water and nutrients. She can determine respiration rates by measuring carbon dioxide flux in the soils. |
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^ Device measuring CO2, soil moisture, and temperature. Wind-transported soil sampler. > |
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| The team making the day trip to F6 is studying Aeolian processes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. This basically means they are studying airflow and sediment transport by wind. They have three sites, one each in the Taylor, Victoria and Wright Valleys. They have several sediment collectors similar to the one pictured above as well as a weather station measuring wind speed at multiple levels air temperature and humidity. One of these researchers told me they recorded temperatures as low as -48 degrees centigrade during last winter.
Oh, hey I almost forgot to mention that today Corey, Judit Hersko, and I worked gages on the South side of Lake Fryxell today. Judit is a sculpture and installation artist who teaches at California State University, San Marcos. She was awarded a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Grants. She has been in Antarctica since mid December and is spending time at various camps to help her in an Art and Science project. Information on her current work and an Antarctic blog can be found at http://www.judithersko.com/jhindex0.html |
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| Today the Stream Team and Judit hiked over to Lake Hoare camp. Three of us, Mitch, Anna and I decided to take the long route and climb Mt. Falconer on the way. It allowed Mitch to check out the headwaters of Huey Stream for a possible study and all of us the opportunity to see many neat ventifacts or wind sculpted rock formations. | |
^ Peter standing in a ventifact. |
^ Ventifact on Mt. Falconer with Canada Glacier behind. |
^ Anna and Mitch with Mt. Falconer in the background. |
^ Ventifact on Mt. Falconer. |
| In order to get to Lake Hoare Camp we also had to cross the Canada Glacier. Below are a few shots of the Canada Glacier. | |
^ Peter on Canada Glacier. |
^ Cryoconite holes found on the surface of the glacier. |
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< View of Canada Glacier. |
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We spent the day at Lake Hoare. The skies have clouded up and it has begun to cool down. I sampled and measured Andersen Creek which was at low flow while Corey and Mitch headed down to House Stream with Judit. Initially, Corey and others found House not flowing so they took a hike along the Suess Glacier. Andersen Creek is a nice stream which flows along the Western margin of the Canada Glacier just East of Lake Hoare Camp.
< Andersen Creek gage structure. |
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Weather Day - Today we woke up with snow on the ground, our tents and the mountainsides. There were no helicopter flights from McMurdo Station today due to bad weather. We spent the whole day at Lake Hoare camp waiting for the weather to change. It was a nice break, but flights were not cancelled till late in the day, so we really had to be at the ready to travel most of the day.
< Socked in. |
| We were scheduled to head over to the Bonney Basin early today, but due to weather delays we did not make it 'til around noon. Once we made it to the West Lobe of Lake Bonney we exited our helicopter and waited for it to depart. As the helicopter wound up it began making a terrible noise. It was not long before the pilot shut down and called for a mechanic. We went ahead and completed our work and then watched a mechanic arrive and get to work. In the end the helicopter was repaired but they would not carry passengers 'til the helicopter had been fully checked out back in town. We agreed that was a good idea. At the end of the day the repaired helicopter left us behind and we were picked up about an hour later and taken to F6. Although we were at the West Lobe a long time waiting for a ride, PHI, the helicopter contractor took good care of us just as they had all season. PHI has been very professional, efficient, and safety conscious all season. | |
^ Corey Wilson (left) and Mitch Weaver (right). |
^ Anna Bramucci (left) and me, Peter Wright (right). |
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< Your helicopter under repair is not a scene you want to see. |
| Today, Corey and I along with our Principal Investigator, Diane McKnight, and the artist Judit Hersko visited our Onyx River sites in the Wright Valley. | |
^ Geologic formations seen during flight to Lake Vanda. |
^ Lake Vanda (Photos by Judit Hersko). |
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For the last two days we have serviced gages in the Lake Fryxell Basin.
< Lake Fryxell. |
| Lake Hoare here we come! No, wait, due to continued poor weather we were put on weather hold. I was scheduled to travel to Lake Hoare Camp with Deb Leslie. She is a PHD student working with Dr. Barry Lyons at The Ohio State University. Deb has been travelling with Corey and I for several days in order to collect water-quality samples which she will later analyze for Boron isotopes. At 2 pm Deb and I decided to hike around Lake Fryxell and over the Canada Glacier to Lake Hoare Camp. It's a fairly long and strenuous hike, but we really needed to get to Lake Hoare to keep on schedule. We made it around the lake to Lake Fryxell Camp and stopped in the hut to warm up for a few minutes. While warming up we received a call letting us know a helicopter had made it across the Sound and was willing to give us a ride to Lake Hoare. We had to wait a little while, but it was well worth it. The hike across the Canada Glacier is neat, but after all the melting this season can be challenging to cross. |
| Well today was supposed to be a relaxing day at Lake Hoare Camp, but due to the weather and the fact we did not make it to Lake Hoare 'til late yesterday today had to be a work day. Deb and I hiked over to House Stream and found it dry. It does not look like it has flowed for many days. I suspect that unless it warms up and gets sunny we will not see flow here for the rest of the season. Anderson Stream, which flows along the Canada Glacier next to Lake Hoare Camp was flowing, but just a trickle. Yeah, today was shower day! | |
^ Peter standing on glacial moraine at toe of Suess Glacier. Inside the Lake Hoare shower hut. > |
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| Yea, it has gotten sunny again! Lake Bonney was beautiful today. It's a shame the battery in my camera died. |
| Today we worked around F6 camp. It was the last day our PI, Diane McKnight, was in the field so we took the opportunity to meet and discuss the accomplishments the "Stream Team" made this season. We reviewed all our sites and listed all the additional work we felt needed accomplished this season or in the future. We had a good meeting and a good day. |
| Today feels like the beginning of the end. Corey and I flew over to the Wright Valley to service the gages along the Onyx River. Our helicopter schedule allowed more time at each site than we requested so we took the opportunity to run our closing levels. Each year, the reference points which are used to measure stage are surveyed at the beginning and end of the "flow" season to determine whether they have moved due to freeze/thaw or even high flow. Although many streams stopped flowing many days ago, the Onyx River still had a good bit of flow so we did not close them up yet for the season.
