Saturday morning was spent working on the new diving section that I discussed previously. I put together all of the files for the signoff process required for all new divers that want to dive in Antarctica. Then, at 1:00 we headed back up to the cargo building for our appointment with Michael Davis.
We spent some time going over the process of how cargo gets processed on the Ice. It’s a highly complex procedure; I had no idea it was so involved. Most science groups require a fair amount of cargo to be shipped to and from the Ice in order for their experiments to work. Michael is in charge of coordinating all of this cargo from all around the world and making sure everything gets where it needs to be, and on time. Cargo comes in via airplane and vessel, and once it arrives at McMurdo some of it stays on station, other pieces continue on to the South Pole or other remote field camps. Some of it is specifically “Do Not Freeze” cargo, other pieces must be kept within a certain temperature range, and others can be placed outside in one of the many cargo lines for storage until it is ready for use.
Probably the most complicated piece of the cargo picture is the shipping of ice cores back to the grantee’s home institution. Many groups will take ice core samples, where they drill out a section (core) of the ice, cut it into smaller length pieces, and ship those back home for analysis. Most of the time they’re studying the atmosphere of the earth at particular times in history, and that atmosphere is captured in the ice core. For example, they can tell how old a particular section of ice is, and it may be hundreds of thousands of years old, depending on how deep they drilled. Captured inside that block of ice is a measurement of the earth’s atmosphere at that time – they can tell how much CO2 or O2 was in the air, etc. If that ice core melts even slightly the atmosphere will be released and their samples destroyed.
In order to combat this, there is an incredibly complex procedure involving ultra regulation of the storage of these cores once they’re brought back from the field. If cores are coming in on a flight from Beardmore Glacier, for example, Michael Davis is required to meet the plane on the runway and personally take the samples from the plane to the ice core storage facility. Along the way he has to radio in several times to get the current temperature and other metrics, all of which go into a log file. Once the cores are placed in the storage facility there are four data loggers on each palette, one on each corner. These take the temperature every 30 minutes and that data can then be downloaded. This way they can tell what the temperature is twice an hour on each corner of the palette.
Once the cores are to be shipped back home they almost always go on the resupply vessel that arrives in early February. They’ll go in a custom MilVan, which is kind of like a smaller semi trailer without wheels, and these have temperature loggers on the back of them as well as all of the individual loggers in the cargo itself. The vessel cargo guys are required to report back temperature data at least twice a day as they make their way to Port Hueneme, CA, which is where our vessel cargo center is located. When the boat arrives, Michael will be there waiting for it, having flown back from the Ice already, and he directs the ice core samples onto a series of trucks that will then drive them from San Diego to the grantees’ home institutions. Thousands of pieces of data are recorded throughout this entire process, and if there are any problems with the cores once they get home, Michael can check the data to see where the issues might have come up. Obviously if a scientist is relying on these ice cores to come up with the results of their study, and the cores melt in transit, the entire trip is a wash.
At 4:00 we had an all-hands meeting in the galley. Kirk Salveson went first and gave a pretty cool presentation on the different science support groups and some of the projects being supported this year. He’s a good speaker and his presentation had plenty of pictures to keep the crowd interested. Next was Jim Scott, and he went over some station business including some interesting demographic numbers. The average age on station is 37 years old, the most common male name is David, and we have workers from 49 states (Delaware is the only one missing). Jim mentioned that on Monday we’ll be seeing a solar eclipse that is only viewable in Antarctica, and here at McMurdo there should be about 75% coverage. That should be very cool; I’m pretty excited to see it. He also discussed Thanksgiving dinner, and mentioned that it will be observed on Saturday. That means next week will be a short five-day week, with Saturday & Sunday off, and then we work on Monday and fly back to New Zealand on Tuesday the 2nd. The all-hands was a lot of fun, actually, and just like everything else here, when compared to Denver it seemed much more to the point, relaxed, less corporate, and more unified. It reiterated my feeling of how while I can’t wait to get back home and see my family, going from working in McMurdo to my cube in Denver will be a letdown.
