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Antarctic Research

Week Seven - Wednesday 11 October 2006 position 64.36°S, 55.05°W

We started this week passing Joinville Island and even closer to James Ross Island and Snow Hill Island as we skirted the edge of Erebus and Terror Gulf. Wonderful and evocative names that pay tribute to the early explorations that first ventured to this remote part of the Earth. Looking at the map of the east side of the Peninsula we saw we were heading towards Cape Fairweather, Cape Longing, Exasperation Inlet and even a Cape Disappointment. Each with a story behind the name, and for us the latter two were to be most appropriate: On Saturday evening, after considerable effort it became clear that there was to be no easy passage for us to the Larsen B region and we had to abandon the plan. We had reached our most southern point at 65.1°S, not quite across the Antarctic Circle which lies at 66.5°S. However, while in this area it was good to be able to see land again, and some of the mountain ranges and glaciers looked spectacular. Even the lights from an Argentinean base were seen glinting in the distance.

The deformed ice that got in our way was spectacular, and pressure ridges of over 4 metres became a common feature of this part of the journey. It is sobering to consider the awesome power it takes to move the boulders of ice to create such structures.

Nonetheless the ice work has continued, and we have become a highly proficient unit: the other day we had completed setting up our standard 6 brine-holes and cored & sectioned our 1.2m ice core within 20 minutes. Time to go back on the ship for lunch, work for half an hour in the lab and then back onto the ice to retrieve the brines that have been trickling into the holes in the meantime.
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The biology that lives within and on the sea ice stains the ice a characteristic brown colour. This week we have passed through relatively young ice and the biology has been restricted to the lowermost few centimetres of the floes. But these have been so full of the microscopic algae that the bottoms of some floes have looked almost black. This is no longer winter, but definitely spring and the algae are using the 13 hours daylight and plentiful nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients in the water to support this explosion of life.
Some of the floes in this region are a definite black rather than brown. This is because they contain sediment particles and small stones that were incorporated into the ice as it formed over shallow coastal sites.

There is a group on board who go by the name of ‘the flower pickers’. They are studying the effects of salt extrusions that form on the upper surface of new ice. The ‘flowers’ are actually delicate ice crystals that form clumps up to 4 or 5 cm high and are produced in great numbers when air temperatures are very cold and the ice growth is swift. The scientific interest is that gases produced when the ‘flowers’ are formed are released into the atmosphere and may play a role in influencing the concentrations of ozone around the Antarctic.

Another group have been busy this week setting tracking devices on top of icebergs. These devices are tracked by satellites and so the drift of an iceberg can be monitored. Wind and ocean currents combine to dictate where and how fast an iceberg travels, and ultimately how long it will survive. Bergs can travel up to 40 kilometres per day, and some individual bergs have been tracked for over 13 years.

On a lighter side The Drake Passage Table Tennis Tournament - that started as we crossed the Drake Passage in week 4 - came to its end this week. There was both a doubles and singles competition and certainly during the latter stages large crowds congregated to watch the action. Much fun, especially for the less proficient players.

At the end of this week we are once again passing James Ross Island and Snow Hill Island, but this time heading in a northerly direction. In fact we are where we were on the 4th October. The latest plan is to leave the ice on the 14 or 15 October, then do some water sampling around the ice edge until the 18 October. This is when we finish all scientific work and start our 11 day voyage for Cape Town.
David

Thoughts from Louiza

I feel I may have been rather spoiled by this cruise since for the first time a small amount of frustration had set in from us getting no where very fast, short ice stations and a distinct lack of the beautiful sunrises and sunsets I have become accustomed to. Today (Tuesday) however things just got better and better: I awoke to a glorious sunny day and was treated to my first glimpse of a whale in many days. It appeared in a small lead, less than 300m from the ship.  By 10am I was unexpectedly in the helicopter with David and two others being transported to an ice floe where we worked for two hours without the noise of the ship or coring motors. It was amazing, for the first time I could sit by a lead and listen to the new ice move and crackle. An altogether different ice station experience to any that have gone before. The sunset this evening finished the day perfectly. Huge icebergs bathed in pink and blue light – Stunning!

Thoughts from Stathis

The whole of this past week we steamed through plates of sea ice crushed together by wind and tide into a Dali landscape minus the man made objects and forms. We were close to solid land, the Antarctic Peninsula, with some sighting of the islands that dot this part of the world. There are a lot of amateur photographers on board to capture the marvels of the frozen sea, but one wonders how a painter would fare in these conditions. The palette of colours is challenging. To the uninitiated it would seem that it is just stark white everywhere. The truth is that the range is vast, from ink blue to shocking pink at sunset. I think of impressionism while filtering away yet another set of exciting samples of brine and ice from the deep polar winter.