As per our regular routine Corey and I were dropped off at Commonwealth Stream where we serviced the gage and performed levels. Commonwealth Stream, like the Onyx River still had a good bit flow so we did not close up the gage yet for the season. The next week and a half will be very busy. We were asked to vacate F6 camp Wednesday January 28th and move to Lake Hoare Camp. We are leaving the Taylor Valley by Saturday January 31st. Between now and January 31st we need to run levels and close up all our gages for the season as well as pack up and inventory equipment and supplies at F6 camp. |
| Today we began the day with catching up on paperwork and completing chores around F6 camp. This afternoon and evening Corey and I headed over to Lost Seal Stream and Aiken Creek to service the gages, run levels and close up the gages for the season. Shortly after we arrived back at F6 camp the wind changed and picked up. We had some strong katabatic winds for about half the night. Luckily we only needed to save one tent which had been vacated earlier in the day and was empty. Not only did these katabatic winds blow at 40-50 miles per hour but they also brought warmer temperatures. It warmed up to about 44 degrees F and the stream next to our hut, Von Guerard began to flow after a week of no flow. Due to the flow, we were able to start an algae study for one of the graduate students at CU Boulder. |
| Corey worked on the algae study all day; it is a 28 hour study. This worked out well since we had a surveyor come out from McMurdo Station to assist us with a topographic survey of a reach along Von Guerard Stream. The survey went well. There was a lot to accomplish in a short time, but his experience operating the survey instrument allowed us to perform a very efficient survey. Once the survey was complete I had time to help Corey with sampling and filtering. It ended up being a very late night. I look forward to our visit to Lake Hoare! |
| Close up Gages in the Lake Hoare and Lake Fryxell Basins. |
| We packed up and moved out of F6 today. Everything brought to the Dry Valleys must be removed. We packed up all our waste and trash which was sling loaded by helicopter to Marble point. Each year there is a fuel train which travels from McMurdo Station to refuel Marble Point (helicopter refueling station). The same train then carries all the waste with it back to McMurdo Station. | |
^ Anna Bramucci hooking her first sling load. |
^ Sling load of trash heading to Marble Point. |
| Closed up Bonney Basin today. We just had two gages to close, but while we were there we surveyed in the water-level of the lake. The survey pin for lake levels is at Lake Bonney Camp so I had my first opportunity to land on the "relatively new" helicopter pad built well up from the lake margin.
Helicopter pad at Lake Bonney Camp. > | 
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| Today was a great day! We closed up the last three open gages, Commonwealth stream, Onyx River at Lower Wright and Onyx River at Vanda. Once the gaging was completed we worked on surveying the lake-level at three lakes including Vanda, Vida and Don Juan Pond. Lake Vanda is right next to the Onyx River at Vanda gage, but none of us has ever been to the other two lakes. Don Juan Pond is located up-valley from Lake Vanda in the Wright Valley while Lake Vida is located in the next valley north, the Victoria Valley. Don Juan Pond is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world. It is supposed to be so salty that is does not freeze, even in an Antarctic winter. I have included many photos from our jouney. | |
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| Today we completed surveying lake levels at Lakes House and Joyce. After the work was completed we loaded all our belongings into the helicopter and flew McMurdo Station stopping to refuel at Marble Point on the way. As we crossed McMurdo Sound we flew closely past an ice berg. The pilot told us the top of the ice berg was 100 feet above the sea ice. It is hard to imagine that typically only one tenth of and ice bergs volume is above water. | |
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| Yeah, they put my in better quarters than during my last two stays in town. | |
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| Return equipment such as tents; sleep kits, generator and communications devices to those who manage this equipment in McMurdo. We then gathered all the supplies and equipment which could be stored outside and loaded them into a tri-wall box for storage over winter. The last thing we have been doing is scanning all our field forms and backing up all our electronic files. We have kept up some throughout the season, but there is a lot of data to make sure we have secured before we leave. | |
| Today, February 3rd the Vessel arrived. Last week there was another ship which off loaded fuel. This ship is carrying most of the supplies and equipment to keep the Station fed and operating for another year. | 
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12/15/08
Real-time streamflow information for the Onxy River from gaging stations at