For dinner one of the options was the Antarctic Cod that I previously mentioned was being studied for their antifreeze proteins. I had heard that this was really good fish, so I grabbed a couple pieces of it. It was *easily* the best fish I have ever had. I couldn’t believe how good it was. You know that feeling you get every now and then when you taste something so incredibly good you wish you could eat it for eternity? That’s how I felt about the cod. I actually went back and filled up an additional plate full of the stuff. It was so flavorful, but mild and non-fishy, I just couldn’t get enough. I realized that the two greatest taste sensations we’ve had since leaving the US aren’t available back home – Canterbury Draught and Antarctic Cod.
After dinner Scott and I got sucked into Charlie’s Angels, which was playing on one of the movie stations and then grabbed Josh to head over to the Coffee House. We noticed that there’s a dart board at the Coffee House as well so we got a bottle of wine and played a couple of games. Right now there is a National Geographic film crew on station shooting a documentary about life in Antarctica. They got some film of the bartender pouring some wine and chatting with patrons, and we were right next to them. They also filmed a bit of our game, I believe, so maybe you’ll see us on TV sometime in the future. The darts weren’t flying as well as they had been the night before, and the wine was making me sleepy so I knew I had to move on or go home and go to bed.
We decided to see what was happening at Gallaghers, as it was Punk Night, with three punk bands playing live. Somehow it’s possible to staff three bands in Antarctica and bring them together for a mini music festival. Just thinking about the pain in the butt it was to move my luggage over 10,000 miles made me wonder if they all brought their own guitars and whatnot or if the equipment belongs to the station.
Walking into the bar after being in the subdued atmosphere of the Coffee House was a stark and shocking contrast. The place was absolutely jam-packed, a punk band was rocking on stage, and there was a mosh pit going right in front of them. We stood there for a few minutes in our parkas just observing everything until Crescent, a colleague from Denver, started ribbing us, asking if we were cold. We took off our coats, got a drink, and soaked in the punk fest.
Scott decided we should get a little closer to take some pictures, so he & I moved up to the mosh pit. I snapped a few, realized it was a lot more fun up there than it was in the back, and returned my camera to Josh so that I could take advantage of what may very well be my only ever opportunity to rock out to a makeshift punk band (The McMones), in a mosh pit, with my boss, in Antarctica.
Scott & I became full-fledged members of the pit over the course of the night, and at one point I noticed his sunglasses were missing both lenses and that he had a bloody nose. Aah, life in Antarctica. It was a powerful pit, but very friendly; as soon as someone started to go down there would be three people there to help them back up. The band played mostly Ramones cover songs, but they were really good and we moshed for hours. We took a few breaks to go outside and cool off; moshing in this pit works up quite a sweat, and enables you to go outside in nothing but a t-shirt. In Antarctica. The National Geographic film crew had also made its way to Gallagher’s, and was filming all of the action. At one point I even saw the cameraman, sans camera, moshing in the middle of the pit as hard as anyone else. Crowd surfing was also encouraged, though I wasn’t about to participate in that extreme sport.
The place was packed, and people everywhere were fully punked out, with ripped t-shirts, Anarchy sign fake tattoos, and spiked hair. It was a blast, and the release of moshing in this pit was something I desperately needed. Josh elected to watch all of the action from the back of the bar, but he got a few good pictures of Scott & I in action. It was a good time had by all. Scott is 40 years old, and said afterwards that it had been almost a decade since he’d done shots of Jägermeister and moshed to punk rock. This is a unique environment here at McMurdo station. It’s very much like a college town, only with people that work six days a week, and the average age is 37. Work hard, play hard is definitely the motto around here.
Finally, I have a few pictures of the punk fest, and a few that Scott gave me of past exploits on the Ice. There’s a better picture of the infamous water spider and a picture of me sleeping in my snow trench among others. You can find them in the photo album.
